Ben Schmidt

Clay Beats - Couch Co-op Rhythm Game (Blueprints, C++, Unreal Engine 5)

Description

Clay Beats is a couch co-op rhythm game where two players control one hand of the same character to mold pottery to the melodies of a variety of songs. With a partner, explore the world, discovering new clients and songs to play, and taking the requests to the studio where the game transitions into dynamic co-op rhythm gameplay.

Quick Summary

Clay Beats is a game built as part of my senior capstone. I worked with a team of 32 developers over two semesters to ship the game on Steam, contributing heavily to the gameplay experience and core systems. On Clay Beats, I served as a gameplay programmer working in both Blueprints and C++. I developed key systems that supported player interactions, timing-based mechanics, menu navigation, and level transitions. I built the camera behavior used in the overworld, implemented the options and settings menus, and contributed to the song selection workflow. I worked directly with designers and artists to ensure gameplay features matched design intent while also maintaining performance. Mid-project, I led an optimization pass that improved runtime performance by roughly 30% by profiling and reducing expensive Blueprint operations and LODs. I also assisted with packaging the game, fixing build issues, and preparing the project for Steam release.

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Utah Football Hub (html, css, javascript, Api, Cloudflare workers)

Description

Utah Football Hub is a fully custom, real-time Utah Football platform that aggregates data from ESPN, TheScore, Utah Athletics, Fox Sports, YouTube, and more into a fast, mobile-optimized website. I designed the full system architecture including Cloudflare Worker APIs, caching layers, multi-source data normalization, and a responsive front-end to deliver scores, stats, roster info, news, videos, social posts, and NFL alumni tracking in one unified experience.

Summary

I designed and developed a comprehensive Utah Football website that brings together real-time data from ESPN, TheScore, Utah Athletics, Fox, CBS, and other sources into a unified, mobile-optimized platform. I built a Cloudflare Worker responsible for fetching, normalizing, cleaning, and caching data from multiple inconsistent APIs. The site includes a dynamic home page with the most recent and upcoming matchups, curated news, and Twitter/X updates. A dedicated News section aggregates articles from major sports outlets and the Utah Athletics RSS feed. The Roster system features three separate views (card, list, and table), complete with sorting, filtering, and a search bar. Individual player profiles. The Matchup page provides the most recent game's summary, including scoring drives, game leaders, team stats, box score tables, and a full play-by-play timeline with a week selector for viewing past games. The site also includes a full NFL section that tracks Utah alumni in the league. I designed the site with a mobile-first approach, optimizing tables, charts, navigation, and page layouts to ensure smooth interaction across all devices.

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College Football Hub (html, css, javascript, Api, Cloudflare workers)

Warning - 90% of teams are currently working

Description

College Football Hub extends my Utah Football Hub into a full NCAA-wide platform. I duplicated and refactored my Cloudflare Workers to work for any team by generating a unified JSON map that links ESPN and TheScore IDs despite their inconsistent naming systems. Each API endpoint now accepts a team parameter and dynamically fetches, normalizes, and returns data for that program. On the frontend, I added a team selection dropdown, per-team branding, session-stored preferences, and dynamic page rendering so the site instantly updates when the user switches teams.

Sports Calendar (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ESPN API, Cloudflare workers)

Description

Sports Calendar is a web app that lets users instantly generate a personalized sports calendar. They can select any combination of NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and college teams, then export a single unified calendar that automatically updates in Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. I built the UI from scratch, integrated multiple sports APIs through a Cloudflare Worker backend, and designed a smooth multi-team selection system to make the experience fast and intuitive.

Lake Mountain Counseling - Freelance Web Development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

• Designed and developed a responsive, SEO-optimized website for a local counseling practice.
• Built contact forms with Web3Forms integration and implemented interactive navigation with dropdown menus.
• Optimized website performance with efficient CSS architecture, image optimization, and semantic HTML.
• Created multiple service pages (EMDR, CBT, Neurofeedback) with embedded educational content and video resources.

On Hold - Football Stats Website (React, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Api)

• Built a modern, responsive web application that displays football statistics in a visually appealing interface.
• Integrated with ESPN’s public endpoints to fetch live data about players and teams.
• Enabled users to select and track their favorite players and teams for quick access to personalized stats.
• Focused on user experience with intuitive navigation and clean UI design using React components.

Phone Website (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Cloudflare workers) | Weather App | Music App | Calculator App

• Created an interactive phone interface website with multiple functional “apps” representing different websites I developed.
• Developed a weather app utilizing a third-party API to provide real-time weather information.
• Built a music app and a calculator app, each with interactive interfaces and functional backends.
• Developed a settings app to modify preferences and configurations, enhancing user experience.

Scrappy - 2D Platformer (C#, Unity)

• A game made with a team of 7 in Unity using C#.
• Implemented Scrum methodology for effective weekly meetings.
• Designed and implemented dynamic boss jumping mechanics and attacks.
• Engineered a robust checkpoint/respawn system for seamless gameplay.
• Developed a save/load system for player progress persistence.
• Enhanced user interface functionality for improved player experience.

Typeracing (Javascript, Phaser)

• Designed and developed a real-time typing racing game using Phaser.js, combining fast-paced gameplay with educational typing mechanics.
• Implemented visual feedback features such as screen glitches to enhance player immersion during spinouts.
• Built a Ghost Mode with persistent data, allowing players to race against saved high scores with matching laps and typing modes.
• Created a responsive UI system that dynamically updates based on race state, including mode selection, WPM tracking, and typing panel feedback.
• Integrated custom game state management, storing laps, spinouts, and typing speed timelines to enable accurate ghost replays and leaderboard stats.