Pascal Diroll

Game Developer with Engineering focus

About

Me

I am a passionate Game Developer who strives to learn as much as possible about games and other entertaining media and hone all kind of skills related to them.
I´ve been a gamer for the majority of my life and have been especially in love with all kinds of games in the RPG genre. But I´ve also been in sports clubs like table tennis and bouldering and spent a few years as a junior firefighter.
If I would have to describe myself, I would say I am an easy-going and understanding person, but I never neglect duty and I am passionate about designing games and cooking.
I perform best in a team since I hate to let other people down and love the coming together of fellow minds. But ultimately I am organized enough to also work on my own.

Services

What I can do for you

Engineering

UI has become my speciality, but I am aiming to become a generalist.
Over the years I took over a variety of programming jobs in different fields, ranging from UI over gameplay to background systems all of which within multiple engines.
Interested? Check out my favourite projects.

Game Design

My favourite category.
Altho I have worked as an Engineer ever since my studies, I made sure to find opportunities to learn and participate whenever possible.
But I have also made quite a few experiences in this category through one of my favourite hobbies:
Pen&Paper

Music and Soundeffects

After spending half a year studying Foley, layering, mixing and music theory, it ultimately stuck as a hobby of mine. Tho I mainly do music now, I do, every now and again, do some audio effects to help school projects or for my dnd games. But the best way to judge sound and music is by listening . Enjoy!

Planning

After having learned Scrum during studies I have used it for work and some of my more ambitious personal projects .
While I like the agile planning I found that every project has different needs.
So if there is a need for someone to help evaluate, run or restructure agile planning methodologies - I might be of service.

Portfolio

View of my recent work
Engineering/UX

Rainbow 6 Siege

The task was to make an educational game for kids from the Netherlands. The museum computer was limited to touchscreen without sounds.
My responsibilities were focussed on making a nice and easily understandable tutorial, as well as making the monster behaviours
in an adjustable manner through unity inspector. Furthermore, I made the collecting/catching mechanic, menu programming the UI,
the level progression, player character behaviour, integration of all particle effects and animations, data storing, and planning.
Since I was deeply involved in all of the main features I consider myself to be one of the leading minds on the game design.

Engineering/Game Design

Can´t Drive This Lone Racer

During my time as an intern at the pixel-maniacs game studio, I programmed and co-designed the 4th Gamemode for Can´t Drive this called "Lone Racer".
Based on gathered statistics the studio found that many were playing the coop game by themselves with the split controls between keyboard and mouse.
But this would not be possible for consoles. Even though I was only an intern for 2 weeks at the time, I was given the task of implementing a true single-player mode. Roughly 1 1/2 months and many reviews later the new mode was launched into the early access.

To the game
Engineering/Game Design

Dip&Flip

When the Ludum Dare 47 came up I was an intern at pixel-maniacs and was invited to join them for the game jam as well. Within 72 hours we wanted to make a game that had an end and was rather funny than deep.
As it is with Gamejams I have been involved with all kinds of tasks during the development but was mainly focussed on progression and the loop behaviour.

To the game
Engineering

C++ micro game engine

In this project, we were working with a self-made engine, which we made during the term before the project started.
During the time of the project, I was responsible for: (external) level loading, collision system, simple shaders,
overseeing level design, sound integration, UI programming, Menu programming, non-player object behaviours, playtest sessions and planning.

Engineering/Game Design

Educational museum game for kids

The task was to make an educational game for kids from the Netherlands. The museum computer was limited to touchscreen without sounds.
My responsibilities were focussed on making a nice and easily understandable tutorial, as well as making the monster behaviours
in an adjustable manner through unity inspector. Furthermore, I made the collecting/catching mechanic, menu programming the UI,
the level progression, player character behaviour, integration of all particle effects and animations, data storing, and planning.
Since I was deeply involved in all of the main features I consider myself to be one of the leading minds on the game design.

All in one

Don´t Lift Your Finger

Don´t Lift Your Finger was a cute side project that was realized during our study. In the project, I was involved in designing the main mechanic, as well as testing and optimizing them based on feedback. Furthermore, I made or worked on all game music and functions besides networking and server-side.

To the game
Audio

Music

I have experimented with differen instruments and genres for all kinds of occasions. As part of my studies, to help a friend, to create a theme for a scene or a character - or just simply for fun
Though most of my music is more suited to be theme songs and background music for scenes, I have started uploading some of it.

Visit Youtube channel
Game design

Pen & Paper

I have spent excessive hours as a DM, writing stories, devising plot twists, designing encounters, creating Maps, homebrewing rules/items/subclasses, breathing life into NPCs and characters alike.
While probably not the most professional experience, I do believe I have learned much about a lot of the fields connected to game development.
Including trying to get a read on players and finding out what they like or dislike, and reflecting on my own work constantly to improve the game they experience.
Though it is in German due to my players, if you are interested, you can view the work-in-progress website we have for my current campaign.

View Campaign
Narrative Design and Animation Production

Educational Kids Animation About Rain

During my studies I spent half a year learning more about narrative design, story telling and 3D production.
The animation was made with a team that was entirely made up of newcomers to the 3D field.
While the result was certainly far from perfect, this has helped me get a better understanding of my colleagues in the other disciplines and their jobs.

Work Experience

Past and current jobs

  • Ubisoft Blue Byte

    I am currently working at Ubisoft Blue Byte as a UI Programmer for Rainbow 6 Siege
    During this time, I have helped build several of the key features to the game's monetisation, such as the Memento, Premium, Membership and Paragon bundles.
    In these developments, especially, I have been working closely with our backend and online programmers, creating linking components and helping out with their tasks at times.
    I have also been part of the game's transition from its old UI engine to the current one, as well as the entire modernisation process for the UI of SiegeX.
    Another one of the great takeaways from this job was learning to consider and develop for multiple platforms. Keeping their controls, compliance and performance in mind.

  • Boxelware

    During the second half of my 4th and last year at the Saxion university, I was attending an internship for my Bachelor thesis at the Boxelware Game Studio. During the time I developed a tool inside their c++ engine that automatically generates required Lua files for their procedural generation. Sadly I am unable to showcase this since it was an internal tool in their codebase.
    Afterwards, I attended a 2 Month internship in between jobs to stay active and learn more about C++ and Lua.

  • Pixel Maniacs

    In my 4th and last year at the Saxion university, I was attending an internship at a Game Studio. During my time at Pixelmaniacs I was tasked with bug fixing and optimization of the game "Can´t drive this" and also implemented the Solo Player Game Mode. I concluded my stay at the company by making a debuggable Dialogue System for their new Project "Escape The Loop" using Yarn Spinner as a basis.

  • Broke'n'fun Games

    As one of two programmers who joined this group of freelancers during their studies, I have been developing the main features of our first android game "Don´t Lift Your Finger"

  • Saxion University of Applied Science

    At Saxion I was able to study Game Design, Game Programming and related fields. The studies were almost entirely practical and included a new project phase each quarter tile in the first two weeks. During the 3rd year, I spent self-studies on animation and audio production. In my 4th and last year I had an internship at Pixelmaniacs and wrote my bachelor thesis at Boxelware.

Contact Information

Let's work together