Marco Baldini Videogames programmer Portfolio

Unreal Engine 5

Blueprint

C++

Inspection

Dialogues

Modular Blueprints

Save/Load Game

Lead programmer for a yet-to-be released detective story-driven open-map first-person game set in a western ghost town. My main task was to develop a narrative system using data tables (from which I made my own plugin), manage world interaction between past and present using interfaces and shaders, manage data saving and loading, player item inspection using mouse movement and develop an easily customizable puzzle system. I've been working with a team of 10 ex-students from AIV - Italian Videogames Academy and will be published on AIV steam page. The player must use his grandfather's cursed lantern to search for clues in the past and present.

Simple Narrative System Plugin

Unreal Engine 5

C++

Narrative

Interfaces

Modular

UE Plugin

The simplest narrative and dialogues system you can find for Unreal Engine. It's very easy to set up and use and after 1 year of work, it has been released on the Fab marketplace (Ex EpicGames Marketplace). This plugin uses data tables to store dialogues data; a world subsystem to automatically instantiate an audio and UI manager without adding it to the level each time; a blueprint function library to export c++ functionality (Only 5 nodes for not-programmers semplicity).

AI Chatbot - Minesweeper inside Unreal Engine 5

Unreal Engine 5

C++

Python

Slate

AI (LLM)

Multithreading

Data stream

UE Plugin

Rest Call

Json Parsing

Minesweeper

Integrated a Chat Bot hosted on a local Ollama server inside Unreal Engine 5. The chat bot follows this workflow:

When sent a prompt using the Slate UI, inside C++ I create a new thread.
In this new thread I create a bridge between Unreal Engine and Python.
In Python I make a Rest Call and the result is returned inside a Unreal Engine UStruct as a stream of data.
If the result contains a Json and it's a Minesweeper grid, spawns it as a working minigame inside the Slate UI.

Ball Catch Game

Unreal Engine 5

C++

Academy

Ball catching game made in Unreal Engine 5.3 using only C++. Player can touch enemy to stun them and force them to move to spawn position when picking up a ball from the ground, Enemy AI using Blackboard, shared pointers and lambdas for a simple Finite State Machine. Use of delegates to avoid useless references. Added a Console command "ResetMatch"/"ResetMatch Win" for debugging purposes!

Tetris Remake in C

RayLib

Linked List

FSM

Academy

A remake of the Tetris game written in C using the RayLib library and my own linked list library. It includes: highscore saving, multiple scenes management as a FSM, Music and SFX, Pause Menu and an effect when a line is completed. Made as exam for my academy.

Caso ha cose

Unreal Engine 5

Blueprint

Dialogues

Inventory

Game Jam

Developed in one week for the GGJ 2024 with the theme "Make me Laugh" in Unreal Engine 5 and winner of the third place of the AIV GGJ. During this Game Jam I've started working to my custom narrative system which will be released as standalone plugin on the Epic Games Marketplace. I've developed too the achievements system using events, interfaces and dispatchers, the interaction system and a basic inventory system with a throw-item mechanic.

Rec Room

Unity

Camera System

Juicy

3D Models

Game Jam

Programmer for a game made in 7-day for a game jam. Developed a surveillance camera switching system, gave the game more feel, juice and feedback to the player by adding sounds, animations and outlines to NPCs, developed different endings when certain conditions were met.

Space Shooter for NES

NES

Assembly x86

Low Level

Art

During my third year at the programming academy, I've learned the assembly programming language and how to build for the 6502 CPU which is the one used by the NES. In this game you can shoot rockets with the [A] button. All the sprites are hand-drawn by me.

Caltanissetta Chronicles

Unity

Save/Load

Modual Camera System

AI FSM

Player Abilities

Academy

Made as exam for my academy and I were lead programmer and team manager in a team of six. My main task was to write a finite state machine for ranged and melee enemies and a boss fight with multiple stages (one with a rhythm minigame), develop a procedural camera system with customizable shots, manage data saving and loading and player combat system. A strange force is threatening Sicily. The samurai mission is to investigate the mystery of Caltanissetta.

Flappy Bird in Python

Pyxel

Python

Custom Profiler

Save/Load

A flappy bird clone written in Python using Pyxel. It can save highscore on file and tracks FPS drops to be analized.

A Backwards Journey

Unreal Engine 4

Blueprint

Player abilites

AI FSM

Game Jam

Worked as solo-developer for a team for the GGJ 2023. Made a dungeon-escape game with a player that can attack melee and ranged, can be heal by using potions and use special powers. It's a journey that follows the development cycle of the game. Follow the journey of our main character as he follows the path that made him who he is now, discovering his roots and how the game came to be.

Super Mario 3D

Unreal Engine 4

Blueprint

AI FSM

Mario-like collisions check

Academy

Made as second year game development programming exam project. A Super Mario-style game made in Unreal Engine 4 with enemies, collectibles, power-ups, levels and a boss battle agains Bowser!

Zelda Like Game

Custom Engine

AI FSM

Multiple Scenes

Pathfinding Movement

Save/Load

GLSL PostFX

Academy

Made as first year game development programming exam project. This game is a Zelda style game using A* pathfinding for movement (both enemy and player), finite state machines for enemy behaviour, a custom game engine (controllers, scenes, collisions, actors, powerups and bullets), Tiled for map creation and GLSL for some PostFX.

Logo virtual machine for Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine 5

C++

File Factory

Blueprint Function Library

A logo virtual machine plugin made for Unreal Engine 5 written in c++. Using a blueprint function library to execute Logo Programs. Done a custom file factory to be able to create an image by drag-n-dropping a .logo file in Unreal Engine.

LÖVE2D Dialogue System

LÖVE2D

LUA

Dialogues

Modular

A simple dialogue system written in LUA for LÖVE2D. It supports multiple questions in the same dialogue.

Dungeon Crawler Multiplayer

SDL2

Python

Multiplayer

Lag Preventing

Networking

Academy

A multiplayer dungeon crawler game written in C for clients and Python as server. Game uses some lag prevention techinques (interpolation).

Get time via NTP

Console

UDP Sockets

Academy

A program written in C that creates a socket and gets the time from Google's ntp.

PNG Decoder in C

SDL2

Z-Lib

Decompressing

I did this to challenge myself to translate script from one language to another and to get back into C after a while. The most challenging part was understanding how to translate the zlib Python functions into C ones and converting zlib data into SDL2 a texture.

2D levels in 3D world

Unreal Engine 5

Blueprint

2D to 3D

A game where you get to control a 2D player that can interact with the 3D world of the 3D player.

Mud Cleaning Game in 6502 CPU

6502 CPU

Assembly x86

Low Level

Game written in assembly by me to test my knowledge learned at Academy. Your task is to "clean" the screen from the mud. Your score is stored in the zero page at the address 0x02.

Maze Explorer

Unity

Random Generated Mazes

Power-Ups

Academy

A maze explorer video game made in Unity made as Unity Exam for my Academy. It includes randomly generated mazes, traps, powerups and coins.

Boids

Custom Engine

Simulation

Academy

A flock simulation written in C# during the first year of study at AIV in a custom game engine. The simulation follow rules that can be changed by the user. They are separation, alignment and cohesion.

Marco Baldini

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