Personal Blog Post

– By Nhlanganiso Tshabangu

Role: UNITY GAME DEVELOPMENT INTERN
Date: Friday, June 20, 2025

Week 1: Discovery & Direction

The first week of this internship lit a creative fire in me

We kicked things off with a brainstorming session, it was a fairly energizing experience, ideas
were flying around and we ended up with a game-idea that I absolutely love: a 2D
action-adventure game!

That genre has always had my heart. It’s the kind of game I’ve always wanted to make, and more
importantly, the kind I’ve always loved to play growing up. I want to bring the experience to our
people through mobile devices, a nod towards accessibility.

We explored target platforms, discussed the ideal camera perspective for our mechanics, and laid
a solid foundation. On my end, I immediately hopped on to build out the basic character
controller and started prototyping enemy logic. But more than the technical work, it was the
vision that stood out — it finally felt like the start of something real.

Week 2: Mechanics Meet Magic

This week was all about making things move.

I refined the character controller by integrating animations and expanding the ability system.
Now the player can switch fluidly between two core attacks and interact with enemies as one
would expect. It finally felt like something real was shaping up.

But honestly? My favorite part of the week wasn’t coding. It was collaborating with our 2D
artist!

Watching the character designs and attack animations drop into the project, and then seeing my
code breathe through the art, reminded me why I love this medium: watching art interact with
code.