Sophia Akhavan

Software Engineer

About

Hi, I'm Sophia! I am a programmer and developer who graduated from the CS Games program at USC back in 2023, and I am actively seeking a software engineering role, drawing from my diverse background in backend development and design. I highly value a collaborative work environment and attention to detail. My main coding languages are C# and C++, and I have extensive experience with Unity.My 2024 Gameplay Engineering internship at Scopely working on Marvel Strike Force taught me a lot about programming for an established game with a large player base. Through code reviews and working with a lot of existing code I improved greatly on my ability to use best coding practices and interpret complex systems. Getting to create an entirely new feature that will improve the player experience was incredibly rewarding and I hope to maintain that level of impact throughout my career.My 2022 Software Engineering internship at Activision was also a valuable experience that exposed me to life at a large company. I worked closely with experienced programmers to transform their codebase into being cleaner and more efficient. Much of my work involved Rest APIs, code optimization, and Unit/Integration testing.My full-stack software engineering internship at RideStream was my first exposure to app development. I used React Native to create many important features like playlists, a page to explore new songs, and the option to play specific songs.Thanks to my internship and project experience, I am very comfortable learning new skills quickly, being proactive with assigning myself tasks, and working with others. During my years in the CS Games program at USC, I took on a variety of projects that exposed me to all aspects of both game and app development. Feel free to check out my Projects tab!

Contact

The best way to contact me is via email or LinkedIn.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiaakhavan/
Email: sophiaakhavan19@gmail.com
Phone: (650) 730-0480

PROJECTS

Grandma Green

I had the privilege of being part of the development team for Grandma Green, a 2D mobile farming and pet simulation game. Over the course of a year, I collaborated with engineers and designers in Unity to bring this game to life. It is now available on the App Store!My key contributions were:
- Designing and coding the backend for collections, inventory, and shopkeeping systems
- Assisting in the completion of garden customization, enabling players to drag and place decor items and personalize their house, fence, and mailbox
- Devoting the final month to bug fixing and the implementation of small features across all aspects of the game as needed by my team

MURDER! (mystery) at the Hell Hotel

MURDER! (mystery) at the Hell Hotel is a 2-D point-and-click murder mystery dating simulator.
Flirt with demons to uncover the clues you need to solve this mystery and escape hell!This was my first complete game developed in Unity as a semester-long project with a partner.My main contributions were:
- Designing and coding the point-and-click functionalities
- Creating functions called by Yarn Spinner scripts to trigger in-game events
- Handling the visual assets (ie facial expression changes, appearance/disappearance of assets)

Parkour's Edge

Parkour's edge is a simplified version of the hit parkour game Mirror's Edge, complete with checkpoints, points from collecting coins, lasers that send the player back to their last checkpoint, and a timer.
Coded in C++ using SDL for the graphics and audio. The code follows a similar architecture to that of Unreal Engine (UObject and AActor classes, GameMode, GameState, etc).

Mario Kart

This project is a simple version of the popular Nintendo game Mario Kart, created using C++ and SDL. The code follows a similar architecture to that of Unreal Engine (UObject and AActor classes, GameMode, GameState, etc). The features included are an AI enemy kart to race against, tracking of laps, and a display of which place the player is at.
The track is loaded by reading a height map from a CSV file. The POV camera is a spring follow camera that, like a spring compressing and decompressing as the vehicle moves, creates a smooth interpolating effect.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I made a simplified version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past using C++ and SDL. The code follows a similar architecture to that of Unreal Engine (UObject and AActor classes, GameMode, GameState, etc). It includes player attacks, soldiers that use A* pathfinding, and objects to interact with. The map is loaded using a tile map texture and CSV file.

Work in Progress: Untitled Unity Game