Nautical Nonsense

Competitive/cooperative party game for 2-4 players on PC -- Senior Production

Nautical Nonsense is a wacky party game for teams of two to compete against each other to claim the Ultimate Treasure.

The game has two primary modes. In the ship battle, teams load cannons and catapults with crazy weapons and attempt to shoot their opponents out of the water. In the island mode, teams wash up at shore and race to gather supplies while avoiding hazards.

Creating this game helped us all learn to work on larger teams (eleven people compared to three to five from previous years).

Nautical Nonsense was created in the Unity engine. I joined this team primarily as a producer, and secondarily as a designer. I was the team's primary QA liaison, and I did some work as a programmer.

• 25 week project; 13 weeks on team
• Organized the team through scrum adapted to the team's practices
• Facilitated constant communication within and outside the team
• Planned, ran, and summarized QA sessions
• Developed, adjusted, and balanced ammunition and damage
• Prototyped the catapult, developing basic mechanics for later iteration
• Created a system that allowed the game to play a trailer while idle

2Plicity

Asymmetrical co-op exploration game for 2 players on PC -- Junior Production

2plicity is all about taking two players and giving them the same goal, but different ways of playing the game.

The Agent plays a puzzle platforming game. The player uses a grappling hook to navigate the gamespace, with the ultimate goal of retrieving confidential documents.

By contrast, the Operative is a support role providing information about the level layout and manipulating highlighted portions of the environment.

2plicity was created in the Unity engine. My primary role on this team was as producer, though I also picked up tasks as a designer and programmer.

• 14 week project; 9 weeks on team
• Organized the team through scrum practices
• Facilitated constant communication within and outside the team
• Planned, ran, and summarized QA sessions
• Assisted in level design and first-pass implementation
• Created a shader to highlight interactable items on the Operative's screen
• Created a shader to blur the Agent in white noise on the Operative's screen

Infinite Night

Competitive adventure game for 2 players on PC -- Senior Capstone

Infinite Night is a head-to-head combat and exploration game for two players.

Players take on the role of cavemen warriors who must keep their clan's bonfire lit. Clans live on opposite sides of a large canyon; finding the enemy and their bonfire is just the first step to winning the match.

Players can gather fuel (a long, red, plant-like thing) and water-filled mushrooms around the canyon. Strategy revolves around the player's choice of aggression or defense; a player who strikes quickly can steal resources, but a well-defended bonfire may not fall while the aggressor's burns out.

Infinite Night was created in Unreal Engine 4. My primary role on this team was as producer, and I also acted as QA liaison and designer.

• 12 week project
• Organized the team through scrum practices
• Facilitated communication and coordinated work across multiple prototypes
• Planned, ran, and summarized QA sessions
• Researched, documented, and presented preproduction details such as market analysis, player demographics, etc.
• Prototyped and implemented game mechanics in tandem with product owner

SystemS Design

My focus as a designer is on creating and maintaining systems that fit a theme and create an experience. It's always most important that these systems can be adjusted later in the development process as the game matures.

Team Leadership

Despite my major, my practical experience has largely been in production management. I am certified as a scrum master and product owner, and I use those skills to keep teams organized, focused, and in constant communication.
 

Quality Assurance

Champlain College has a QA lab for all of our games. I've brought games to be tested on a weekly basis (or more) and grown skilled in crafting usable feedback forms and summarizing test sessions for the team.

Game Balance

Through careful observation, communication with QA testers, and experience with spreadsheets, I balance things like damage numbers, reload time, movement speed, etc. Efficiency in this area comes from my attention to detail and ability to predict domino effects.

Game Programming

To supplement my major, I have earned a minor in Game Programming. I have experience in the Unity and Unreal engines. My most recent experience is in C# and C++, with some time in GLSL. Previously, I have worked in Ruby and Python.

Rapid Prototyping

One of the basic skills of a designer is to present an idea in a way others can interact with it and the designer can test it. The priority here is quickly creating the basic experiences using digital or physical media.