PROJECT_JAM

Gameplay and Systems Engineer

June 2025 - August 2025

Rhythm, Action

PC

Unity (C#), GitHub Desktop, LMMS, Trello, Figma

Play PROJECT_JAM!

Project JAM is a rhythm-action game where your music brings color back to a world overrun by monochrome robots. In this fight, music becomes your tool: every beat you hit pushes back against their color-draining takeover.

Our game asks: How can music be used as a tool for non-conformity and self-expression?

I programmed the rhythm game system, focusing on modularity, rhythm accuracy, and design flexibility. This included:
- Syncing beat detection to the audio clip’s time samples, not Unity’s game time, to avoid stutter and desync from lag or frame drops.
- Building a system that lets designers create levels by tapping MIDI notes in any music software/ digital audio workstation (DAW) (like FL Studio, LMMS, Ableton, etc.), then automatically parsing those MIDI files into playable note lanes.
- Creating a universal beat-synced pulsing system that lets any game object (not just notes) visually move to the beat. You can choose whether they pulse on every beat, every other beat, etc.

This was my first time building a rhythm game, and the biggest challenge was making sure everything stayed synchronized with the music, even when the game lagged or the frame rate dropped. To fix this, instead of tying beat logic to the game clock, I calculated elapsed time using audio sample data (timeSamples / frequency), which kept everything in perfect rhythm regardless of frame stutters.

I really care about how my code affects my teammates. Level design can become tedious in rhythm games, especially when creating note patterns. So I built a system that reads MIDI files, allowing designers to tap out the rhythm in any music software/digital audio workstation (DAW), such as LMMS, FL Studio, or Ableton, and instantly test new patterns by dragging the MIDI file into Unity. One thing I really liked about this system is that it allowed our level designer to create entire levels without ever needing to touch Unity, which freed up the engine and helped us avoid scene conflicts since we were all working on a small project. It made the process easier, scalable, and honestly just more fun.

- How to balance technical and creative problem solving.
- That modular systems help games scale and help teams move faster.
- The importance of not only engineering for optimization, but also for the player experience and the team workflow.

Project JAM was very fulfilling to work on (especially since rhythm games are one of my favorite game genres). At the end, it felt very rewarding that out of 20+ games created in the Gameheads 2025 cycle, Project JAM was nominated for Best Programming at the annual Jose Awards. Lastly, I want to shout out to some of the games that inspired me when creating Project Jam: Guitar Hero, Rocksmith, Hi-Fi Rush, Rhythm Heaven, Friday Night Funkin’, and Muse Dash.