Arté: Lumière

Arté: Lumière explores France at the end of the 19th century, when traditional academic art gave way to the modern, with the birth of the impressionist movement. In the game, the player takes on the role of an art dealer who has come to secure Ernest Messonier’s Friedland, but is drawn in to the world of such artists as Éduoard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Gustave Courbet, and others. The player takes on quests for a variety of figures, with most involving one of three minigames - a quiz game, where the player has to complete sentences in response to questions; a card game, where the player has to match cards based on shared traits, like artist and genre; and a gallery contest, where the player puts together their own displays centered around a theme.

Lumière began as a prototype in the Texas A&M LiveLab. I mentored the students through several iterations of the minigames and the structure of the quest system before the prototype was delivered to Triseum. From there, I reworked the narrative and wrote most of the dialogue, with the help of an expert in art history, and managed a small team of designers in the implementation of the various minigame levels and quests.

I’ve included a video of a couple of quests that illuminate the various aspects of the game.

Duties included:

• Managing designers, establishing pipelines and quality standards for the quests and minigame levels

• Working with the art and engineering teams to schedule and scope the project

• Working with engineering to define and develop needed tools

• Working with the Texas A&M LiveLab to create the prototype and write the initial documentation

• Writing the overall narrative, as well as the dialogue for acts II & III, ensuring that it met the established student learning objectives while being entertaining and immersive

• Scripting multiple quests and minigame levels

Scenario 3 - Funerary Practices script

Arté: Hemut

Arté: Hemut teaches the player about Egyptian art history using the mechanics of a deck-building game. The project began at the Texas A&M LiveLab, where I mentored the students through the development of a prototype. At first, we weren’t sure what genre the game should be, but then I introduced them to deck-building games like the Legendary series, Ascension, and others. From there, we developed a game where the player collects cards through a variety of scenarios that test their knowledge of Egyptian art and history. They then use those cards to fight against the forces of chaos. The prototype was brought into Triseum where it was iterated on and polished.

I have included a link to a video showing a small portion of the card game as well as an early draft of a scenario about Egyptian funerary rites.

Duties included:

• Managing designers, establishing pipelines and quality standards, as well as documentation templates for the scenarios and cards

• Working with the art and engineering teams to schedule and scope the project

• Working with engineering to define and develop needed tools

• Working with the Texas A&M LiveLab to create the prototype and write the initial documentation

• Writing and revising scenarios focused on specified learning objectives that were also fun

Variant: Limits

Variant: Limits is a unique game that teaches the player about fundamental calculus concepts while having fun. After working in the entertainment space for many years, I wanted to work on something that wasn’t just entertaining, but would help others reach their full potential. It was an interesting challenge bringing design concepts we take for granted in the industry and apply them to the academic approach. It turns out that, in many ways, educators and designers use the same techniques to teach players, but we call them by different names. One of the biggest challenges we faced was ensuring that the game could approached by anyone, regardless of their level of gaming experience. To borrow from Stan Lee, every game is someone’s first.

As senior game designer, my duties included:

• Managing a team of designers, teaching them new documentation techniques and strategies, and introducing them to game design concepts

• Working with the art and engineering teams to schedule and scope the project

• Working with in-house and outsourced engineering teams to define and develop needed tools

• Writing documentation for multiple systems, as well as for the narrative of the game

• Working with contractors to deliver assets and documentation

• Designing and implementing the Centroid level, the tutorial introducing players to the world of Variant (see video)

Assassin's Creed Bloodlines

07. Memory Block #7

In this short denouement for Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, Altair and Maria must escape the Templar archives as an earthquake rips it apart. The idea was to present a very dramatic race against time (starts at 7:03).

Where The Wild Things Are

Part 1

This video is on the long side. It features the entire first level of Where the Wild Things Are, including the tutorial. I was brought into the production cycle late, but I was still able to place my stamp on this level, as well as many others.