Convergence is a real-time gravity simulation game where thousands of particles interact dynamically. When two particles collide, the larger absorbs the smaller, increasing its mass. Planets contain elements that grant players special abilities, such as Ice Shielding and Gas Propelling. The game supports both single-player and local multiplayer (up to four players) with full console controller integration. In Spring 2024, I pitched this concept and led a team of four peers to develop it over 10 weeks as a Pitch-Project through UCI’s Video Game Development Club.

The project began with a gravity simulation game I initially created in Unity as a personal experiment. Inspired by games like Agar.io, I envisioned a game where players control a particle within that dynamic, (almost) unpredictable system, growing and evolving by absorbing others. After pitching the concept to UCI’s Video Game Development Club, I formed a team and led the development of Convergence over a 10-week period. My primary contributions included leading stand-ups, designing the gameplay mechanics, implementing particle interactions, and optimizing the performance of the gravity simulation. I ported the original single-threaded CPU simulation code to a multi-threaded GPU compute shader, achieving an 800% boost in simulation performance. This enhancement enabled us to handle the gravity calculations for over 1,600 particles in real-time, as opposed to the 200 a purely CPU based approach provided.

Convergence was presented at the 2024 UCI Z3 Industry Expo, where we received positive feedback from both the gaming community and industry professionals. The unique blend of survival mechanics and gravitational physics intrigued players, and many expressed excitement about the possibility of adding online multiplayer, in addition to the existing local multiplayer functionality.