PROFICIENCIES
Project Management
Project Management
Both in professional non-game development environments, as well as in multiple student projects during my time studying game development, I have managed teams of cross discipline team members to effectively complete projects within provided parameters and time constraints. While I have used a variety of tools to complete these goals, I understand that the key component to effective project management is good and open 360 degree communication. This allows realistic and achievable goals to be set for individual tasks. Here you can see an example of my project management, with Gantt charts and Kanban
Both in professional non-game development environments, as well as in multiple student projects during my time studying game development, I have managed teams of cross discipline team members to effectively complete projects within provided parameters and time constraints. While I have used a variety of tools to complete these goals, I understand that the key component to effective project management is good and open 360 degree communication. This allows realistic and achievable goals to be set for individual tasks. Here you can see an example of my project management, with Gantt charts and Kanban
PRODUCTION
Project Management
Both in professional non-game development environments, as well as in multiple student projects during my time studying game development, I have managed teams of cross discipline team members to effectively complete projects within provided parameters and time constraints. While I have used a variety of tools to complete these goals, I understand that the key component to effective project management is good and open 360 degree communication. This allows realistic and achievable goals to be set for individual tasks. Here you can see an example of my project management, with Gantt charts and Kanban views.
Production Documentation
Writing good documentation is essential to any production. Throughout my studies in game design, one of my core foci has been refining my ability to create excellent production documentation. Whether it is a production plan, asset requirement list, team SWOT analysis or post mortem documentation, I have been able to provide documentation which is easily readable by the target audience, while providing a good source of information for the interested parties.
Pitch Presentation
A good presentation can make or break a game concept. In order to make myself invaluable in this space, I have written and designed numerous pitch presentations, modifying the style to suit the purpose and audience of the presentation. From slide decks and scripts to narrated interactive gameplay presentations, I have been able to write, and design engaging and purposeful pitches. In addition to this, my excellent verbal communication skills and public speaking abilities provide a solid basis to deliver these pitches, and assist others in their delivery.
Design Documentation
While already touched on in the production section, documentation is one of my strongest points. Starting from early in my studies, I strived to provide excellent documentation in all aspects of design and production. As these documents are the source of truth providing direction to other designers as well as artists and programmers, the ability to create thorough design documentation, while maintaining readability, is essential to any game designer. I have provided some documentation here that illustrates my abilities in this space.
Mechanics Design
Crafting engaging mechanics is a core skill for any versatile game designer. Over the course of my studies, I have been challenged to create mechanics that are deep and robust, but accessible, engaging and fun. In addition to this, communicating these mechanics to the player in a simple and informative way without detracting from the overall experience, is very important to the user experience.
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I have attempted to cover a wide variety of genres in my studies, to encourage myself to think about what makes games within different genres fun for those who enjoy them and how to design mechanics to fulfil that desire. This is then used as the framework of all design decisions to create a cohesive experience, tailored to the target audience of the design.
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This includes thinking through exactly what should happen when the player does something, how it should look, sound and feel, how consistent (or not) the results of the players action should be, what feedback should be presented to the player, and how all these decisions add to, or detract from, the intended experience.
Sound Design
Sound effects and music are a huge contributor to the aesthetic of a game. Well chosen sounds that fit within the games' aesthetic greatly enhance the experience for the player. Conversely, sounds that contrast with the feel of the game will bring the player out of the experience, providing a sense of discordance.
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The skills of composing, editing and mixing sounds and music is crucial to providing the best possible experience for players. As one of my core proficiencies, exercising my skills in this area long before learning game design, I am well versed in using composition and editing software to create, compose, mix and balance sound to ensure that sound and music fit well within the game.
Level Design
Creating levels that are interesting and have good pacing is extremely important to providing an engaging and fun experience to players. I have learned to understand how the ebb and flow of a level, leaving room for narrative, and encouraging player exploration are all important aspects of level design. Equally important is my understanding of how different styles of games and mechanics within those games require different approaches to level design.
I have aimed to provide players with challenges which utilise all aspects of the core game mechanics, encouraging players to engage with the mechanics created in interesting ways to overcome those challenges. Sometimes, this calls for differing sections within or across levels to provide a diverse range of challenges, other times this can be simply utilising the level design to communicate progression to the player.
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For me, all this begins with deciding what the purpose of a level is, designing the level to fulfil that purpose, then blocking out the level in engine and testing to ensure that purpose is achieved. Finally, working with environment artists to ensure that the aesthetic of the level contributes to the purpose.
User Interface Design
Designing user interface that effectively communicates everything required to the player, while remaining readable and unobtrusive, is a skill worth pursuing. I have learned much during my studies about how user interface relates to user experience and how to craft user interfaces that communicate information to the player well and with the lowest possible effort required by the player. This has involved the use of both diegetic and non-diegetic interfaces, and commonly, a combination of the two.
I have also learned how the use of user interface within a virtual reality environment compared to a more traditional game is wildly different, in fact the same can be said about the different genres of games and the expectations of the availability and display of information between different game types.
Narrative Design
Even the most straightforward games benefit from good narrative. Narrative can be a deep engaging story which encourages the player to see it through to the end, or can simply provide the player with the context of their actions. Without that context, it is much harder to keep a player engaged with your game. Some games do a great job of encouraging players to forge their own narratives, but the rest owe much of their success to a skilled narrative designer.
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Part of my study was dedicated to forging narrative. Learning how to provide the direction that the story will take, introducing the twists and turns, providing player options and agency within the boundaries of the narrative, actions and consequence and moral dilemmas and resolutions are all part of my narrative toolkit. I have also learned to use specialised software to better and more cohesively design narrative, tracking characters, items, locations and decisions, even simulating mechanics such as global variables to ensure the narrative is free of plot holes.
Economy Design
One of the less 'exciting' but extremely important parts of game design is designing economies. This could be as obvious as using currency to purchase items, or sometimes less obvious such as, how many hits the player can take before dying. How many spells they can cast before running out of mana. All of these are economies and need to be designed and balanced.
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I have learned to use tools to simulate these economies, allowing me to tweak and balance these values with confidence, helping me to ensure the most positive experience possible for the player.
Unreal Blueprints Visual Scripting
After my first year in the diploma course, I endeavoured to learn as much about Unreal as possible. Where possible, I attempted to steer development of projects to use Unreal, to get a firm understanding of the engine and the strengths and weaknesses compared to Unity. As a result of this, I have learned how to do many things in the engine including:
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​Player actions and movement
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Control scheme implementation
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Camera manipulation
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Game and world state manipulation
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Actor actions and manipulation
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Creation and integration of gameplay systems
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Physics and collision
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UI implementation
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Sound and music implementation
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VFX implementation
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Video playback implementation
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Cutscene (level sequence) implementation
Unity C# Written Scripting
In the first year of my studies, game production was performed exclusively in the Unity engine. As such, I was required to get a firm understanding of C# scripting to allow me to create effective prototypes. Through this experience, I learned how to perform a wide variety of tasks including:
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Player actions and movement
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Control scheme implementation
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Camera manipulation
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Actor actions and manipulation
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Basic AI states
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Creation and integration of gameplay systems
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Game state and world manipulation
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Physics and collision
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UI Implementation
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Animation states
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Sound and music implementation