Kyle J. Guillory's Web Portfolio
Welcome to FastLikeAstar
Start of Adventure:
You begin evaluating a canidate named Kyle Guillory and the first thing you do is...
Game Projects:
You dive into the good stuff:
Oonana Loves Bloonanas (2023)
Oonana Loves Bloonanas is a small browser game created for the Hedge Jam 4 (game jam) in a team of two. The total amount of project time was limited to a two week time frame and the theme was "Fruits Galore". I did the game design, programming, audio sounds, game music and technical art.
My team was Janet McClain. Janet did the character design, splash screen, animations, fruit, and tree assets.
The game jams were all ranked and we scored 3rd place overall (out of 12) landing us a YouTube interview with the host.
Technology Used: Godot 3.5, GDScript, Audacity, Audiotool.com, Krita 5.1
- >Intrigued you open itch.io and decide to see the game for yourself!
- V Ready to move on you scroll but find yourself holding two plungers with a VR headset being slapped ontop of you. At least it doesn't hurt.
Space Plunge (2018)
Space Plunge is a small Virtual Reality game with plungers for the controllers for the 72 hour Global Game Jam in 2018. I primarily edited sound clips (donated to use for the Global Game Jam), playtested, and contributed to having an endgame goal in the game design.
I primarily edited sound clips (donated to use for the Global Game Jam), playtested, and contributed to having an endgame goal in the game design.
It was a fun project to collaborate on and my first experience with VR. What was awesome was that this project got noticed by VR Scout.
Technology Used: Audacity, Unity Game Engine
- >An article in VR Scout? You gotta check it out!
- >With helmet in place and dual weilding plungers, you accept your fate. (You're filled with DETERMINATION.)
- V The plungers and VR were just roleplay and although possibly interesting to you - your job is not over. You scroll down to see what is next.
...
You notice the falling cubes appear clearer than before and feel déjà vu. You decide to...
Other Projects:
FastLikeAstar (2023)
This is a portfolio website for Kyle himself. I wanted the website to show off my creativity and technical capabilities while allowing me to expand my knowledge in web development.
As I decided to pursue game design - I leaned heavily into the design to make it resemble a text based adventure. Please let me know how your expereience was.
Technology Used: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, Three.JS, Tween.JS, Visual Studio Code, GitHub, Photoshop.
You recognize it. I recognize it. We both prepare ourselves for a so-cheesy-it-hurts recursive dialog option ahead...
- >You want recursion without rolling your eyes.
- >You want recursion with rolling your eyes.
- V Whether it was luck or just because you're on the clock - you save us both the trouble and continue scrolling down.
Appointment Application (2023)
Appointment Application is a desktop application developed in Java for school to handle creating appointments without colliding times for customers. Although not required, I chose to apply the Model View Controller (MVC) design pattern and the Data Access Object (DAO) pattern to implement and organize this project.
The application features a login screen, ability create appointments and customers, data validation, and a database to store the data.
Technology Used: Java, SQL, Java Database Connector (JDBC), JavaFX, MySQL Workbench, IntelliJ, Scene Builder, Git, Github.
- >You want to see the source code in GitHub.
- V School projects don't hold your interest but scrolling ahead you see another one. But it's hard to tell if it's just small or super far away...
Course Scheduler (2022)
A mobile application developed for Android in Java as a school assignment to handle scheduling courses with notifications for important times.
Technology Used: Java, Android Studio, Room Framework (SQLite).
- >You decide to look at the source code in GitHub for this project.
- V School projects are neat but you need something more...
...
Is that it? Do you finally see a non-school project!?! You eagerly scroll down to see a non-related-to-school project in this wasteland of fresh graduate work
... Oh no. Impending doom tingles up your spine. Death would have been a better fate for Kyle as you see the hallmark of being unemployable right in front of you. You encounter: freelance work
Colton's Reptiles (2022)
Colton's Reptiles is a website for an entrepreneur to post various reptiles for sale. The owner, Colton, wanted a website to advertise his reptiles. Colton is a salesman at heart and prefers to sell to his customers directly and without a cart, which allows him to vet potential pet owners.
Colton did not want to manage a database - so I created him a website using Hugo which allows listings to be created as posts, easing the learning curve as an operator.
While this project was initially designed without a database - as Colton's opperations are expanding in 2023, the project feature one soon.
Technology Used: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, Hugo Framework (static site generator), Bulma (CSS Framework), Visual Studio Code, Photoshop.
- >Reptiles are cool. Let's checkout it out.
- >Do reptiles include dragons? You discover that this text based adventure delivers.
- V You get this weird feeling because even though Kyle had the audacity to use a recursive joke earlier - there's an opportunity here. Has he passed up the perfect chance for an Indiana Jones reference? Maybe. But not today.
Kyle's fate is not sealed as you venture forward (... or downward?). Whether you have tasted the freedom and pity Kyle or you admire Kyle's bravery...
You approach the final project. It smells like a school project but... feels... different..? because it's a UX project.
Taniti (2022)
Taniti is a marketing website prototype developed for my school assignment for my UX Design course. The purpose was to redesign a tourist webpage for a better UX.
