CombatLAN gaming prides itself on being southeast Ohio's "Premiere PC & LAN Gaming Community." For those of you who have no idea what that means, essentially they organize events where gamers bring their gaming computers & consoles to one central location for a weekend of fun. They host tournaments, provide snacks and drinks, and even have a number of prizes to give away (donated by their event sponsors).

In addition to the events that they host, they're also a community of players who enjoy chatting and playing games with each other on a regular basis. They host multiple dedicated game servers, and have a rapidly growing community of members.

CombatLAN was in need of a site that was overall large in scope. It had to provide plenty of information about their events, forums for their community to utilize, and integration with all of their game servers. It needed to highlight their event sponsors, have its own dedicated ticket purchasing / seat reservation system, and even have its own downloads section that would host a number of games, utilities, and other useful files for gamers.

The finished site does all that and more. I built this site from the ground up using Bootstrap as a framework. Flarum provides the community forums and the downloads section utilizes a stylized version of Apache's auto_indexing module. Speaking of Apache, this site is being self-hosted on a Wampserver I built, and is even complete with its own MySQL database and phpMyAdmin installation. All of these pieces came together to form a complete puzzle that satisfies the needs of CombatLAN gaming, and then some.

Ubuntu is the world's most used linux distribution for the desktop. By default, it runs on the Unity launcher, however in the eyes of many, it leaves much to be desired. Especially if you are a Debian user who is used to the GNOME desktop environment.

Because of this, someone in the open source community got an idea (in which we very often do). Why not have the best of both worlds? And so this project was born. Ubuntu GNOME was created to give users access to the usual Ubuntu software and repositories, but to use GNOME as its desktop environment rather than Unity. And if you've never used it before, I can personally say that it is fantastic.

However, due to the fact that it is a small community run project, its presentation is far from fantastic. Ubuntu GNOME's current website (you know, where you'd go to download it in the first place) is an unstyled, default installation of WordPress. Yikes.

I took it upon myself to design and develop a modern, responsive website that not only looks great on any device, but does a proper job of highlighting the features that makes Ubuntu GNOME so great.

Battle of the Bugs is a real-time strategy game currently being developed in the Unity3D Engine. It is targeting Windows, Mac, and Linux users and set to be released in 2017 through Steam, as well as GOG, Humble Bundle, and others. It is designed to be an RTS that’s easy to pick up and difficult to put back down. The core game is rather simple and targeted at both RTS experts and those who are new to the genre. Throughout its singleplayer campaign and multiplayer league play however, it expands on that core by adding in additional features, modifications, strategy, and complexity that will appeal to more experienced RTS players.

The game starts off nice and easy. At the start of a level, you choose the color of the colony of insects you wish to control. As the commander, you are in charge of ordering units, collecting resources, building bases, and completing objectives. Multiple insect types are at your disposal, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. These are not ordinary insects, however. They are all equipped with military-grade weaponry – rocket launchers, grenades, machine guns, sniper rifles, and more.

The goal of the game is to ultimately destroy every other color colony of insects on the battlefield. Use your units to attack other insects and bases while defending and growing your own. Unique game modes and modifications will give unique objectives and achievements to complete along the way.

While the singleplayer campaign is lengthy in content, it is only just the beginning. Competitive and casual multiplayer game modes open up a whole new world of gameplay for players and their friends. A level editor is also included to provide an easy way to build new and challenging experiences to share with the entire Battle of the Bugs community via the Steam Workshop.

While this was only a design project for school, I will be developing Battle of the Bugs based on these designs in my free time! Check out the development progress by viewing the GitHub repository.

Steam has single-handedly changed PC gaming forever. It has made it easier than ever to purchase and download new games. It makes discovering new releases a breeze, and has created a growing online community unlike any other.

At the time this project began, there were over 6400+ unique games for purchase on Steam. I know from personal experience that many of these games have unique worlds, brilliant storylines, and overall experiences that you just can't get anywhere else.

This motion graphics commercial was created to highlight these games and their unique stories. It features a character (just your average gamer) as he travels from video game world to video game world, each time looking slightly different and doing a different activity, but you can still tell it's the same person. This method of storytelling shows each unique gameplay experience that the games on Steam have to offer each and every one of its players.

This project was as much product design as it was motion graphics. I concepted a device called DASH - Detachable Automotive Smart Hub and made a commercial that showcased the major features of this device.

DASH was inspired by my current car setup. I drive a 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix that is nearly as old as I am. Unlike brand new 2016 cars rolling off the lot, this car has no real "smart" features to speak of. The stock radio unit has a tape player, for example. Personally, I'd love to be able to take advantage of the built-in GPS navigation, media player, and vehicle diagnostics of say Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, but my car is nowhere near up to spec. Wouldn't it be great if you could just add these features to your existing car, rather than having to buy an (expensive) new one?

Technically, you can, and I did. Personally, I have made a number of modifications to my car in order to accomplish this. I replaced the stock radio with one with an AUX input, added an OBDII bluetooth adapter, and finally mounted a 7" Android Tablet to my dashboard. After spending many hours wiring everything up, configuring the software, and testing it out, everything works! GPS navigation, vehicle diagnostics, all my music and movies, automatic dash cam functionality, and more! However, let me stress the fact that this was a long, painful process that took a few months to get everything setup and configured properly.

That's where DASH comes in to play. It's a product you could purchase off the shelf of a retail store, and easily install into any vehicle. All cables, adapters, chargers, and software would be included and ready to go out of the box. Take advantage of all of the great features a DIY setup can offer, without the pain of installation. Literally, turn your car into a smart car quickly and easily!

CTRL+ALT VR is a small virtual & augmented reality development studio hat I concpeted initially for a logo project in school. After finishing that initial logo project, I took the logo and developed more of a complete branding package for CTRL+ALT VR.

The story behind CTRL+ALT VR is simple. Virtual / Augmented reality is very new, and set to rapidly change the entire world of technology. VR/AR opens up an entire world of possibilities that simply were not achievable in the past. It is a new platform that is on the brink of explosion.

Companies who have already embraced VR/AR have done so with huge amounts of success. Even for companies who you may not think need VR/AR, such as retail or events, those who have implemented VR/AR into their platforms have had great results. It has been said that within the next 5 or so years, not having a VR/AR component to your platform will be the equivalent of not having a mobile app or website.

However, developing for VR can be both tricky to get right, and difficult for inexperienced companies, especially those without an in-house development team. That's where a development studio like CTRL+ALT VR comes in. Other companies would be able to kickstart projects and work with CTRL+ALT VR to develop their own VR/AR applications.

I designed and laid out a 16 page print brochure for the upcoming Unite Boston 2016 Conference.

Unite is an annually held international conference run by Unity Technologies. It is the ultimate place for Unity developers to meet, collaborate, learn, and network with other developers. Unity3D is a free 3D game engine that is used to power thousands of video games, software simulations, medical and military applications, virtual and augmented reality experiences, and much, much more!

For this project, I had to source quality images, research event information, and come up with a visual style and layout that not only caught the viewer's eye, but also made important event information easy to find.