Game Design
10+ years of publishing games, winning game jams, and facilitating awkward yelling in public.
In the future I’d like more opportunities to improve existing game designs, or create them from scratch. My unique ability with game design is transposing feelings to mechanics, but also hunting down and fixing critical game design problems.
Games on page: Twilight Tower, Meta Form, AaaAaAaAhhHhH, The Abandoned, Kickochet, Cereus, ProtoDash, Deckest Dungeon, 10 Minutes to Y2K, Skylands, Reach, NEGATIVE, SIWOTI, Ro Sham Bot, Skeleboarder, Misc
Twilight Tower started as a color palette game jam featured by Itch.io, various festivals, and turned into a multi-year project with a team of five and many publishers expressing interest. Roles: game design, UI, some writing, team leadership and, some programming.
Published on Itch.io. Created during early COVID era, about the feeling of being trapped inside, escapist desires, different perspectives, and grappling with existential dread in an absurdist way. Favorite fan comment: “made me cry.” The game mechanic is about obtaining and combining words to unlock progression. I did the game design, writing, programming, UI, music – everything but the illustration. Part of the Ukraine and Abortion support bundles on Itch.io that raised millions. Featured in Indiepocalypse issue #12.
AaaAaAaAhhHhH was originally created for the 2020 GMTK Game Jam theme “Out of Control” in 12 hours and was placed top 100 by community voting. I have since been approached twice to have this game displayed in large festivals in Germany. This was a solo project and utilized a color palette tool I made.
The Abandoned started as an experiment to create a “unique look” for a game with the illustrator c0hil and eventually combined with an accuracy RPG mechanic I was experimenting with. After presenting the game at Dreamhack, Disco Elysium changed the way I thought about games and I eventually moved on to other projects. Would love to come back to this concept one day.
After “winning” the 2019 GMTK Game Jam, we decided to turn Kickochet into a full game to strike while the iron was hot. The team, originally gathered for the fun of a game jam, proved to be too unwieldly as the scope grew too large and COVID became a reality. Development stopped. The game is still great and loaded with fun mechanics – it’s just unfinished. I did the game design, programming, project management, UI, and video production.
After making several small games, it was time to learn how to market and launch an official game. Of course, I had to over-scope and also completely redo the game design twice. It launched on Google Play, App Store, and was presented at CasualConnect in Disneyland. While the game might not look like much, fans praised the game design and maintained a 5 star rating. Every game made after stands on Cereus’s shoulders. What I did: Everything.
ProtoDash is a one button game where you charge up and release a dash to fight robots. Your landing point does more damage based on how accurately it centers with the position of the robot you dash to. Game jam version was 34th place overall.
“It has that sort of addictive, simple charm that plenty of people enjoy picking up.”
“Good Game, Good Graphics, Great Concept – 9/10”
“the game design is awsome”
“Very fun game. Would buy if you guys decided to come out with a version with more levels and concepts. Keep up the great work!”
“This game has flair and style in small ways, but in just enough ways to make it addictive without sacrificing its core simplicity.”
“You’re certainly able to make an engaging, smooth, visually exciting game.”
After playing a lot of Gwent in Witcher 3, I just had to make my own card game and I co-opted a Ludum Dare jam to do it. I eventually made a post-jam cleaned up version and was able to sell a non-exclusive license. I did the game design and programming. One of my most popular games. Ludum Dare game jam version earned 12th place in Graphics.
10 Minutes to Y2K was a small two week project with a couple other developers from the Society of Play (online game development group). I learned a lot about collaboration with good programmers and this ultimately led me to decide to focus on game design and team up with other programmers. I did the UI design and programming, as well as co-game design and initial game design docs.
Bonus content: An early UI experiment to test making a PSX style interface.
A quick preview of some games I’d love to blab more about, but this page could go on forever if they each had their own section.
Skylands
A puzzle game where you create and destroy tiles from a limited amount of seeds to make it to the exit. It might have been the first game I designed that started to break through into the upper percentage of Ludum Dare entries. Was also probably the formalization of my process that a game designs itself as you build it.
I worked on a sequel for awhile that used a hex grid instead, but ultimately decided to move on as puzzle games aren’t a primary interest.
I did the game design, programming, and co-designed the levels.
Reach
I turned the feeling of a trampoline into a game. It started as a terrible version for Ludum Dare, but I fixed it up over a month and it ended up top of r/webgames for a day.
I did everything but the music.
NEGATIVE
I always had an idea to make a game where the events in the entire game are in time with the background music. I approached a musician on Twitter to make a track for this purpose and was surprised to recieve a 17 minute track with several movements. You press a button to switch between black and white and can pass through walls of the opposing color. There is a high amount of variety in the level design, each created to match the mood of the music.
I’m honestly very proud of this game and still sad this game didn’t get more attention, but I understand.
I did everything but the music.
Someone is Wrong on the Internet
Based on a study that people will defend arguments they don’t fully agree with if challenged, I came up with a concept of a simple antonym game with a goofy over-the-top anime dressing about arguing with strangers on the internet.
I did the game design, art direction, programming, UI.
Ro Sham Bot
A paper/rock/scissors game design where you can take the form of one of three enemies that have an advantage and a weakness to one of the other enemies. I made a lot of mistakes and this jam taught me a lot about how to properly design a game for a jam. Made for Ludum Dare.
I did the game design, level design, and programming.
Skeleboarder
One of the first gamejams I ever did. One of a handful of jams I hosted at my own house with a group of friends who each came up with an idea and then voted. I think the game design was supposed to something like Sonic.
I did the programming and level design.
