Mees Kern

Programmer & Game Designer

Find Out More About me

About Me

picture of myself

I was born in 1994 in the Netherlands. Growing up, I always invented new games to play with my brothers to pass time.

After graduating high school I decided to take it one step further and study Creative Media and Game Technologies at Breda University of Applied Sciences (previously known as NHTV).

Here, I started out as a Game Designer and later switched to programming to further develop myself and my interests in the more technical side.

My CV:




Skills

Programming

  • C++
  • C#
  • Python
  • HTML/CSS
  • Visual scripting

Game Design

  • Level Design
  • UI/UX Design
  • Puzzle Design
  • Concept Design



Experience

Software

  • Unity
  • Unreal Engine 4
  • Google Suite
  • Office Suite
  • Source control

Project related

  • Agile methodology: Scrum
  • Pre-production
  • Production

Projects

Below are the noteworthy projects I've worked on.




Kra-ken

Kra-ken is a 2D fighting game inspired by the old Street Fighter games.

Platform: PC

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Project duration: september 2018 - june 2019

Role: Gameplay programmer

Team size: 18

Steam page: Kra-ken








My contribution


Throughout the development of this project we restrained ourselves by wanting to pay a homage to the old Street Fighter games (specifically Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo).

We added a twist to this by adding influences of Street Fighter 3 to our game.

Researching and understanding how they made Street Fighter and then applying it to our game gave me new insight in the development of games.

I worked on the gameplay mechanics of the different characters to get the combat working as intended.



Soul Knight

Soul Knight is a 3D action platformer with a focus on exploration in a open world.

Platform: PlayStation 4

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Project duration: ~5 months

Role: Concept, gameplay & level designer

Team size: 25








My contribution


I worked on the initial concept of Soul Knight. After this I worked on shaping the gameplay to what we wanted it to be.

After working on the initial concept I fully focused on level design.

We wanted an open world game with a hub the player could return to. It was all about exploration so the level design team worked together very tightly to ensure the world felt connected.

Finally, I also worked on some of the puzzle design in the game.



Hypercube

Hypercube is a 3D mobile puzzle game based on the movie "cube".

Platform: Mobile

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Project duration: 10 weeks

Role: Concept & UI/UX Design

Team size: 11








My contribution


Hypercube is a 3D mobile puzzle game, developed with NHTV students in collaboration with ARM. The game was developed in UE4 and aimed at mobile devices, specifically tablets. I was responsible for the UI/UX and collaborated on the initial concept with the rest of our small development team.

Players find themselves in a space environment where they are challenged with finding an exit. They move around cube like rooms that are all identical, without being given the number of rooms, or what the overall structure is like. The only tools they have at their disposal are 3 dimensional movement and the ability to paint on the walls.

The goal was to give the player a very isolated feeling throughout the game, this also transferred to the UI. The player had to feel like they were in the spacesuit.

For more information look at the GDD here

Awards

picture of the dutch game awards 2016 logo

We were nominated for Best Student Game Design in 2016 with the Soul Knight team.

picture of epic games logo

Epic Games featured Soul Knight in July's edition of their community highlights.

Contact

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me!

LinkedIn

my CV

meeskern@gmail.com