Max Levine's Computational Media Portfolio

Writing Sample

Neural Networks for Meta-Emotions

Bloom Sky

Creative, Technical

Bloom Sky exemplifies my ability to translate creative concepts into functional and engaging game systems. This infinite voxel-based strategy-puzzle game is about exploring the properties of seeds and growing them to reach the stars. A chunk system, including optimizations for graphics, allows the world to be infinite; a plant growth system allows complex, recursive structures to grow; and a mold growth system tracks a corruption spreading across loaded and unloaded chunks. The result is a huge world shaped by simple, emergent rules and a puzzle for the player to solve.

This game was created with artwork by Khoa Tang.

Triangle Peak

Creative, Technical

Triangle Peak turns learning trigonometry into a fun puzzle adventure. With their drafting book, equations, measuring tape, and laser protractor, the player solves triangles to climb Triangle Peak. The game is based on a simple rule that reflects the real world: If the player can reach it, they can measure it. Otherwise, they will have to use math to figure out the value. By placing the player into practical usage of the concepts, this game transforms what would be dry textbook problems into something that feels real.

Inner Glimmer

Creative

Inner Glimmer is a dreamscape platformer game I programmed, with art and 3D models by Kacie Bryan and Seth Woodall, for Professor Curt Cloninger’s Senior Capstone Project in New Media at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. This project was made using Unity.

Mario Party Bross

Creative, Technical

This is a video game reimagining of a board game I made when I was eight. I used to think that "Bros." was pronounced br-AH-ss. The game features intelligent, trained AI opponents.

Neural Tangle

Creative

Click here to play Neural Tangle, an interactive experience I made about schizophrenia. I made this to try to communicate what my experience was like, to give people a window into how this condition can feel.

The Burning Locks

Creative

I made this game using Bitsy by Adam Le Doux, Borksy hacks, and JavaScript. The game was praised for its story and allowed me to appreciate what is possible creatively in limited environments.

A Network Game Theory

Technical

I developed a game-theoretic system in Python to solve network games, which is then used by this JavaScript web game to allow players to engage with the network games and compare their scores against the optimal strategy. This project was part of a National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates in Secure and Connected Communities at Texas State University.

PlusWave

Creative, Technical

PlusWave is a game about wave interference and deciphering the truth hidden in the waves.

I experimented with procedural generation for creating progressively difficult wave puzzles. My second game in the fantasy console Pico-8, this atmospheric game showed me how creativity can be enhanced under limitations.

Virtual Reality Projects

Creative, Technical

I worked with a partner to create virtual reality experiences with Unreal Engine. These experiences include piloting a spaceship, trying to escape a procedurally generated maze, and an auditory hallucination simulator.

Steam Powered Warfare

Creative, Technical

In this group project, we created an action-packed, Steampunk-inspired, 3D tower defense game using Unity. Andrew Campbell made all of the art and 3D models, while two others and I collaborated on the programming. One of my main responsibilities was the enemy pathfinding.

Lost in the Waves

Creative, Technical

Click here to play Lost in the Waves, a web experience where you hack into a mysterious lab computer.

I experimented with communication between nested iframes, a branching text message system, and other HTML/JavaScript shenanigans.

Arduino Rhythm Game

Creative, Technical

I made this with an Arduino, button, buzzer, battery, LED, and LCD shield. A player must hold the button down for the correct count of beats as different note and rest values randomly appear across the LCD.

Neapolitan's Ice Cream

Creative

Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry orange!

I made this game with Scratch when I was ten. Programming games from a young age has shaped the way I think and express myself.