This project required developing
a user persona from provided data (that was supposed to be from a visitor questionnaire). I then had to design low fidelity wireframes that addressed the needs
of the user persona I created. Afterwards, I had to do guerilla usability testing to validate the wireframes. I then applied the feedback from the usability testing
to inform the creation of the high fidelity prototype.
One note is that this project was not graded on the visual presentation but I enjoyed the process and project
of this class so much I put in the extra effort.
Technology Used: Figma, Adobe XD
- > You decide to explore Taniti because vactions sound nice.
- V Your wisdom check succeeds. There is no island of Taniti outside the magic circle of school and this portfolio.
...
You notice the falling cubes appear clearer than before and feel déjà vu. You decide to...
About Me
You see a guy - the most notable thing about him is that he has really good hair that goes from stylish to awkward grow out everytime you blink. You can't determine if he's actually a PC or NPC (meaning Player Character or Non-Player Character for the non-gamers) but the pop up dialog box is suspicious.
Hello, I'm Kyle Guillory. Game design is my dream job. I enjoy the challenge of designing engaging systems and breathing life into imaginary worlds through those systems.
I believe game design is cross discipline in nature and aligns with my desire to constantly acquire new knowledge which is awesome because I'm open-minded and a life long learner. I particularly like that design involves creativity, problem-solving, and technical rigor.
I have my BS in Software Development with a range certications. While working on my degree I started and ran Design by Play, a game design club at University of Colorado in Colorado Springs (UCCS), for 8 months. UCCS had a game design & development degree that I was majoring in for a little while but the emphasis was focused on the development side. I hoped to fill this design gap by forming Design by Play. This club focused on paper prototyping games with weekly challenges to improve the design chops of members and attendees.
Running Design by Play meant that every friday, I lugged a suitcase full of game components, that I bought myself instead of getting the parking pass that would have saved me 20 minutes three times a week, to a room and hoped the fliers put up every two weeks would attract more people.
The highlight accomplishment of this club was designing a Thanksgiving themed card game with the two other regular members to promote our Thanksgiving Game Jam - a one day event with +10 attendees and pizza. The card game was playtested with +50 different students during our event promotion.
When I'm not learning a new skill or working on a game project you'll find me on the dance floor! I've competed in eight different dance styles and will be competing again in 2023. I teach dance classes occasionally in a group class setting and enjoy learning new styles of dance. I'm very greatful for all the friendships that grew from social dancing.
Job titles that I'm interested in are:
- Game Designer
- Systems Designer
- Gameplay Programmer
- UI / UX Developer
- Writer
...
You notice the falling cubes appear clearer than before and feel déjà vu. You decide to...
Education
A man able to grow that much of a beard should have at least a master's right? Well... Not yet. But I do have enough credits to have one!
You look closer. It's a young'n under that beard! Turns out this guy was blessed enough to shave at 12.
University
Bachelor of Science in Software Development
Western Governors University - January 2023
Certifications
- Project+ - CompTIA - November 2022
- ITIL4 Foundations - Axelos - September 2022
- A+ - CompTIA - July 2022
- Strategic Planning for Entrepreneurs - Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center - September 2021
...
You notice the falling cubes appear clearer than before and feel déjà vu. Yawning because this feels too familiar by now you decide to...
Contact:
The Borg close in on you but you notice this is Kyle's contact information not First Contact. The words on the screen were just a bluff. You scroll down in confidence that you won't be assimilated.
Resume
Download Resume (PDF)GitHub
...
You notice the falling cubes appear clearer than before and feel déjà vu. You decide to...
Mystery Revealed:
Why FastLikeAstar? A* (called A-star when speaking outloud) happens to be a pathfinding algorithm used through the video game industry. It's purpose is to find the shortest path in cases where you need to find paths to a single location instead of finding paths to all locations (as seen in Dijkstra's Algorithm).
The name itself is also a catchy bit of imagery for people who are not computer science euthusiasts.
With the balance of being a showy name that is actually a technical reference - FastLikeAstar would rarely be outclassed and I claimed the name.
Thanks for asking :)
...
You notice the falling cubes appear clearer than before and feel déjà vu. You decide to...
Thank you for your time and consideration.
The imagery of your imagination ends as your adventure concludes. No matter your descision - your quest to hire someone continues with your impression of Kyle locked into your memory...
I hope this portfolio has helped you determine further interest in myself.
If you have any feedback please email me at:
kguilloryscorp[@]gmail[.]com
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...
You're still here? Thank you for enjoying the site.
Give me a little bit more time and there will be a game here - consider yourself an early bird...
In fact email me something along the lines of "getting the worm" and I'll work some magic to incorporate an artifact about you being super awesome in said game.
...
You Crave More:
I get it...
If you made it here - you must want to be friends IRL or REALLY want a mention in that game.
Caked in green pixel dust, you find an extra secret email of:
fastlikeastar[@]gmail[.]com
There's a mysterious note attached to it.
"Message if you dare!", Followed by more personal details that you have probably deduced at this point...
"Yes I like Table Top RPGs. Yes I'll DM or play. Yes I love Over The Edge. And I'm pretty good at painting miniatures.
Yes I'll happily playtest and collaborate :D
I'd apologize for being too much but you asked for it by finding this.
Yours truly,
Kyle"