Reboot is a multiplayer first person shooter that focuses on a freeze-tag style of gameplay. Teams work together to try and freeze all the players on the opposite team. This particular game is the only one in the list where I was part of a team. Together we were able to realize a much larger game than could only be accomplished with a single person, and as the level designer on this game I worked with UDK to create the arena based levels appropriate for a multiplayer game. I drew some inspiration from Halo and Quake for the level designs and adapted those ideas to fit the extremely fast paced gameplay seen in Reboot.

Connection is a hotseat multi-player strategy game where the player’s goal is to gain the most points by the end of the round.

I liked the thought of a multi-player strategy game that used a hotseat style of gameplay in this modern age of network gaming. And to reach the end of that thought process, I ended up developing a game idea that used nodes to basically emulate a territory control game.  

Using both lasers and nodes to try and control the opponent’s use of his own nodes was fun to experiment with. And after many playtest sessions, I can say that I had a satisfying conclusion to this experiment. Watching my friends get into the spirit of competition as they yell at each other for capturing their strong nodes is something I wish every game I made could accomplish.

Crazy Color Cannons is a puzzle game that focuses on keeping the rules simple while haveing the player try to traverse the level. As the player you have control over one thing: the cannons. And by using the cannons, you need to get the ball to the finish marker by shooting both the ball and the walls.

When I first started thinking about this game, all I knew was that I wanted a puzzle game that used colors to dictate the puzzles. After some experimentation I ended up with a game where different colors were the barriers to the finish as well as the solution to the puzzle. Using the cannons to change the colors of the barriers as well as the ball allowed for a fairly large design space, and from there I was able to focus on designing interesting levels that used these mechanics in creative ways 

Ultimate Theft is an RPG that was constructed around stealth elements. The idea was to keep the game very simple and have the player only pay attention to two different stats: speed and stealth. This game is also an experiment with a well balanced increase in difficulty. The idea being that the later levels can not be accomplished without first having done the earlier levels and leveling up. I wanted to give the player a very definite feel of progression and character improvement.

Wormhole is a first person shooter that allows the player to manipulate gravity on objects. With a combination of platforming and shooting it's an adventurous game that explores the mechanics of gravity and first person platforming.  

Wormhole was created as an experiment in the Blender game engine as a test to see whether Blender could be used well for first person shooters. The result wasn't exactly what I wanted, but with a bit more experimentation I think it would have worked out a lot better.

The game itself isn't much of a design feat, and looking back on this project I now think that it would be pretty fun to take this small prototype and polish it into a more complete game with better art and design behind it (especially after going through through DigiPen's rigorous halls) . 

How to Play:

Collect the yellow canisters in order to power up the bar on the bottom left, once enough power has been obtained, the wormhole will open. Find it and walk through.

W, A, S, D : Move the character

Space Bar : Jump

Left Click : Fire Anti-Gravity Shot (only works on red metal objects & used to kill turrets as well)

Right Click : Fire Jump Pad Shot (creates jump pad where bullet hits & doesn’t work on any metal)

Space Trader Is an experiment I wanted to do that involved combining a trading sim with action combat. After having playing Tradewinds I decided it would be cool to move the concept to outer space and add in real time combat with spaceships. The end result of the experiment is far from complete but I think the idea stands.

To move this prototype further and make it into an actual game, I would need to make a more in depth trading system. First off, basic market fluctuation is a must. Then, of course, I’d have to include a customization section for the spacecraft. There’s no point the trading part of the game if there’s nothing useful to spend the money on. All in all, the prototype remains where it stands because making a complex simulation game like this involves much more time and manpower than I have.

How to Play:
mouse : Navigate menus & control ship facing when in combat
w, a, s, d : Move ship when in combat
Space : Fire weapon when in combat
Left Shift : Activate boosters when in combat

Note: When in space combat, you must survive for the indicated time.

VB Golf is a game that I can’t help but put on the list. It was an experiment in trying to make a game in Visual Basic. It ended up working to say the least, and throughout its production I couldn’t help but think about the classic dos games I used to play so long ago.