Game: Unreal Tournament 3 (Total Conversion)

Description: Play Soldier is a third person shooter that combines crazy weapons and frenzied combat to create a feeling of fun, frenzied excitement for the player. Players control a plastic action figure being played with by a 6-year-old boy in his living room. Through the power of Billy's imagination, the action figure comes to life and it is up to the player to defeat the evil toys of big sister Bernice.

The high concept of Play Soldier is "Explosions are fun." The player's primary weapon is a rocket launcher that can fire up to 50 red, white, and blue rockets at a time. The rockets do devastating damage on much of the environment in the game. Players blow up cars, statues and scenery, sending shrapnel flying.

The unique hook in the game is the use of imagination. A living room is a boring place to play, so Billy imagines cardboard boxes sitting on the carpet turning into towering skyscrapers in a city under attack by the forces of girlitude.

Players have a single bar on the HUD to manage, the excitement meter. The player's goal is to keep that meter up by causing destruction and blowing up enemies, which gets Billy excited. The player gets around the open world environment with the help of Billy and his flicking finger. A quick flick on the butt sends the player rag-dolling through the air for comic effect.

The more excited Billy gets, the more powerful the player's weapon becomes. When the player builds up enough excitement, the player can ask Billy to help him out by calling in a toy T-Rex to stomp on enemies. This unusual take on the shooter genre is an unforgettable experience.

Role: Game Designer/Producer/Concept Designer

Tasks:

• Created and successfully pitched the game idea.
• Designed all gameplay and systems around a predefined core concept
• Created a production schedule and worked to create an asset list manageable within the 16 week time frame.
• Created and maintained Game Design Document throughout project
• Coordinated with other leads to keep the project on schedule and down to a reasonable scope.
• Managed all testing tasks including bug testing, playtesting, and balance testing
• Designed and created the menu interface with integrated full-motion video.
• Managed creation and implementation of 30 in-game sounds.
• Supported level design department by creating building templates and prefabs.
• Supported the art department by modeling simple art assets in 3D Studio Max

Team Size: 17 (7 Artists, 3 Programmers, 7 Designers)

Development Time: 16 weeks

Intended Delivery Date:  December 17, 2009

 Game: Unreal Tournament 3 (Total Conversion)

Description: Harvest is a multiplayer mod pitting a large team of humans against a small team of powerful, wall climbing, super jumping nightmare creatures. 

Set in a steam punk world, the humans have to prevent the coming of the Swarm hanging like a sickening cloud overhead by releasing steam into the air from nodes around the map. The opposing faction known as the Lurkers, are trying to kill the humans to feed the Swarm.  It is a game of few versus many. The weaker humans have to take on the powerful Lurkers in groups with cannons that spray superheated steam. Players seperated from the group are easy prey.

The Lurkers can climb up walls and can pounce on the humans, knocking them down. They also have the ability to drop a teleportation husk that the Lurker can use to transport away from trouble.

It was a major design challenge to balance teams abilities so different in power. It was a constant process of tweaking metrics to get the game balanced. 

Role: Producer/Sound Designer

Tasks:

• Created a production schedule and worked to create an asset list manageable within the 16 week time frame.
• Lacking a dedicated game designer on staff, led team brainstorming sessions to come up with the game mechanics, story, art style and level designs.
• Created and maintained Game Design Document throughout project
• Coordinated with other leads to keep the project on schedule and down to a reasonable scope.
• Managed all testing tasks including bug testing, playtesting, and balance testing
• Designed and created the menu interface.
• Managed creation and implementation of all game sounds.
• Supported level design department by creating building templates and prefabs.
• Supported the art department by creating textures.

Team Size: 9 (3 Artists, 2 Programmers, 4 Designers)

Development Time: 8 weeks

Intended Delivery Date:  March 16, 2009