Student - Games Designer - Writer
Most of the work presented here was done for various University assignments but I have included some personal projects as well.The ideas and game designs presented here are all my own, unless stated otherwise, and are owned and copyrighted by me. The use of and reproduction of images and materials in the various documents is done under Fair Usage and is used to help show my ideas and concepts rather than plagiarise.
All documents are presented in PDF format with some exceptions. My presentations come in both PDF and Keynote files as these were designed in Apple’s Keynote application and various animations, video sections, etc cannot be included in PDFs. Also for my level designs there are two filetypes used. The first are Google SketchUp files (Version 8 and up required to open them). The second are UDK levels (September 2010 version used to create them). Both these applications are available freely from Google and Epic Games respectively.
If you wish to use or reproduce any of the documents on this page or have and questions please feel free to email me. My contact details can be found here.
1st Year Work:
Here are the various presentations I made during the first year of my degree. I am including these to give examples of the progress I have made in the quality of my work over the past three years.
Game Mechanics 2 or PDF Copy
This was the first presentation I had to give. I had to explain the main game mechanics for a game based around the concept of speed and movement. I also had to include a character design and level layout. The game itself was a simple superhero game which saw the player take control of a blue Flash-like character.
Isometric Project or PDF Copy
The brief for this project was to experiment with using an isometric viewpoint in a game. The game I came up with was a very unoriginal Diablo-clone. Not my best idea but it taught me how to use isometric grid paper to help show my game designs.
Non-Conflict Game or PDF Copy & Mood Board
This was a group project to design a game around the idea of not having conflict in a game. My task was to do the characters designs. The presentation covered the various stages of the character design process I used. I have included an image of the mood board I used as a basis for the character designs.
Cinderella or PDF Copy
This is the final presentation for a project on making a game based on a fairy tale. I was given Cinderella and ran with the idea of making a sequel to the well known story while incorporating the history of the fairy tale in other cultures as the through line for the plot. The idea was that it would be Cinderella 2: This Time Its Personal and it would see Cinderella having to become a warrior to save Prince Charming. The presentation contains research, character designs, some game mechanics, some level concepts and a layout for a hub area. The various images for the hub area were used to describe various examples of gameplay during the presentation.
Agent of SPI or PDF Copy
This project needed me to come up with a simple game that could be played in short bursts. The result was this concept for a Facebook game, Agent of SPI. While a fairly solid idea I feel as though it isn’t strong enough to actually become a full game.
Book IP or PDF Copy
This assignment was to take an existing book IP and to turn it into a game. The result was the adaptation of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series of graphic novels. I would say that this was my favourite project during the first year as the source material was rich with detail and the IP proved itself very suitable to be made into a game. I am planning to go back to this idea in the future, refine it and make a full pitch and GDD for it.
End of Year Project:
Pitch Document, Research, GDD and New Pitch Document
This was my big end of year project and my first foray into writing a full game design document. The game itself was a fairly solid idea that borrowed from a few existing games but it was the look and feel for the concept that I am most proud of. Mainly because I am a big fan of retro-science fiction. I also went back and redesigned my original pitch document during my second year of University when I was experimenting with document formatting.
Game Design:
School For Superheroes:
Creating this concept was the first big assignment for my second year. Personally I think it is one of my better game ideas, even though my main focus was on document presentation and formatting I came up with a solid concept and some good mechanics. When it became apparent that there were few games set within schools I ran with the idea.
Pitch Document
I am especially proud of this pitch document because after I handed it in I was told that it was being used to show the third year of students (then the year above me) how to pitch their game ideas.
Research Document
Using the same document formatting the research document covers; superhero comics, superhero games, school based games and open world games. To highlight what works and what does not regarding these larger than life characters and types of games.
Game Design Keynote or PDF Copy
The Keynote shows the main concept, ideas, features and details of the game.
Game Design Document
The GDD that accompanies the Keynote and provides a more in-depth look into the design of the game.
Designing the GDD:
A large chunk of my second year was spent looking at the structure and presentation of game design documents. This involved looking at existing games and retroactively writing a section of that game’s design document.
Checklist
The first step was to use and adapt an existing checklist for planning a GDD and compare it to my final School For Superheroes GDD. To see what I had missed, overlooked or not covered in enough detail.
Controls
Using the classic Street Fighter 2 as an example we had to create the controls section for the game.
The World
This involved looking at Testchamber 2 in Portal and creating the level design document for this particular puzzle. Part of this process was recreating the level in Google SketchUp.
C.T.T:
This was my end of year game design project for the second year. The brief was to design a game for Sony’s NGP (now called PlayStation Vita). It was a challenge because at the time of the assignment there was little information available.
Pitch Document
Pitch document with a similar layout to the School For Superheroes one but with a new design.
Pitch Keynote or PDF Copy
The accompanying Keynote presentation for the Pitch Document, its main function was to help show some of the ideas behind the game in more detail.
Research Document
A short document detailing the known (at the time) specs, functionality and hardware for the NGP.
Game Design Document
The full details and information needed to start making C.T.T into a working game. Perhaps the most comprehensive GDD I have produced so far.
Software & Design:
Level Design Example:
SktechUp File & Design Documentation
The brief for this project was to create a prototype of a multiplayer map for a FPS game using Google SketchUp and to provide documentation explaining my design decisions.
Level Design Implementation:
GreyBox.udk, LDI_Final.udk, Schedule, Video One & Video Two
This assignment was to turn the Google SketchUp design from the previous project into a map made in the Unreal Development Kit. LDI_Final is the version of the level I handed in for marking. While GreyBox is an experimentation space I made to test out the various effects and aspects of UDK I was planing to use. I have also included the project schedule and two short videos so you can get an idea of what the level is like.
Research Papers & Other Documents:
Behavioural Game Design:
Research Document
Using a Cracked.com article as a basis we were tasked with looking into behavioural game design, how it works and the implications of it. The document contains summaries of and thoughts on several articles before coming to my own personal conclusion on the subject.
Unreal Development Kit Notes:
Notes
When we started learning how to use UDK in the second year one of our assignments was to create a glossary of what UDK is, how it works and the basic functions of the development kit. These notes are used by me as reference material when designing levels in UDK.