Languages
C++, HTML, CSS
Student Developer Portfolio
Hello, I’m Ellisha Kristyniak.
I am a Game Development student at Full Sail University (graduating in 2028) with a building foundation in C++ and technical game development skills. I aim to create accessible titles for children with neurodivergent needs, as well as life-simulation games inspired by franchises like Animal Crossing. Outside of school, I balance my studies with being a wife and mother of two, and I enjoy gaming, reading, and listening to music.
About Me
Who I Am as a Developer
My path to game development grew directly out of a lifelong fascination with video games and interactive problem-solving. For me, programming offers the same satisfying rush as cracking a complex puzzle—except instead of just solving the system, I get to build it from the ground up. Over the course of my studies, my focus has centered on C++ development, low-level mechanics, and object-oriented architecture. I thrive on untangling messy logic, optimizing code structures, and debugging complex edge cases to turn raw logic into seamless player experiences. As my technical toolkit expands, my goal remains constant: writing clean, sustainable code that powers engaging, human-centric systems.
Tools
Visual Studio, Git, GitHub, Obsidian
Current Focus
Object-oriented programming, debugging, and clean code
Featured Work
Projects
C++ Console Application
Gemstone Hunter
Gemstone Hunter is a custom C++ text-based exploration game where players navigate a branching mine network to discover and collect unique gemstones. The goal of the program is to manage player movement across interconnected nodes, track discovery metrics, and persist collection data across play sessions.
Key Features
- Dynamic Node Exploration: Interactive pathfinding system allowing players to navigate through branching mine locations with procedural gemstone drops based on risk levels.
- Persistent Save/Load System: Custom file I/O system that serializes player progress, current node location, and inventory data into text files with color recovery.
- Robust Input Validation & ANSI Visuals: Safe, stream-based input handling with custom ANSI escape headers to render distinct gemstone colors and clear menu interfaces.
What I Learned
During the development of Gemstone Hunter, a major technical challenge was handling user input safely to ensure empty keypresses and invalid characters wouldn't break the input stream or cause the console menu to hang. By transitioning from basic stream extraction to string-stream buffer parsing using std::getline and std::stringstream, I successfully intercepted empty line inputs and gracefully prompted users without crashing the loop. Through this process, I deepened my understanding of C++ memory management, file I/O serialization, custom ANSI styling, and robust control flow techniques essential for building clean console applications.