Experience
Though I've enjoyed every project that I have had the opportunity to work on, I'll try not to show any favoritism! Here are several projects I helped produce
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Check some out below!
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Blackblade Castle
A mysterious castle harbouring many secrets, nothing but a torch and your wits to light your way. You find yourself in what was once the home of the Blackblades, a once feared clan, now long forgotten, leaving behind... something? But that's what you're hear to find out. Your search begins in the halls of Blackblade Castle, as you try to uncover the secrets hidden within it's walls. But you may not be alone...
Team Size: 1
Roles: Everything!
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Blackblade Castle is a project of mine that's gone through a few iterations, at first it was "Evercastle", a concept I developed for my final major project at college, but it's a concept I've found myself returning to a few times over the years, and as such has been slowly expanding to become something I've quite enjoyed working on and a valuable tool to keep my development wits sharp as it were! Without a doubt, I'm no programmer, nor artist etc., but my education has given me all the tools I need to at least put something together myself, and this is that something. I'm quite proud of this project really, since being a producer I usually need a team to work with, but this is something I've made entirely on my own, and though it may not be a fully fleshed out game, it's been an invaluable tool for me to show my understanding of the various requirements and disciplines in game development, feel free to check out a playthrough of the first level below!
Team Size: 7
Roles: Producer, Designer
(Sound & Gameplay)
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Please Eat
You play the role of a scientist, looking to find the source of the recent monster outbreak, but the search won’t be an easy one. On your journey you’ll travel to many worlds, each vastly different from the last, in search of the portal shards you need to unlock the next level and continue on your quest. Along your path you’ll come across a wide variety of puzzles, traps, and many different monsters, each with weaknesses key to tackling them efficiently.
The first time I'd worked with a team larger than 4 people, I loved working on Please Eat as I had more team members to take advantage of than in previous smaller projects, and managing a slightly larger group than I had done before was a very exciting opportunity. I could set far more specific tasks and still got the opportunity to get very hands-on, working to implement and balance features myself alongside another designer.
Please Eat is a hectic shooter game played from a top-down perspective where the player can swap out their own body parts for other more useful ones. These body parts enhance your abilities with an array of new attacks, alterations to your health, and movement speed. This essentially allows players to build their own play style within the game so that they can choose how they'll tackle the challenges they face.
Pocket Rockets
Team Size: 8
Roles: Producer, Designer, Team Leader
A wacky racing game where players interact with the race by setting traps for opponents and powering-up their own vehicles! Each player uses an application on their phone to interact with the game. From selecting their vehicle, to activating traps and abilities, up to four players at a time can have fun racing each other without the need for multiple gaming consoles/systems.
This was a University project that I had the opportunity to work on during the first half of development, the conceptualization phase. Unfortunately, I was away studying in America for the rest of the development of the game so the video shown here isn't it in its final form! I'm incredibly proud of what my team and I managed to achieve in the time we had together though, and one of my key goals was to lay the foundations to hand over to someone else for the second half of the project, an interesting issue I'd not encountered before.
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Sheet Fleet
Team Size: 3
Roles: Producer, Designer
Sheet Fleet is similar to what you'd expect from a space-invaders style game, but with a twist! Only one button is needed here, though what brain power you save in controls you must make up for in precision and tactics! Continuously strafing, your ship will only change direction when you press the button to shoot, or when it reaches one side of the screen. With limited ammunition, players are forced to think ahead. Do you have time to take out that next enemy by waiting for a natural pass-by, or do you waste one of your precious shots to change direction and reach them that much sooner? You decide, then execute your plan and see how far it takes you.
The first of my projects when studying at Champlain, Sheet Fleet was a joy to work on, it was the smallest team I've worked with and the shortest time frame too, just 3 weeks. A wonderful introduction to game development in an academic environment in the states and a fantastic opportunity to be able to fill in the gaps left by having a small team with my own skills I've gained throughout my education.
Colour Up
Team Size: 5
Roles: Producer, Designer
A simple, yet charming game, designed to promote an understanding of depression and the effects it has on day-to-day lives of those who experience it, ColourUp is a game in which your tasks are simple , get up, and go to school, live life. Players must do what they can to maintain their character's mood throughout this seemingly simple task, and your mood level is conveyed through the colour of your environment, but this is more of a delicate balancing act than you might think.
ColourUp was an interesting project I took part in at Champlain, we were to create a game aimed at 5-9 year-olds designed to teach them about an underrepresented group, and so my team and I chose to try tackling the topic of depression, something that has been done before in games but not so much for this target audience. It was certainly a difficult task to approach but who doesn't love a challenge right?!
Dungeon NFC
Team Size: 6
Roles: Producer, Designer, Writer
Trading card games meet the video game world. In this cross between titles such as "Pokemon" and "Darkest Dungeon", Dungeon NFC players must navigate a series of rooms presented to them on screen in order to find the treasure waiting for them at the end. The question is, will they have the required tools or the skills of observation
to do so? When presented with a puzzle, the players must use physical collectible cards in an attempt to solve it, with some tasks being as simple as opening a locked door, to perhaps navigating a series of traps, or even fighting deadly enemies. Rooms can have multiple solutions of course, but which tools will be vital to your journey ahead, they only have a few uses each after all.
Some rooms are timed, others are booby-trapped, and some you can only take a limited number of tools with you on your journey forward. It's lucky they have multiple different uses eh? You'll have to figure out what each one can do for yourself, and if you fail, you'll have to start over again. You never know what dangers you'll encounter in Dungeon NFC, all you can do is prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.
One of the more complicated games I've worked on, with a considerable number of intricacies and variables to plan for but also one of the most fun and rewarding team experiences I've had. Being an academic project, skill level throughout the team was varied and as such provided a really great opportunity to test my skills as a producer, making sure we kept an even pace of progress throughout, never waiting for one or two team members to catch up, whilst also making sure each team member was used to their full potential. I shan't name any names but I'm incredibly proud of one team member in particular whom I worked on the previous project with too, they showed a massive improvement, and their efforts in this project took them from close to failing the class, to an easy solid pass.
