Sovereign Syndicate
Crimson Herring Studios, Edmonton, AB
September 2021 - October 2023
- Primary Writer for “Sisters in Spirit” path
- Designer: Mechanics and Balance
Sovereign Syndicate an indie RPG produced by Edmonton based studio Crimson Herring.
Release date: January 15, 2024
Apotropaic:
Academic
2020/2021
Game Design
Narrative Design
Prop, Environmental, and UI art
Apotropaic was a vertical slice project created by a team of five over the course of 3 months. Students pitched concepts in December 2020. My pitch, “Apotropaic”, was one of the 4 selected by consensus to move forward. From May 2021 to August 2021, teams of two designers, two programmers, and one artist worked together to create this vertical slice.
Players take control of Eloise, a little girl attempting to survive an onslaught of monsters using apotropaic (folk magic and warding) items.
Creation of a grey box of a capture the flag level for the game Unreal Tournament, using the Unreal Editor. Specifically, themed after 1 of 4 existing mass media franchises (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons, or Star Wars) working to represent the existing IP.
Given that my professor at the time had worked on The Simpsons Hit and Run game, and as a bit of a challenge to myself, I choose the Simpsons. The map is based on the episode “Lemon of Troy” (in which Bart and an assortment of friends venture into the neighboring town of Shelbyville to retrieve a stolen lemon tree), in order to justify the highly symmetrical, or at least precisely balanced, nature of the map that is required for capture the flag levels. One side of the map represents Shelbyville, the other Springfield.
Considerations were taken to calculate the optimal amount of entrances and exits on any given area of the map, dependent on team size, to allow for a variety of escape routes once the enemy team had the flag in hand. Steps were taken to minimize the chance of 0-0 games, or situations in which team re-spawns are poorly placed in comparison to the flag, creating dead lock gameplay within the immediate area of the flag, and of course, the weapon, health, and armor spawns are all semi-symmetrically balanced, and entice players to explore different routes throughout the map, without prioritizing one meta route to or from the flag. The aggregate of the map layout was careful considered, so as to not bottle neck any particular area without reason (i.e. sight lines + cover in that area make for an intentionally likely area a fight will break out). All and all, I had a ton of fun diving deep into the bountiful world of PVP FPS level building and gameplay flow theory for this work.
I feel I achieved a strong balance between suggesting how the level was meant to look, (given that the project was only a grey box), and not eating up copious amounts of time fussing over the art and visuals to the determent of the rest of the project. Both teacher and student reactions to the level were enthusiastic and highly positive, much to my immense joy. I really did have an absolute blast with this project.
Sheridan Game Jam
Academic
Sprint Week was a game jam that took place over five days from March 15-19, 2021. Teams were randomly assigned to one and other, and given a theme upon which to base their game. The theme of our game was the concept of secret keeping and hidden knowledge, and we devised a game about a spy master concocting potions and spells and tipping the balance of a particular kingdom a certain way depending on what house one wanted to thrive, and which they wanted to see suffer and fail.
Each “request” or opportunity brought to the spy master to deal with provides a different narrative outcome for dealing with it in any one of four different ways, and various choices lead to other orders being unlocked or otherwise changed down the road.
Our team worked together quite well, and it was a joy to be able to plan, organize, and produce the various narrative beats, how they would all interweave, how best to subvert player expectations regarding what each spell or potion would do while still feeling fair, and capturing their interest / sparking a desire to explore the narrative beats and play around with the provided systems.
3D Platformer
Academic
This project featured the creation of a 3D platformer using an asset and mechanics pack from the Unity Asset Store. Mechanics featured include bouncy platforms, movable blocks, cling surfaces and an assortment of simple enemy AI to contend with. Standard practises of teach/test/challenge are applied, there are several side paths with optional collectibles, and objectives are spaced in such a way so as to allow breathing room between challenges, and spikes and lulls in difficulty.
All and all I’m quite happy with how the final product turned out, but, as is the case with any learning, can see several areas I’d improve on if given the chance to redo the level from scratch that I’d be more then happy to speak about.
9Lives
Academic
Game Design
Level Design
Narrative Design
9 Lives is a student game, created by a team of two designers, 2 artists, and 1 programmer, which was entered in the Toronto Level Up Showcase 2018, and presented at March Toronto Comicon 2018.
You play as a pampered house cat, who must journey through their past lives using the various magical and mundane powers that each life represents.
Game Design
Sprite Art
Narrative Design
Balance was a game project created by one designer, 2 artists, and one programmer in the summer of 2018.
Balance was thought up as a way to explore the idea of a two player narrative driven game. One player takes the role of Avery, a young woman tracking down monsters to keep her city neighbourhood safe, while the other player takes control of the shadowy super natural presence that has attached itself to her.
Players work together to control a single avatar’s actions, and collaboratively choose events and dialog choices that determine how the story will progress.
