Tin Hearts
Tin Hearts is an immersive puzzle game with a strong narrative about a toymaker and his family. You navigate the world by guiding toy soldiers through a wide range of puzzles using various contraptions to ensure they reach their goal. Tin Hearts was made in Unity for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch, with plans for VR further down the line. On the project, I started as a Junior Gameplay Programmer and later received a promotion to Gameplay Programmer.
Tin Hearts on Steam! | Out now on Nintendo Switch!
Won award for Most Wanted Nintendo Switch Game at Gamescom 2022!
As a Gameplay Programmer, I was responsible for writing, maintaining, and owning various code systems. There are very few systems I didn’t work on in Tin Hearts. Pathing, interactable machines cameras and cutscene are just a few examples of the systems I have worked on. Additionally, I worked on supporting Tin Hearts for the various platforms by it was to be released on by writing platform specific code and required popups for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Daily I worked closely with Design and Art supporting them in creating optimised, interesting, and elaborate puzzle levels with varied mechanics. This support was anything from bug fixes to optimisation passes, to writing gameplay mechanics that could be used across multiple levels. These systems were all written so they were easy for Design to implement, with supporting documentation explaining ones that were complicated.
Tin Hearts has been the biggest project I have worked on, and I have learnt so much. From small things like the importance of a shared code style and reviewing merge requests to larger things like coding concepts, Unity features, platform requirements and much more!