Education
2023 - 2024
University of the Arts London
UAL LCC
MA Game Design
London, UK
The MA Game Design course at UAL LCC offered an opportunity to explore and make Games in a very open and encouraging environment. Having worked in the very analytical and data-oriented world of Mobile game design for the past few years I had a lot of self-doubt creep in regarding my ability to Design with creativity instead of being led by numbers and feedback. My time at UAL allowed me to slowly find my style and voice as a designer again blending the rational and structured design methods I had learned and honed over the years with the creativity and constant inspiration from unique projects, perspectives, and personalities that surrounded me daily. The freedom and inspiration allowed me to slowly move away from my comfort zone and start experimenting with different mediums and genres of games I was not familiar with while trying to execute them with a unique take. My plan for my final project at the beginning of the course and the Game I ended up with are drastically different and yet I felt a sense of satisfaction. The course and its modules taught me to scale down and my work experience allowed me to do it sustainably while keeping the core of what I wanted from an experience alive. I feel a rejuvenated sense of creativity and inspiration as I move forward as a Designer in the Games Industry and I hope I get to do more things I will be proud of as I move forward. Some of my major learning were as follows:
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Alt Controllers
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Shaders and Post-processing
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3D level design
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Rapid Prototyping
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Narrative Design
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Academic Writing
Mentioned below are some of the key projects from the year:
Student project: Final Major Project (PG Term 4)
Duration: 2 months
Project Type: Individual
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Project Brief & Summary:
For the FMP there were no constraints other than the inclusion of the Design framework extracted in our Individual Thesis submitted a month before the Graduate Showcase. The goals I had set for myself were the main driving factor behind the project and all the goals and minimum requirements were self-motivated. The Game is an interactive Tarot card reading with a Chess Puzzle meta. The chess puzzle and tarot reading is represented through an alt controller medium and projection mapping and was developed on unity
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Final Major Projet
Alt Controller Puzzle Game
Tarot Knight
Student project: Term 3 - Games with a Message
Duration: 2 Months
Project Type: Team (3 Game Designers, 2 Sound Designer)
Role and Key Responsibilities:
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Developer
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Game Designer
Project Brief & Summary:
The project was a collaborative effort across 2 universities, Game design students had to Design and Develop a game with a message and work with students of Sound Design from Goldsmiths University London who had to make an original score for the projects of their choosing. My role was that of the solo developer and designer for the project, who was charged with crafting and balancing the core gameplay. The Art, UI, and shader integration based on the concept art and mood boards were also my responsibility before handing off the final tweaking and narrative integration to the team.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Term 3 - Game With a Message
Reverse Tower Defence
Prop - A - Gander
Student project: Term 1 - Rapid Prototyping
Duration: 1 Week
Project Type: Individual
Project Brief & Summary:
The game is a short Text-based adaptation of what life must be like as a Dementia patient. The visual references and personal accounts provided in the Video mentioned above served as the main inspiration for the game. The Story starts the payer off with limited context and forces them to gather information by exploring their surroundings and finding hints their character would have left for themselves as a patient of Dementia.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Term 1 - Rapid Prototyping
Text Based Narrative Game
I'm Still Me
Year 3
The last year was mostly focused on masterclasses and one major Year-end Project. The masterclasses were all planned t help out with different aspects and phases of the design and development process for the Year End Project. Some Modules which were the major focus that year were
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3D Pre-Production Pipelines
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Project Management
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Game Deconstructions
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3D Game/Level Prototyping
Some Notable projects from the year are mentioned below​
Year 2
The second year was all about Level Design in all its different forms and other submodules of Game Design that were closely related. Some Modules which were the major focus that year were
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2D Level Design
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3D Level Design
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Quest Design
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Narrative and Story Telling
Some Notable projects from the year are mentioned below​
Year 1
The first year was all about design basics, introduction to Game Design and all its sub-modules, understanding the process of making games, and all the different ways you can contribute to it. The Game History lessons were an unexpected highlight of the year adding much-needed context to the industry we were trying to learn about and potentially work in. Some Modules which were the major focus that year were​
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Some Notable projects from the year are mentioned below​
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Game Design Basics and Theories
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Game History
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Level Design Basics
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Project Management
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Scripting Basics and Engines
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Narrative and Story Telling
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Communications
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Inter-Disciplinary Projects
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System Design (Design Master Class)
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Still Life and Gesture Drawing (Art Master Class)
2017 - 2019
Rubika India
BA Game Design & Management
Pune, Maharashtra
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Game Design Basics and Theories
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Game History
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Level Design
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System Design (Design Master Class)
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Still Life and Gesture Drawing (Art Master Class)
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Project Management
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Scripting Basics and Engines
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Narrative and Story Telling
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Communications
- Inter-Disciplinary Projects
Student project: Semester End (UG Year 2, Sem 2)
Duration: 4 months
Project Type: Team (3 Designers, 2 Artists)
Role and Key Responsibilities:
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Technical Level Designer
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Content Creator
Project Brief & Summary:
The year-end project was the major focus of the 3rd year and took up most of the last 2 Semesters. A demo for a AAA scale Serious Game was to be made based on one of two available themes. The game needed to be at least 30 minutes long, should be based on the theme and demonstrate the vision of the final AAA game being pitched in a playable demo presented at the end of the project. A Project pitch was to be submitted and pitched to the jury to pitch a viable plan and requirements for the design and development of the game at its full scale
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Year End Project
3D Interactive Story
SEEN
Student project: Master Class - Pixel Art
Duration: 1 Week
Project Type: Team (3 Designers, 1 Artist)
Role and Key Responsibilities:
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Pixel Art Animator
Project Brief & Summary:
A master class focused on Pixel Art and Retro games was held for a week, starting it off with a lecture on its historical evolution and modern styles that have evolved from it. The majority of the week was then dedicated to Game Jam where students were tasked to split themselves into teams and make a top-down pixel art game (Zelda Like game).
