MARK YAMPOLSKY
// gamer
// developer
// designer
HI THERE, I'M MARK
I make interactive things.
ABOUT ME
gamer / developer / designer
I'm a Game Designer at Respawn Entertainment. I'm part of the Apex Legends team (although it's not listed under my projects yet).
I graduated from USC in 2019 with a degree in Computer Science (Games) with a minor in Screenwriting. I'm an avid player of just about anything - from Catan to Grand Theft Auto to Kentucky Route Zero to Pandemic.
Along with a background in programming C++ and Java across games, mobile projects, and standalone applications, I have experience in game and UX design - both on the board and on the screen. Particularly, I'm a sucker for design that facilitates player-driven stories or fast-paced, competitive gameplay. Also, I love film dearly, and have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of TV. Ask me about my turntable and slowly growing vinyl collection.
Bonus Fun Fact: All of the project logos below, with the exception of The Maestros and Sky Command, were designed by me.
GAME PROJECTS
Here's a few game projects where I had a prominent role in Programming + Design + Project Management
Ascend
A unique aerial combat game for virtual reality.
Ascend is a first-person VR arena shooter where you rise to greatness in a crucible of visceral and kinetic aerial combat. Rise above your enemies through intense engagements and leverage the power of VR with our unique lean motion system to tower above your opponents.
The player is given control of a jetpack, which they can fly by throttling the controller and leaning in their direction of flight. This is done by dynamically estimating their lean origin, while still allowing for free movement, all while leveraging leaning to minimize motion sickness.
Ascend is an advanced game project at USC. A large multidisciplinary team is working on the project, targeting a Steam release the Summer of 2019.
Project Responsibilities:
Prototype Responsibilities:
Here is an early gameplay demo of Icarus from early January 2019.
Platform: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows MR
Engine: Unity 2018
Languages: C#
Additional Tools: Photon PUN, Probuilder, Shader Graph, Photoshop
Date: July 2017 - May 2019
To demo Ascend, reach out to us at myampols@usc.edu
The Maestros
A fast paced, Action-Strategy RTS where you control a commander building and transforming an army to become an unstoppable force on the battlefield.
As part of the Maestros team, I joined as a dedicated User Interface / User Experience engineer. I joined the project as an intern with no knowledge in Flash/Scaleform or Unrealscript, and within six months, I had completed a top to bottom rehaul of the game menus and in-game HUD.
Project Responsibilities:
Platform: Windows PC
Engine: Unreal Engine + UDK
Languages: Unrealscript, Flash, Actionscript 3
Additional Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
Date: May 2016 - October 2018
The Maestros is out now on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/553560/The_Maestros/
"a cool concept [...] an abbreviation of the standard RTS match that incorporates the best innovations of the MOBA genre."
- PC Gamer
"has the potential to challenge with new dynamics of strategy [...] and it certainly adds a freshness to the concept of RTS games."
- MMORPG.com
"immediately fun but promisingly deep"
- Rock, Paper, Shotgun
A devlog about my interface design process can be found here:
http://blog.maestrosgame.com/post/151846703200/the-maestros-devlog-07-evolving-ui-visual
Find out more at:
Sky Command
Join a friend to fly a top secret military ship behind enemy lines, while you struggle to keep the ship together under fire in this installation-based VR adventure.
On the Sky Command team, I led User Experience and Systems Design for the team. In this role, I focused on room-scale interactions that allowed the user to engage with the space while maintaining the immersion of the experience.
Project Responsibilities:
Platform: HTC Vive
Engine: Unity 2017
Languages: C#
Additional Tools: Photon PUN, Sabre CSG, VRTK, Adobe Photoshop
Date: August 2017 - May 2018
Intrepid
A competitive 4X strategy board game where players take control of a fleet of expeditionary ships and explore the Vanguard system in a race to discover and colonize the habitable planet.
Our game uniquely asks players to control two independent ships with their own resources as they explore a procedurally generated board that builds throughout the game. We've also built a deep card based combat system and a tailored story, both of which are tied to exploration, so as players explore the final frontier, they encounter perilous situations, quests, and build themselves into a formidable competitor on the intergalactic stage.
Project Responsibilities:
Additional Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
Date: April 2017
Intrepid is currently testing it's third major iteration after a lengthy rebuild of our resource management, combat system, ship improvements, and the integration of 2-5 players. This prototype is still fairly new, so excuse the roughness.
Read our new 3.0 ruleset here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SSr8bW-Nc9IXz5SovzfaQcf6TNDlZ7VQEmQbxsY7qgU/edit?usp=sharing
You can see our old ruleset and our pre-3.0 production design here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s1kFi9CzgZUExobFVReDF1T3c/view?usp=sharing
Don't Make A Sound
An immersive room-scale VR horror game.
Global Game Jam Los Angeles
Best VR Game | Best Gameplay
Don't Make A Sound is an immersive VR game for the HTC Vive, where the player is dropped in the shoes of a new lab technician. After waking up in the breakroom, the lab goes into lockdown and the player is forced into a game of hide and seek with a blind, bloodthirsty bat-monster.
Project Responsibilities:
Platform: HTC Vive
Engine: Unity 5.5
Languages: C#
Date: January 2017
Download the playable prototype here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s1kFi9CzgZY2hkVnpzU293TWM/view?usp=sharing
**This game requires an HTC Vive
Written Work
Here's some stuff I've written.
Speculative Scene for Mad Men, written for "Three Sundays"
An Unexpected Visitor, A Short Film
Chronoscope, An Outline for a Feature
DIGITAL PROJECTS
Here's a few digital projects where I prominent role in Programming + UX Design
Echo
Networking made easier.
Echo is an Android app that allows people to quickly build a digital business card, effortlessly exchange information with people, and build a portfolio of connections through Bluetooth technology.
Project Responsibilities:
Platform: Android
IDE: Android Studio
Languages: Java, XML
Additional Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
Date: November 2016
You can download the application from our repository here:
https://github.com/riptide651/Echo
**Running Echo requires launching it to a connected Android phone over Android Studio. Please read the deployment document in the Readme.
WideAwake
A more involved way for you to wake up.
HackSC 2015
WideAwake is a minimalist alarm clock for iOS designed to wake you up both physically and mentally. Once the alarm goes off, the user is unable to turn it off until they complete a short physical and a mental challenge. This forces people, like me, who have trouble getting out of bed to get moving and get thinking so they can wake up.
Project Responsibilities:
Platform: iOS
IDE: xCode
Languages: Swift, C#
Additional Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
Date: November 2016
You can download the application from our repository here:
PUBLISHED RESEARCH
Here's some published research work I've co-authored.
Making Learning Fun: An Analysis of Game Design in Science Learning Games
UCI-ISR-14-3 / October 2014
This paper analyzes and draws quantitative and qualitative conclusions from playtesting twenty-six science learning games. Science Learning Games are defined as games where game mechanics or play are focused on the domain of scientific research and education.
This paper was co-authored with:
Walt Scacchi of UCI's Institute of Virtual Environments and Computer Games
Ryan Lim of Northwood High School
This paper can be read here:
http://isr.uci.edu/sites/isr.uci.edu/files/techreports/UCI-ISR-14-3.pdf
Learning game design and software engineering through a game prototyping experience: a case study
ICSE GAS 2016
This paper builds on a case study introduced in Making Learning Fun, focusing on the design process behind a game engineered from a compiled set of best practices discovered during the analysis of science learning games.
This paper was co-authored with:
Walt Scacchi of UCI'S Institute of Virtual Environments and Computer Games
This paper can be read here:
GET IN TOUCH
Here's how you can reach me.