Amazon Games: Storm Runners

• Engine: Unreal 4

• Development Time: 1 year, 6 months (my time on the project)

• Genre: Rogue-like, Single Stick Mobile Shooter

• Platform: Mobile Devices

• Released: February 2022

Storm Runners was a title that I put a lot of heart and love into. While I was originally brought on to be a content designer for the project, throughout the course of development, I would do everything from quest design, narrative design, systems design, enemy design, and voice act for some of our monsters, and plenty more. If you want to learn more, click the image to find a more in depth discussion of my work.

Steamroller Studios: Curse of the Deadwood

• Engine: Unity

• Development Time: 8 months (my time on the project)

• Genre: Twin-Stick Shooter, Action

• Platform: PC

• Released: July 2022

My time with the Lathe and Roguard team was relatively short, but overall I had a lot of impact on the team and the project. While I am proud of the two major levels I helped to develop and all the set dressing/environmental storytelling I accomplished, my proudest addition to the project was the pitching, development, and implementation of a tutorial section. If you want to learn more, click the picture above.

Triseum: Arte Hemut

• Engine: Unity 4

• Development Time: 2 months

• Genre: Educational, Board Game, Deck-Builder

• Platform: PC, Chrome Browser

• Platforms: Web Browser

• Role: Game Designer

• Released: August 15th 2018

Upon joining Triseum in June of 2018, one of my first projects I collaborated one was Arte Hemut, a title which focused on the art, history, and culture of Ancient Egypt. The goal of the project was to take the game-skeleton we received from an outside source and develop it further into a final product. In brief, the game provides players four scenarios covering various topics of Early Egyptian history. Players select an encounter and are first treated to a board game. During this board game, players encounter various events and make decisions based on information the student learned either from class or in their readings. After completing the board game section, using the rewards and cards they earned, players must then complete a deck-building section by completing various scenario cards, all while beating back the forces of chaos.

Trendy Entertainment: Dungeon Defenders II

• Engine: Unreal 3

• Genre: 3rd-Person Tower Defense

• Platforms: PC, Xbox, PS4

• Role: Game Design Intern

During the summer of 2017, I worked at Trendy Entertainment as a Game Design Intern.  I helped with the final release of Dungeon Defenders II and with several patches post release.  Throughout this internship: I tested and refined various Campaign mutators, organized and designed new icons for the Shard system, and assisted in the development of the new Adept hero, a genderswapped version of the Apprentice, with two unique abilities and a brand new tower.  To learn more about my time with Trendy and the work I did, either click the title above or click on the picture to the Left.

Alpha Centari: A Galaxy at War

• Engine: Microsoft Excel

• Development Time: 1 Week

• Platform: Mobile

• Genre: Turn-based, RPG

  A few months ago, a company challenged me to develop a game design document for a simple Away From Keyboard (AFK) mobile game. I eagerly took up the challenge and in a week I developed this game design document. I had a few major goals with this title: 1) Make my game stand out amongst the crowd of other AFK games, 2) Add depth and complexity where I could so players who wanted more to the gameplay would be attracted to the title, and 3) provide plenty of simple and efficient ways to monetize the title without compromising the core gameplay loop. To learn more about the title, click the image to the left or right here.

Unreal 4: Scripting Exploration - Turret Game

Beginning as a simple exploration into creating a random spawning system, I decided to take the system and turn it into a simple game. Players stand in the center of a room and must defend themselves from a series of randomly spawning enemies that will slowly move towards them. The addition of rotating forcefields which can reflect a player’s shots, can create some nail-biting situations as the player spins around trying to stay alive. Overall it is a simple yet fun experience that allowed me to practice my scripting and reuse some assets and designs I had made for previous explorations.

To check out the level, either click on the title above or the picture to the left.

Masters Thesis: Dynamic Difficulty System

• Engine: CryEngine 3

• Solo Project

• Development Time: 4 Months

• Purpose: System/ Game Design Exploration

As part of my thesis requirements at the SMU Guildhall, I decided to create my own Dynamic Difficulty system.  The system measured time and damage taken during a combat encounter.  After analysis, the system would alter future encounters based on their player's score.  Overall, I feel the project was a success and taught me that a system only needs to be as complex as it needs to be.  To learn more about the thesis and download the paper for yourself, either click the title above or the picture to the left.

Quest Design: Dungeons and Dragons

Over the past several years, one of my favorite past times has been playing Dungeons and Dragons.  As Dungeon Master I have lead several adventuring parties through dragon dens, twisted goblin mines, haunted forests, and more.  With my latest campaign, I decided to apply some of my game design knowledge and my love of branching narrative to insure my players actions had consequences.  On this page, I also discuss some of my design techniques and ideas for developing intriguing combat encounters.  To learn more about the project and play it for yourself, click the title above or the picture to the right.

Dungeons and Dragons Ravnica: Buddy Cop Project

• Platform: Tabletop

• Collaborative Game Session

• Development Time: 2 weeks

• Purpose: Worldbuilding Practice

A few weeks ago, my usual Dungeons and Dragons team was cut in half by the dreaded killer of most tabletop, roleplaying games, the intrusion of everyday life.  With only two eager players, I began to think about situations, short quests, and contained adventures that could be accomplished by just two players.  After some brainstorming, I settled on creating a session centered around two Ravnican police officers with a kooky, B-grade buddy cop structure as they patrol the roads and streets of Ravnica. To learn more about the project, see battle maps, and read a break down of various encounters, click the image to the left.