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Master Class
Pixel Art
Poo Fighters
Student project: Unity Master Class - FPS Prototyping
Duration: 1 Week
Project Type: Individual
Project Brief & Summary:
The week started with a brief lecture on the unity components we will be dealing with during the week and how they worked, which was followed by one of how to set a scene up and integrate the said mechanics and components like Camera movements for an FPS game and implementing gun animations. The Task for the remainder of the week was to set up a base map for an FPS level and script all the core mechanics in from scratch. The submissions would require enemy design and AI as well to make it a playable level with obstacles to use the shooting mechanics on.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Master Class
Unity 3D Prototyping - Shooters
FPS Prototype
Student project: Unity Master Class - Physics-Based Games
Duration: 1 Week
Project Type: Individual
Project Brief & Summary:
A week-long master class to learn how to script physics-based games like the Monkey Marble franchise. The requirement was to code and tune the movements to match the reference game standard and design a set of 3 levels with progressive difficulty with a run time of 1-minute minimum and use Unity's Pro Builder Feature to craft them out.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Cormorant Garamond is a classic font with a modern twist. It's easy to read on screens of every shape and size, and perfect for long blocks of text.
Master Class
Unity 3D Prototyping - Physics based games
Monkey Marble
Student project: Intensive Week - 3D Level Design
Duration: 2 Weeks
Project Type: Individual
Project Brief & Summary:
The week started off with rigorous playtests of portal 2, playing through the campaign till all major game mechanics and elements are introduced. A deconstruction of the campaign's level progression and a custom level (User Generated Content) was to be submitted by midweek. The Week and a half thereafter were to design 3 progressively difficult levels and conduct playtests with peers before the final official playtest to balance them. The requirement was to make levels that can be played and solved by new players as well as not be a breeze to solve for experienced ones.
3D Level Design
Intensive Week Project
Portals 2
Student project: Intensive Week - Card Design & Balancing
Duration: 1 Week
Project Type: Individual
Project Brief & Summary:
The week started with an introduction to Magic the Gathering and other popular Deck Building games and card battlers. The lecture included a history of the most popular cards, combinations, and even cards that had to be rebalanced because of the game-breaking advantages they provided in a certain combination. The following days involved playtests with existing cards and prototypes of custom. The goal was to make 5 Custom Cards each designed and balanced in a way that the whole class's cards can be combined to make a balanced deck.
Card Design & Balancing
Intensive Week Project
Magic The Gathering
Student project: Semester End (UG Year 2, Sem 2)
Duration: 4 months
Project Type: Team (3 Designers, 2 Artists)
Role and Key Responsibilities:
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Lead Level Designer​​
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Narrative Designer​​
Project Brief & Summary:
A 2D platformer was to be made in a span of 4 months, which satisfies several technical and thematic constraints. One of the main pillars of the game has to be backtracking to give the Metroidvania type feel using the level design and progression in the game. Each designer was to be marked individually for their contribution to the level design and if they were able to match the game feel they planned from that part of the game.
Metroid Vania Type Game
Year End Project (Year 2 Sem 2)
Toxicity In My City
Student project: Intensive Week - Quest Design
Duration: 1 Week
Project Type: Individual
Project Brief & Summary:
The week started with lectures on Warcraft's history and other popular RTS Games, followed by playthroughs of the campaign and customer levels (User Generated Content) to understand the game mechanics and see how players used them to create a variety of unique gameplay. The remainder of the week was dedicated to pitching a quest that could be a part of Warcraft 3's main campaign and included existing characters in the world of Warcraft. The quest had length and gameplay requirements and was playtested rigorously by peers and design students from different batches. The final quest was playtested by each instructor on the final day of the week.
