Moodcaster

Game Designer, Technical Director, Lead Programmer

Project Overview!

Moodcaster is a dungeon crawler developed during an AI focused game jam at George Brown College. Players cast spells using their real world expressions, and a facial recognition AI will translate them into spells, creating a unique experience for classic dungeon crawling mechanics. The game was created as a capstone project in Unity using C#, with continued development as a solo project after the initial project was finished.

Roles: Game Designer | Technical Director | Programmer

Team Size: ~20

Engine: Unity

Tools used: GitHub, MorphCast AI, Trello

Status: In active development

Showcased at: Level Up Showcase 2025, The G.R.I.D.

Powered By: MorphCast || https://www.morphcast.com

Design!

  • Developed the core concept and gameplay systems during the initial game jam.

  • Designed and balanced the six spells tied to each expression

  • collaborated on the level layout and pacing for gameplay

  • planned out various props and vibes in the level to attempt to make the player feel various emotions at different times ++++ AI

  • Wrote and maintained an extensive GDD

  • Balanced core systems (enemies ,health, potions, various numbers and combat)

  • Concepted Diegetic User Interface

  • Participated in the audio design of the game

Technical Leadership

Served as Technical Director and Programmer for the team.

Managed the projects GitHub, handled PR’s merging and resolving conflicts

Delegated programming tasks, handling assignments through trellow, and leading regular programmer meetings

Set up the framework for the project, and initial core systems

provided support and critical feedback during the implementation of core features

maintained build stability for every major milestone

Implemented UI

worked with the different departments to ensure that art and audio were providing exactly what the programmers needed to succeed

mAintained open communications with producer and creative director to ensure issues could be solved correctly, and was able to keep all takss within scope

Playtesting & Iteration

Held multiple playtesting sessions

review playtesting notes to roperly identify sources of friction to overcome issues faced by playtesters

Wrote playtesting questions, and created playtest reports showcasing the information we gathered

created bug reports and tracked issues to prioritize fixing

iterated on the information presented to the player (eg spell book / Compass) and the balancing of the spells.

after public playtesting implemented features, such as delaying spell casting, and a system to guide the player down the correct path (compass)

balanced systems based on the playtest results

Showcasing!

We showcased Moodcaster at

  • Level Up Showcase 2025 (Toronto)

  • The G.R.I.D. (Toronto Games Week 2025)

We presented the current (at the time) build to the public allowing for live demos, and answering any design and technical questions

collected real time feedback, as well as recorded a questionnaire after

integrated feedback into the new builds for the game.

recieved a positive reception from playtesters and judges alike

The Future!

Since the initial project ended, Moodcaster has become a personal passion project for me. I couldn’t let the idea die.

I am continuing development on the game a solo dev

things I have added since going solo are

  • The compass for navigation

  • holding spacebar to disable spell casting

  • an indepth tutorial to teach players the general mechanics and for each spell

  • additionally added some puzzle-esque mechanics

I plan to continue working on the game on my own, and hopefully release it on steam. Additional things I hope to add are

  • stuff

  • more stuff

I am also doing my best to maintain an up to date and accurate GDD, and want to start a public devlog display my progress

Gallery

Delete this at some point

Moodcaster was the very first game jam game I worked on during my time at George Brown College. The jam’s theme was integration of AI, my group and I came up with the idea to use a facial recognition AI, and the idea of casting spells using your face was born.

As a Game Designer my team and I collaborated to develop the core mechanics, emotional spell casting systems, and player feedback loops. I contributed to brainstorming sessions, prototyping gameplay features, and the balancing of spells to make sure that each emotion felt distinct and impactful. I also helped with designing the pacing of the level and enemy interactions to reinforce the emotional themes of the game, while ensuring the game stayed engaging with the unconventional controls.

In addition to my role as a designer, I also served as the project’s Technical Director and Lead Programmer. I was responsible for implementing key gameplay features, managing the project’s GitHub repository, and ensuring that all bugs and concerns from the programmers I lead were addressed.

I also worked closely with artists and other designers to ensure there was clean implementation of assets and UI elements. I helped lead the team through debugging, playtesting, and polishing during the Jam’s tight development window.

Moodcaster stood out for its innovative mechanics and engaging presentation, and is still continuing to be developed.