Dayne Farris
About
With several years of professional and independent experience in the industry, I have had the opportunity to work on multiple shipped projects, personal projects, and team-based collaborations. Throughout these projects, my expertise has spanned the entire development process—starting from initial concepts and prototyping to testing, iteration, and finally, polish and release. I thrive in passionate teams that strive to create engaging and memorable experiences while maintaining a strong focus on detail and delivering results in a timely manner.
Game Developer
Having graduated in 2023 from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater at the top of my class, I have since gained valuable professional experience and am now seeking my next exciting opportunity where I can bring my passion, skills, and expertise to a dynamic team.
- Degree: Bachelor of Science
- Major: Media Arts and Game Development - Technology
- Minor: Computer Science - Web Development
- Age: 25
- Email: 4mestudios@gmail.com
- Phone: (608)921-4535
- Location: Janesville Wisconsin, USA
- Availability Status: Available
Resume
Below are some key highlights from my resume.
Professional Summary
Dayne Farris
Passionate and driven game developer with over two years of professional industry experience, leading independent group projects, and running a game development organization for over a year. With a strong groundwork in being a game engineer and an academic background in game development, I am dedicated to crafting engaging and memorable player experiences. I thrive in a collaborative work environment with fellow passionate developers and continuously seek new opportunities to contribute, innovate, and create impactful games.
Core Qualifications
Software Experience
- Unity, Visual Studio, TortoiseSVN, GitHub, Linear, Notion, Jira, Trello, Eclipse, Arduino, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, XAMPP.
Programming Languages
- C#, Java, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, C++, PHP.
Engine Experience
- Versatile Unity experience across all aspects of development in both professional and academic environments, driving ideas from design to prototypes, testing, polish, and release.
Team Experience
- Cooperating with professional teams and leading academic teams of up to thirty individuals, I have built a deep understanding of team importance and communication on projects.
Education
Bachelor of Science
2019 - 2023
University of Wisconsin Whitewater, Whitewater, WI
- Major in Media Arts and Game Development - Technology
- Minor in Computer Science - Web Development
- GPA: 3.9/4.0 Summa Cum Laude
Professional Project Experience
Whisker Squadron: Survivor
Flippfly
06/2022 - 02/2025
- Developed and implemented new enemies and behaviors, items, and gameplay mechanics, ensuring a clean integration into pre-existing systems.
- Designed, iterated, refined, and implemented core gameplay systems for an engaging player experience.
- Fixed bugs and noted unexpected behaviors in regular playtesting sessions.
- Collaborated with designers, modelers, UI artists, the audio producer, QA testers, and other engineers to help bring new and existing content to life.
- Worked extensively through Unity handling both programming and content integration.
- Contributed to PlayStation 5 console porting.
Whisker Squadron: Untitled Space Game
Flippfly
06/2022 - 09/2022
- Adapted previous enemy designs and created compelling procedural encounters.
- Fixed bugs and related warnings while getting started in the codebase.
- Collaborated with other engineers and artists to develop compelling and immersive content.
- Contributed innovative design concepts to elevate the project's impact.
Portfolio
Below is a collection of projects I have contributed to, ranging from professional and independent work to team-based collaborations. Click on any project image to learn more about its development.
- All
- Professional
- Personal & Group
Volunteer Work
Here is a list of game development industry events I have participated in. I actively seek out local opportunities to contribute to the growth of game development, especially in the Midwest.
Badgerland Girl Scouts Game Development Meeting
Spring 2023
Working alongside Filament Games members(Gene Cook, Allison Salmon, and Leah Blasczyk), I helped the scouts brainstorm character ideas and bring them to life in the form of pixel art. I then supported getting all the scouts characters imported into the game in Unity so they had an Itch.io link they could navigate to see their characters in action!
University of Wisconsin Whitewater MAGD Expo Judge
Spring 2024
I served as a judge at the 2024 Spring Media Arts and Game Development Expo, where students showcased the projects they had developed throughout the academic year. As a judge I engaged with each student discussing their work across various areas of game development, including Art, Audio, Physical Games, Digital Games, and Interactive Media. Our conversations covered their creative process from concept to final product, as well as key lessons learned along the way. My favorite question to ask was how they planned to continue developing or expanding upon their showcased projects. Finally, each individual I met with recieved feedback written by myself and other judges on their shown work.
University of Wisconsin Whitewater GAMED President
Fall & Spring 2023
In my senior year at Whitewater, I served as president of the Game and Media Entertainment Developers club. My responsibilities included structuring and leading weekly meetings which featured learning activities, development discussions, and industry panels with professionals from local Wisconsin studios such as Filament Games, PUBG, Raven Software, Flippfly, and Lost Boys Interactive. I also organized and hosted our highly anticipated game jams. During these jams I dedicated my time to mentoring new members, guiding them through their first game development experience in Unity, and assisting with any challenges participants faced. Leading the club and sharing my passion for game development with fellow students was one of my most rewarding experiences in school.
University of Wisconsin Whitewater Game Development Summer Camp Instructor
Summer 2022
I helped instruct two one week iteration summer camps focused on teaching the fundamental principles of game development. Over these two weeks I worked one on one with students to bring their unique ideas to life within Unity. Through group discussions, learning sessions, and a few late-night coding adventures, we successfully guided each student to complete a full gameplay loop of their custom projects. By the end of each week, every student had a successful build of their game go onto Itch.io.
Testimonials
Here are a few testimonials from individuals I have worked with both professionally and on independent projects.
I directly managed Dayne for over two years at Flippfly. He was an enthusiastic and hard-working member of the team who was a great team player, and who was always eager to help make our game better. I loved his dedication to his work, and his flexibility in helping out with everything from game system implementation to game design tasks.
Aaron San Filippo
Flippfly Owner & Creative Director
Dayne was an exceptional student whose self-starter attitude and drive for excellence consistently set him apart. His ability to independently tackle complex challenges while delivering outstanding work makes him a true asset to any academic or professional team.
Nick Hwang
University of Wisconsin Whitewater Game Development Professor
On the few projects that I have worked with Dayne, he made it his passion to learn and excel inside Unity, bettering his craft and becoming a fierce and professional game developer. He is a highly valued asset to any team that he works with and I would work with him again in a heartbeat.
Adam Weber
Game Engineer
Dayne has always been quite enthusiastic about the projects I've shared with him. He always came at it with high energy and enthusiasm, which only pushed me to work even harder on the projects. On top of that, he knew more than I did and was able to easily teach me some valuable lessons that I still use today while I'm working in that codebase
Avery Ackman
Group Project Member
When our team's capstone beat out the other pitches and was greenlit as the game to make, Dayne took it upon himself to set up a team structure for a room of 30+ developers of varying disciplines. While he helped out the other teams a bunch as well, hands-down his efforts built our mini-department of programmers into a lean, mean, game-making machine.
James Zajkowski
Group Project Member
Dayne has a strong passion for game development and it shows through how hard he works. However his best quality is how easy it is to work with him, there was never a time I didn’t want to work with him.
Joe St. Louis
Group Project Member
Working with Dayne is a blast! His positive attitude and dedication to making great games motivates everyone on the team.
