(This is still under construction)
Portfolio
Finished Projects
Shot in the Dark
Shot in the Dark is a small box card game I independently developed over the last 2 years. In October of 2023, I sold the game to Steve Jackson Games, and they plan to release it in November 2024.
Inspired by games such as Cosmic Encounter and the Magic: The Gathering Commander format, Shot in the Dark features an emphasis on clever plays, hand management, and table politics. Its development involved exploring the mechanics that are common to card games and creating interesting twists on those mechanics while maintaining a simple and fun player experience.
Days Without Strife
Days Without Strife is an online, asynchronous game of war, diplomacy, and intrigue for over 20 players that takes place over a week of real time in the background of your life.
Players take on the role of either a 3-player faction trying to conquer the map or a solo wildcard who sells their unique services to the factions. This unusual interlocking of objectives makes for an interesting long-form experience where every player has their own part to play in an evolving mechanical ecosystem.
For more information on ongoing playtests, please check the Days Without Strife page.
Asynchronous
Asynchronous is my current project in my degree’s capstone studio class. For this project I am leading a team of 5 other students in the development of a real-time/turn-based hybrid game that focuses on the theme of cultural assimilation. We chose to express our theme through the game mechanic of having a real-time protagonist adapting to a turn-based culture.
In the style of a JRPG, the player must engage in turn-based battles, though the player controls their own character in real time and is penalized for acting out of turn. The player must decide when to conform to the culture vs use their own style. Expressing complex emotions through game mechanics is a special interest of mine, and this project has been a great opportunity to experiment with that concept with a more serious theme and as project leader, it has been an exciting challenge coordinating the efforts of my team towards one central goal.
Wildling Rumble
Wildling Rumble is a project I am developing alongside a partner in KSU’s Novel Game Design Lab under Dr. Henrik Warpefelt. The project is an experiment that combines tabletop and digital games into a novel hybrid.
The game is primarily a tabletop experience that uses Near Field Communication cards and a digital app with an attached reader to enable additional features. Players take on the role of creature trainers, gaining ownership over their unique “Wildlings” as they see their cards come to life on the companion app.
Early Work
Warcraft 3
I spent much of my youth (perhaps too much) playing around with as many level editors and map making programs that I could find. I was always excited to find a game that let the players mess around with the mechanics and create new levels, and my favorite has always been the Warcraft 3 World Editor. It featured an excellent blend of easy to use but deep and powerful features and a large library of assets. I made dozens of maps with the program and inflicted them on my generally non-RTS-playing friends, but sadly few of them survive to this day.
Game Maker: Studio
Once I found myself outgrowing the limitations of what level editors could do for me, I turned to Game Maker: Studio to continue my designs. As I could no longer rely on a base game providing many of the features, these prototypes were much more barebones, graphically. The most painful note was the loss of professional netcode I had enjoyed while making maps in Warcraft 3, so I instead focused on making local multiplayer games for up to 4 players with controllers. Again, my younger self has misplaced many of these prototypes, but I carry the themes and ideas I was experimenting with into the more advanced projects I am working on today with Unity and other more specialized technologies.