Quest Design
Intensive Week Project
Warcraft 3
Student project: Semester End (UG Year 2, Sem 1)
Duration: 1 Month
Project Type: Individual
Project Brief:
3 Progressively difficult 2D level for a shoot'em Up side-scrolling game was to be designed, balanced, and presented in front of a jury. The levels had length and mechanic requirements which were to be designed using a unity-based custom engine to design the 3 Levels, a variety of weapons, obstacles, and enemy units. The levels were presented to a jury to explain the design vision, intent, and how you tried to execute it which was followed by the jury playtesting all the levels.
2D Level Design
Semester End Project (Year 2 Sem 1)
Shoot Em'up
Student project: Semester End (UG Year 1, Sem 1)
Duration: 2 months
Project Type: Individual
Project Brief:
A gamebook (Choose Your Own Adventure Book) was to be pitched, designed, and written which satisfied a few structural requirements. During this period, various playtests and lectures related to Narrative Design and Structure of Stories took place. Regular playtests of other game books and of structural prototypes of our own took place to discover flaws and test the critical path designed.
Semester End Project (Year 1, Sem1)
Game Book
Benevolent Brute
Student project: Intensive Week - RPG Design
Duration: 2 Weeks
Project Type: Team (2 Designers, 1 Artist)
Role and Key Responsibilities:
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Level Designer​​
Project Brief:
The week started off with a lecture about the history of RPGs, their evolution and subcategories, followed by playtests for a variety of One-page Adventures (Single Page RPG campaigns). The remainder of the week was dedicated to splitting the Game Design and Art classes into randomly assigned teams and working on the design of a Custom One Oage Adventure based on randomly generated thematic constraints. The
Intensive Week Project
Paper RPG
Battle of Babel
Student project: Global Game Jam
Duration: 48 Hrs
Project Type: Team (4 Designers)
Role and Key Responsibilities:
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Level Designer
Project Brief & Summary:
First time participating in a game jam. A game was to be made based on the theme Waves and submitted in the 48Hr time limit. Our Tema went with a side-scrolling platformer which was based on an Electric Cuircuite where the electrical charge travels through a circuit dodging open switches and resistors and losing a minimum amount of charge before reaching the bulb.
Global Game Jam
Theme - Waves
Charge
Student project: College Game Jam
Duration: 1 Week
Project Type: Team (4 Designers, 2 Artists)
Role and Key Responsibilities:
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Level Designer
Project Brief & Summary:
Randomly assigned teams were formed comprised of Game Design and Art students from 3 different batches. The game had thematic constraints which needed to be justified and presented at the end of the week. Our Team went with a side-scrolling puzzle game, the level design of which I was responsible for.
College Game Jam
Theme - " You are here and yet you aren't "
Allie
Student project: Year End (UG Year 1, Sem 2)
Duration: 2 months
Project Type: Team (4 Designers, 1 Artists)
Role and Key Responsibilities:
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Project Manager​​
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Game Director
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Story & Script Write​​
Project Brief:
A visual novel was to be designed and pitched before being developed for the year-end project. The game had software, length and gameplay requirements that were to be justified in the final presentation to a jury. The presentation was followed by questions about the game and how the theme is justified and design choices made.
End of Year Project
Visual Novel
The Untold
2003 - 2016
M.P. Birla Foundation H.S. School
Kolkata, West Bengal
I attended my Primary, Secondary, and Higher Secondary education at the same educational institute spending close to 14 years there. I am who and what I am because of the people I met there, the Activities, and the Education. While I was an average student overall, I Excelled in a few subjects of my interest. I participated in as many extracurriculars as possible such as Basketball, Rowing, and Dance. Overall my school life was nothing out of the ordinary but staying in the same place for 14 years and knowing some of the same people for just as long resulted in me having some lifelong friendships developed in school and for that, I am grateful. The following are some memorable moments and achievements from school
I had the honor of serving as the Captain of the School rowing team this year
Was named the captain of the junior team and then promoted to the senior team the same year
I had the honor of serving as the Captain of the School rowing team this year
Student Journey
I was introduced to games in 4th Grade by my elder brother and grew increasingly interested in them over time. Although there were a few options available for Undergraduate Studies, the only field I had ever dreamt of working in was the Gaming Industry, and when it came time to make a serious decision about my career and where it will be headed after I choose an Undergraduate course the only option I could think of was Game Design. Although Game Design turned out to be nothing like I imagined I knew I had made the right decision when in my first year of Undergrad I wasn't intimidated by the course being much deeper and more complex than I had imagined, instead being excited and curious to know more. During those 3 years, the various subjects I studied through daily lectures and assignments were Game History, Game Design Basics, Level Design, System Design and Balancing, Scripting Basics, Gestures and Still Life Art Classes, and Project Management. The Knowledge accumulated from these even helped me land an Internship in the session break of my second year and a job right after graduation.
Celebrating successfully finishing the first jury of our student life
having a campus on the outskirts of the city of Pune had its perks, one of which was being close to great hiking spots