Zeke Lasater

Arashi Slate Scroll

Arashi is a VR video game where you play as a stealthy ninja killing bandits and liberating the countryside from evil. The scroll you see in the video was primarily used to let the user make gameplay choices (options, save, load, etc.) using a gaze-based selection system. The scroll was also used to deliver how to play information to the user in the form of tutorial scrolls. The tutorial scrolls were fully customizable in Unity by world artists to add as needed.

Arashi Safehouse

In between levels in Arashi the player needed to re-equip themselves for the next outing, this happened in the safehouse. The player could also view enemy and player models if they were collected in the field in the safehouse. Lastly, after the player had beaten the game, they could travel back to play previous levels again from the safehouse. In the video you can see the 3 similar yet different solutions for the problems above. The inventory wall, gallery wall, and stage select table were all made using the same child components. This helped development time immensely as the hand cursor system and pick up and place functionality could be re-used on each feature. 

Camp Pokémon on iOS and Android

Camp Pokémon is an app in the Pokémon universe meant to bring new fans to the series. As a developer and motion designer I was able to take lead on the island hub, and a number of activities. The experience gained during this project was invaluable, making me a better Unity developer,  and a better motion designer.

Under a very aggressive timeline our team were able to deliver an app that achieved over 1 million downloads in the first week alone.

VR Video Content for Android

Built for Intel to deliver sports and entertainment video content in virtual reality. First helping them ready a floor demo for CES 2017 then later refining that demo for release on the Oculus store and Google Play store.

Developed a data driven UI fed by XML that enabled our client to easily add, edit, or delete content as well as VR environments. This enabled them to deliver new content at a brisk pace as they collected more and more video. The app eventually went on to have the PGA Tour, NFL, and MLB as video partners.

TCG Match

The TCG Match update was focused on getting a little something from the Pokémon Trading Card Game into Camp Pokémon. A new memory match activity was added that utilized the trading cards as the play pieces. The game was completely data driven enabling the client to update cards as new PTCG boosters became available. These updates were all possible without the need for app store updates.

PTCG Card Scan

As way to promote Pokémon Trading Card Game card purchases in some way via the app I developed a scanning feature that would work with the back of a PTCG card. Using OpenCV in Unity I was able to get reliable card scanning which would open up some in game rewards after scanning the back of a PTCG card. Accuracy was great and I never had false positives with everything running directly on the device with no need for any verification via a web service.

Pokéball Roll

Pokéball Roll was a new game focusing on the Poké Balls of Pokémon. Using the gyroscope on the phone I was able to develop a labyrinth style Pokémon capture board game with the steel ball replaced with different Poké Balls. The activity had three different environments with tile based game boards. All the components were modular with game boards built dynamically using XML data files for quick iteration and updates.

Most of the motion design work was trying to recreate the same feel for the capture effects and animation as seen in the Pokémon games or the television show.

Mystery Cave, Night Mode, and Theater

A few other features I was responsible for in various Camp Pokémon updates.

Night mode was added for the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon, which brought different Pokémon out based on time of day. The easter egg Mystery Cave would open up after certain requirements were met to give the user new rewards. There was also a theater for potential promotion opportunities for other Pokémon products.

NBA in Virtual Reality on Android

NBA on TNT VR is an app on the Oculus store that lets you watch NBA basketball in virtual reality. Much of this app is re skinned from the original Intel True VR app which was great as I could refine UI components even further. I was also able to add new features such as live game stats and related videos.

Augmented Reality with HoloLens

I was able to attend the Microsoft’s HoloLens Agency Readiness Program as a developer at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA. This “boot camp” was developed to pass on the knowledge Microsoft had learned up to that point helping companies developing HoloLens applications.

Part of the program was developing a POC to show off some of the HoloLens capabilities. Partnering with Major League Soccer we came up with a way to re-envision how match plays are studied and reviewed, a holographic training tool for soccer coaches.

VR Quarterback Arcade Action

This virtual reality arcade game was a way to explore what might be possible for advertisers who wanted a branded VR room with a focused activity similar to Unity’s Virtual Rooms. This was almost a game jam situation as there was about 4 weeks to complete the project from concept to finished product.

Utilizing Unity’s AR Foundation

S&P Global needed an app that attendees could take home with them to help attract email leads as well as push S&P Global as a technology forward company. I helped make an augmented reality story telling diorama that tells the user about various aspects of S&P Global’s business as well as provide access to email for more information if they chose.

The app utilized AR Foundation in Unity to provide for a simultaneous iOS and Android release. By utilizing AR Foundation instead of a combination of ARCore and ARKit releasing on both platforms with feature parity under the same code base was virtually seamless.