I like to make games in my free time. Actually, wanting to make my own games is what got me into design and programming as a kid in the first place.


Wild Yonder (WIP)

This one is the big kahuna.

Cheekily nicknamed "Connor MMO" to start out, this game began a few years ago as a pretty simple tech test to see if I could get networked player replication working for a 3D game. Over time, it has blown up into an cooperative open-world adventure with a pretty massive scale.

The game, still very much a work-in-progress, features

  • A pretty deep custom physics system allowing for expressive and weighty player movement
  • Action-packed first-person combat featuring a ton of different weapons, including hammers, daggers, axes, and magic staves
  • 200+ items, all craftable from raw materials found in the world, many of them with pretty crazy unique effects
  • 50+ unique player abilities, allowing you to create your own custom RPG class and move around like a maniac
  • A very-much-in-progress open world, that's big enough to contain a lot of interesting enemies, bosses, and places, but not so big it takes forever to get around
  • The game presents itself as a PvE game but there is nothing stopping you from hitting your friends... PvP game actually?
  • Hats!

...and some other stuff too!

The game's official website is wildyondergame.com. The game has playable builds, but they're currently not available to the public. However, if you're really interested in playing the game early, send me a message at connorshipway@gmail.com and we might be able to organize a playtest.

2019


Lady Luck (2023 GMTK Game Jam)

This game, created as a submission to the 2023 GMTK Game Jam, was a collaboration with the very talented Blake Hall, a good college buddy of mine. He made most of the art for the game, I handled the coding, and we both worked together on the gameplay and design. Out of 6,751 entries, it scored #58 overall, and we even made it into the jam's official "Best Games" YouTube video for all of 4 glorious seconds.

The theme of the jam was "Roles Reversed". Blake and I are both big fans of deck builders and card games in general, and one characteristic most of those games share is a good degree of randomness -- you are often at the mercy of RNG, hoping you'll draw the right card at the right time. We thought it would be delightfully meta to, for once, let the player decide what card will be drawn, but deprive them of the choice of how to actually play their hand. To that end, we created a game where you get to play as "Lady Luck" -- aka Fortuna, the goddess of luck in Greek mythology. Fortuna is responsible for determining the outcome of any coin toss, dice roll, or, in this case, shuffling of a deck of cards. Your job is to rig the decks of both your hapless champion character and his formidable enemies, in such a way that your champion always has the best possible card at the best possible time, and that his enemies are constantly deprived of any good options.

You can download it at the game's itch.io page.

2023


Rooty Shooty

Use your trusty six-shooter to stave off the undead hordes! Level up to choose between various upgrades, and shoot for a high score!

Tested at the 2018 ECGC in Raleigh, NC to the amusement of dozens of good-naturedly compliant conventiongoers. People seemed to like the dual-wielding.

Download RootyShooty.zip (Windows)
Download RootyShootyMac.zip (Mac)

2016, 2018


Rocket Builder

An interactive learning tool developed to help students learn middle-school physics concepts, developed as my thesis project for my graduate studies at NCSU. Build a rocket out of simple components, and deploy it into a fully-functional physics space to see how your creation flies.

If you're interested in seeing my process and research background for this project, you can find it all here in my thesis document.

Download RocketBuilder.zip (Windows)

2019


Grand Bounty (WIP)

A fantasy-themed board game in development for three to five players. Battle monsters, obtain gold, and bid for Relics of increasingly ridiculous power in your quest to slay the dragon before your opponents can. Only one will claim the Grand Bounty!

A personal project I've been working on here and there for a couple of years now. The gameplay has gone through a couple of major overhauls, but by the time it's done, I hope to have designed a deep and hugely replayable game.


Multiplayer Online Room

Users can login, run around, wear hats, and hit each other with hammers. That's about it -- it's more or less a tech demo.

This is a throwback to a long-ago past. You can tell I wanted to make a game like Wild Yonder, I just didn't really have the technical chops at the time...

Download TheGame.zip (Windows)

Press F4 to toggle fullscreen/windowed.

2014


Clockwork

Clockwork is a puzzle game about manipulating time. Interact with objects in the environment to slow down and speed up the world, and lead the robot protagonist to the end of each level.

Download Clockwork.zip (Windows)

Press F4 to toggle fullscreen/windowed.

2013