Just Golf
Equipped with clubs and an assortment of weaponized golf balls, players fight in a chaotic 2v2 setting to score the most points.
Just Golf is a networked competitive team-based game where teams of two compete on a themed course. Players can use various ability balls to disrupt their opponents or use support-based balls to aid their teammate. Using 3 types of clubs, players maneuver through the course trying to score more points than the opposing team.
Development
I was onboarded to the team known as Wired Visions as a level designer during the my second semester senior year..
With other level designers, we were tasked with creating new levels for the game.
Originally, we were going to have two feature levels. Each one had a theme that characterize the environment and obstacles.
During the conceptualization stage, we came up with two themes.
The level that I planned featured a Mesozoic Era themed. It featured various hazards such as a stomping sauropod and lava flows. The concept was well received by the team and it was initially planned to make it into the game.
Unfortunately due to scope and time constraints, my level was cut so that our efforts could be focused on the already started underwater level.
The level terrain was created in Unity and the structures of the map were blocked out using the Probuilder tool.
We did this to get feedback on the planned level geometry as soon as possible.
A common misconception with the underwater level was that everyone outside the team thought it was actually meant to be underwater with the appropriate physics and the like. We quickly set out to make the level appear as manmade as possible.
We added many props such as physical entrances to the course, automated props, and many others to better contextualize the environment.
While my primary focus was dedicated toward level design tasks, I got the opportunity to stretch my writing muscles and write content for the game. I wrote the initial tutorial dialogue, many of the superlative badges and the descriptions for ability balls.
Wired Visions
Sidetracked
A narrative game created in virtual reality.
Sidetracked is a VR narrative game where you are a train conductor in a realm of lost souls. These lost souls will board the train and engage in conversation with the player. The player can influence the emotions of the soul through their interactions and change the outcome of the story. In the end, the way that the player responds to the lost soul will either help bring peace to their mind or send them further into the depths of the Limbo.
Development
This game was created during the first semester of my senior year at Champlain College.
Our team for Sidetracked included several individuals, myself included, that had worked on Nomad. We had decided that since we worked very well together then, we want to keep some of the team together to create another cool game.
With a couple new additions to the team, we had decided early on that we wanted to try and create a VR game.
It was a unique and challenging experience for me, who had never worked with virtual reality before. But, after learning how it worked with Unity, I learned that it was not really all that different from game development that I had done before.
On this team, I served as the lead narrative and as well as level designer. I worked from the ground-up in creating the world of Sidetracked. I spent hours researching various cultures and religions to formulate a homogenized version of Limbo to keep the game marketable.
The context for the world that I developed revolved around the mysterious beings known as conductors. These conductors fulfilled the role of escorting souls to their final destination. A servant of someone in higher position of authority. Conductors simply completed their tasks without any regard to the plights of their passengers. Until, a wandering spirit “opens the mind” of the conductor that serves as the vessel for the player.
Now being able to see and understand, the player, as the conductor could judge for themselves if the souls they encountered deserved to be saved or not.
The dialogue for the game was created with several branches that the player would be taken on based on their responses to the soul’s story. The system we initially came up with was too large and way out of scope for the time we had. So my producer and I worked tirelessly to simplify the dialogue system. We were successful and three definitive emotional routes were developed and could be seamlessly transitioned with other tracks through the use of nodes and splines.
Along with the world itself, I wrote all of the dialogue featured within the game. Due to issues of scope, the initial story that I wrote for the game was cut and I had to quickly create a shorter story that conveyed the experience of the game to the player. I was able to come up with two introductory stories that would get the player acquainted with the game mechanics and it established the framework for additional stories to be implemented in the future.
For those interested, I included PDF files of the cut story and the new introduction that was implemented into the game, here for viewing.
Meet the team.
Alpha 07
A unique adventure created through Twine.
In Alpha 07, play as a genetically engineered creature that escapes from its holding facility into the wilds of the Californian Redwoods.
Alpha 07 offers multiple story paths to explore. Players can choose to be an elusive hunter, a guardian of the forest, or even all consuming predator.
This story allows players to see the world through another lens. A creature of unnatural birth and creation, introduced to wild with numerous variables that will affect how the creature sees itself as an inhabitant of the ecosystem.
Click on the button to download the html file.
Open with Firefox or Google Chrome to play.
Development
This was my last assignment for my Advanced Seminar in Game Narrative.
For the story, I want to make it from a unique perspective. I wanted players to see the world through the eyes of animal. In this case, a genetically engineered one.
The titular character, Alpha 07, starts off with a basic intelligence that eventually grows to understand all the new objects and organisms it interacts with in the redwoods.
I conveyed this by using basic descriptions for everyday things like trees and eventually through the story, Alpha 07 would understand what trees were and would acknowledge them as such.
I also created alternate paths that the player would take by choosing certain actions for Alpha 07 over others. I created these branches because it seemed only nature that the development of a creature born in a research facility for biowarfare could develop in different ways based on its experience in a world unknown to it.
I created the entire story and scripted it in Twine. I also polished it with sounds effects and music.
The entire narrative was created by me, along with the scripting components that made everything work.
Nomad
A platforming adventure game in a desolate world.
Midmortem trailer for Nomad.
