Polypore

Polypore is a 4X strategy game developed for a Computer Game Design Senior Capstone at George Mason University. Acting as a dying captain of a crashed human spaceship, the player must dictate the colony's expansion and defense on an alien world containing a native alien population with steampunk technology. A randomly generated map of hex tiles, a wide array of engaging events, and countless combinations of troops allow for a unique experience with every new game of Polypore!

With an intense pace required to meet deadlines within the first year and challenging ourselves with a 4X game in the Unreal Engine (a game engine we had little experience in at the time), there was little time for inefficiencies. Focusing on the design documents early on, I found myself lagging behind my fellow programmer in terms of learning Unreal's C++ scripting functions and syntax. Realizing that I was slowing down the development process due to my lack of specialization, I swallowed my pride as a programmer and shifted my attention to the frontend of the Unreal Engine, creating and integrating the UI elements of Polypore to work with the backend scripts my fellow programmer wrote. Finding our stride, we were able to create a working Beta for the Senior Expo that garnered a gratifying amount of praise by guests and peers after a little under a year of vigorous work. 

An early development version of Polypore is free to play on itch.io: https://polyporebeta.itch.io/polypore-beta

I will continue working on the development on Polypore with other members of the development team throughout the coming years. Our aim is to publish a commercial version of Polypore within 5 years.