Official Blog Post: Pick It Up! – itch.io

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Welcome to Pick-It-Up, a high-energy, competitive 2-player party game created by Driver's Seat Studio. Players take on the roles of Garbots, racing to collect the most trash across four chaotic and platforming-focused environments:
The House, The Backyard, The Basement, and The Upstairs. With tight platforming mechanics and rapid-fire matches, the game delivers exciting, short-session gameplay that’s accessible to all skill levels.

1st Place Winner at the EECS 494 Showcase out of 14 competing games. 1200+ Downloads across online platforms! (GameJolt, Itch.io, etc.)

Key Contributions:

• Level Design:
  Designed and implemented layouts for all game levels, focusing on flow, pacing, and replayability to support competitive balance.

• Asset Integration:
  Sourced and integrated high-quality assets from Unity and online libraries to create visually engaging and cohesive environments.

• Gameplay Scripting:
  Developed C# scripts to control interactive elements such as collectible trash, player interactions, and game events, ensuring fluid and responsive mechanics.

• Visual Effects & Shader Work:

  • Created volumetric smoke using Unity’s Particle System.
  • Designed custom fire and water effects with Shader Graph for dynamic environmental elements.
  • Implemented stylized cel-shading on in-game objects using Shader Graph, enhancing the visual identity of the game.

Skills & Impact:

This project deepened my proficiency in level design, gameplay scripting, and visual effects engineering within Unity. It also strengthened my knowledge of Shader Graph, particle systems, and interactive environment creation.
Working in a team setting under tight deadlines honed my time management, cross-discipline collaboration, and ability to rapidly iterate based on testing and feedback.