Quit Stealing My Cows! - GameOff2025 Game Jam
Technical Art & Creative Direction | Environment & Tools
For the GameOff2025 Game Jam, I proudly served as both Creative Director and Technical Artist for 'Quit Stealing My Cows!', a frantic farm defense game. My role encompassed shaping the game's unique blend of quirky sci-fi and rustic farm life, while also developing essential pipeline tools and crafting the core game environment. This project was a fantastic opportunity to bridge creative vision with technical execution.
As Creative Director, I guided the overall visual and atmospheric direction, ensuring a consistent tone that was "Misery-inspired but more colorful" for our night-time setting. I was also responsible for constructing the game's core environment from layout to lighting.
Technical Art Section: Custom Tools & Pipeline Enhancement
As Technical Artist, my focus was on empowering the team and streamlining our asset pipeline. I developed two key tools in Blender and Unity to accelerate environment creation and ensure consistent asset management.
Tool 1: Fast FBX Export (Blender Addon)
Problem: "During rapid jam development, artists often faced inconsistencies in FBX export settings, naming conventions, and file destinations. This led to wasted time, manual corrections, and potential pipeline bottlenecks."
Solution: "I developed a custom Blender addon, 'Fast FBX Export.' This tool automates the export process by using project-specific naming schemes (project name + object name), pre-set FBX export options, and a dedicated, persistent export location, all with a single button click."
Impact: "This significantly streamlined the workflow for all 3D artists, ensuring consistent asset integration, reducing human error, and freeing up valuable time for creative iteration on assets."
Tool 2: Unity 6 Path Instancer (Environment Population Tool)
Problem: "Populating vast terrain with repetitive environmental assets (like fences, cornfields, or row covers) was a highly manual and time-consuming process. Iterating on the layout of these elements was cumbersome."
Solution: "I created a Unity Editor tool that allows designers to easily instance prefabs along a custom path drawn directly on the terrain. The tool provides customizable parameters in the Inspector for distance between instances, random height/rotation, and layer assignment. It also includes options to non-destructively edit, generate, or delete the path and its instances."
Impact: "This tool dramatically accelerated environment design and iteration. It was used to quickly lay out the farm's fences and other linear environmental elements (like corn fields and row covers, if applicable), ensuring consistent spacing and visual impact while saving countless hours for the environment artists."
This jam was an incredible learning experience, allowing me to fully exercise both my artistic vision and technical problem-solving skills in a fast-paced environment. I'm proud of what our team accomplished!
Play 'Quit Stealing My Cows!' on itch.io here:
https://brickpad.itch.io/quitstealingmycows
Team Credits:
Nicolas Lanza (Programmer and Project Lead)
brickpad.itch.io
Abhinav Anand (Programmer and UI/UX designer)
abhinav-anand.itch.io
Parker Deakins (Music Lead and Composer)
inferiorpolion.itch.io
Madelin Ahren (Animator)
Mads-thegr8.itch.io
Sebastian Raft (Sound Designer)
Samuel Gauthier (3D Artist)
The 'Quit Stealing My Cows!' title screen
The player's farmhouse in the distance, a visual anchor in the wide-open, alien-infested fields.
In-game night environment. I was responsible for the terrain sculpting, asset placement (like fences and lamp posts), and establishing the core lighting for the farm.
The barn area, dimly lit by moonlight and strategic lamp posts, creates a tense atmosphere for defending the cows.
The 'Day' menu screen, providing a brief respite and overview before the next alien invasion.
The Blender Quick export toll.
The Unity 6 Path Instancer tool.