Nomad is a platforming adventure game where you are the last member of an alien race whose industrial conquests have decimated the entire planet. A once verdant grassland world turned to sand and stone. The player traverses the difficult terrain of the world using a damaged weapon called a Lancer, that was developed during the prime of the alien civilization. Uncovering the history of their people hidden throughout the canyons and deserts, the nomad encounters a massive creature called an Etherean. Suffering from infectious crystal growths on its hide, the player makes amends for past misdeeds by removing the crystals with their damaged Lancer.
Development
Myself and a few other individuals banded together under the studio name, Glass Cannon Games to make what is shown here. This project was created to fulfill our Junior Production course at Champlain College.
Initially when the project began, we had only a week to prototype the game mechanics. Then, we were given an additional two weeks to get the project in a presentable state before showcasing it to the entire Champlain game studio. The midmortem trailer you see above was the project of three weeks.
Level Design Document for the “Ruffalo Canyon” level.
After midmortem, our game along with a few others were given the green-light to continue development and to add additional team members.
On this team, I served as the lead narrative and level designer. I worked extensively with the team artist and our lead producer to help visualize and provide context to this unique world.
Our leader producer and I co-wrote the entire premise of the world of Nomad. An alien race determined to make their fuel source last created a crystal pathogen that infected the Etherean beasts roaming the planet. The Ethereans were then killed en mass and their crystals were harvested to be refined for fuel. Killing the Ethereans had a severely detrimental effect on the planet’s ecosystem. Said ecosystem eventually collapsed and the alien civilization was wiped out along with it.
Thanks to the lancer, the player was able to explosively launch themselves into the air to traverse cliffs and gaps. In conjunction with this is the glider, which allowed players to continue to extend their air time. I made the level design work hand in hand with the mechanics, wide spaces and open air were plentiful so players could completely utilize their tools. The lancer movement and the environment would be continually iterated on to solve problems such as players leaving the map and not using the glider to any extent.
Along the path, I placed points of interests that would give players a hint or glimpse about the past history of the world. These narrative points came in the form of stone murals and could be found in various points across the map.
Glass Cannon Games Studio
Phanerozoica
A narrative adventure game made with Twine
Play through a series of three stories set approximately one-hundred years in the future from now, where the human population has expanded throughout nearly every continent of the world to the point where wildlife reserves and other animal sanctuaries have been decimated to accommodate the masses.
A series of islands, hidden from the rest of the world provide refuge for the last animals on Earth.
Life, both ancient and modern exist in relative peace.
However, even the best kept secrets get out eventually and the world will learn of this Eden. One way or another.
Click on the button to download the html file.
Open with Firefox or Google Chrome to play.
Development
This project was my final assignment for my Interactive Storytelling course at Champlain College. We were tasked with creating a interactive story with plenty of options for the player to explore and engage with. I decided to work with Twine since I was familiar with its scripting process and had some previous experience with it.
The kind of story was something I had wanted to write for a long time so I took this chance to actually experiment with it. I love animals of all varieties, but what if they all were gone. Extinct because of human active. How would that feel? This is what I set out to accomplish.
At the same time, I wanted to show that there was some hope in the world. That life continues on, with the help of people more sympathetic. Not only that, life long extinct would also return thanks to advanced technology. This all wrapped together for a narrative that has kinship with stories like Jurassic Park.
So I set out with the goal to create three different stories within the game world. We had around two months to do this, so I was confidant that this was in-scope for me to tackle.
Each story had to be written, scripted in engine, and polished with effects.
The entire narrative and dialogue was created by me, along with the scripting components that made everything connect.
A majority of the art in the game was created by ABelov2014 and Angie Rodrigues.
Life Among Lions
An educational game for young children to learn about the Maasai and their Lion Guardians.
Life Among Lions is a single-player click and drag game where the player is a Maasai lion guardian whose job is to protect the lives of both animal and human.
The game features art that draws inspiration from traditional Maasai art and is combined with elements of mobile art to deliver a sense of authenticity.
Players accomplish this goal by clicking on Maasai herders and redirecting them away from lions roaming in the area.
In the same vein, players also have to protect the lions by catching poachers. Who will try to hunt and kill the lions.
The player wins if they managed to keep their life count from reaching zero and lasting through the set time.
If you would like to learn more about the Lion Guardians, click on the button below.
Development
This project was one of the earliest projects of my Champlain College career.
I was assigned to a team with several other individuals to create an educational game that informs the players about an approved, specific aspect of a contemporary, under-represented group or culture. The target demographic for the game was 1st-3rd graders within the age range of 6-9 years old.
During our initial meetings, we batted around several ideas before eventually coming around the Maasai and the Lion Guardians. After discovering their efforts to promote positive values, we knew we all came to the conclusion that this was a group that more could stand to learn about.
The ultimate goal of Life Among Lions was to educate the player about the organization and the Maasai culture. Life Among Lions was made to help educate children. If we have pursued this project further, it would have been marketed towards schools and parents looking to expand their children's worldly views.
My part in this project revolved mostly around research and documentation, to make sure we were getting the most accurate picture of Maasai culture and society. I also helped with quality-assurance testing and collecting free source sound effects and music.
Meet the team behind Life Among Lions.
