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While exploring the galaxy on your solar-powered hoverboard, you find yourself above Earth during a Solar Eclipse. With your power source obscured, you must surf the solar flares to gain energy.

Otherwise, risk losing power and falling through Earth's atmosphere…

Solar Surfer was the product of a weekend game jam hosted by the National Esports Association, in collaboration with NASA and Epic Games. Teams were tasked with creating a game inspired by the 2024 Solar Eclipse, to be developed in the Unreal Editor for Fortnite. The winning teams had one month to prepare their final game for the Eclipse Day Showcase. As a winner, my game and interview was broadcast live to an audience exceeding 11,000 viewers.

This project was truly a labor of love for me, and I relished every moment spent on it. My recent experience with Python for Maya and extensive programming with Unreal Engine's Blueprint system naturally prepared me for the Verse programming language. This new language enabled me to devise unique mechanics that were beyond the capabilities of the standard Fortnite Creative tools.

I devoted numerous hours to manually coding systems for player movement, procedural track spawning, player animation, scoring, and spawning and moving obstacles. This endeavor reinforced my confidence in my programming skills and my ability to learn new languages in the future.

Thank you to:
NEA, NASA, and Epic Games for the amazing opportunity
Cleverlike Games for UEFN assistance
Alec Fiden for character animation support
Mark Claudio for 3D set dressing assistance