Rowan Wood

Gameplay Programmer

Hi, I'm Rowan!

I am a game developer based in New York who is excited about creating games with experimental gameplay and mechanical innovation. I graduated from the NYU Game Center in 2020.

yarne

A minimalist puzzle game about creating the sorts of tangled messes that games usually have you tear apart. I did most of the game design, visuals, and programming. The game launched on Steam in April 2021. You can play the demo here or play the full game here.

Piloting Red Rover

An educational 2D programming game about the new Mars Rover built in Unity (C#) that I developed for the American Museum of Natural History. Worked in a team of 4 as the main programmer, having final say over all code and the Git. The game launched on the AMNH Ology site in December 2020. You can play it online here.

LIYA

A mobile quiz-based game I developed in Unity (C#) with a small team with multiple iterations from prototype to finished product. The game launched on the iOS App Store in December 2020. You can find it here.

rewilding

A meditative ecology game about growing a forest between long stretches of cryogenic hibernation. A first person 3D gardening game that challenges the idea that players should have ownership of what they create in games. Gameplay focuses on an ecological simulation where plants are your main tools. For this project, I am in charge of system design and programming. Selected for the 2021 NYU Game Center Incubator. You can find more information about the game here.

Skills

Gameplay Programming


When I taught children to make games, I had to hear their gameplay ideas and then think of the simplest code that I could teach them to get their idea functioning. This has proven to also be a useful skill when working with adults.

Tool Programming


In many projects, I have created tools and workflows to make it easier for non-technical members of the team to make more content, faster.

Rapid Prototyping


Ideas are a dime a dozen, so when experimenting with a new game or mechanic, I make sure to focus on implementing the core so that the team can iterate as soon as possible.