Independent, Academic, and Hobby Games
We Who Linger
We Who Linger is an indie third-person action game about a guardian spirit protecting a small tribe of villagers. I was the creative director of this project, managing a team of 27 artists, designers, programmers, sound engineers, composers, and producers. It was developed for Xbox One, PC, and Mac using the Unity engine.
We Who Linger sees the player controlling a powerful guardian spirit who alternates between defending the village and exploring the surrounding world for upgrades and resources. Fast-paced, acrobatic combat featuring supernatural abilities is juxtaposed against the quiet melancholy of exploring the nearby ruins for artifacts and memories of an earlier age. These resources help the procedurally generated villagers, who dynamically grow, develop, fight, and even die alongside you as the game progresses towards the final battle for the village’s survival.
Main Menu
Pre-Alpha Demo
Final Environment
Melee Combat
Permafrost
I led the art team on Permafrost, a virtual reality experience for the HTC Vive that sees the player fending off a horde of snowmen by throwing snowballs and defending the base. The game was developed over the course of eight months by a team of designers and artists at Bradley University with a departmental grant.
Ursa Major
Ursa Major is a cooperative bullet hell shooter housed in an arcade cabinet. One player drives, one player guns; the two must work together to survive a robot onslaught and beat the final boss. It was developed with a grant from the Bradley University Department of Interactive Media by a team of ten students over the course of eight months for the 2017 FUSE show at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
Fetch Quest: A Love Letter in Six Chapters
Fetch Quest: A Love Letter in Six Chapters is a personal art game about how games change their players. It loosely follows my own journey from discovering meaning in games through to deciding to become a game designer.
Fimbulwinter
An early university design class challenged us to create a game that taught its players a complex set of mechanics without using written or spoken language. My response was Fimbulwinter, an endless runner and puzzle hybrid that relied on ludic expression to convey an ever-expanding set of navigation and puzzle-solving mechanics. It was inspired by the story of the wolf Mánagarmr in Norse mythology.
Praetorium
Praetorium is a social deduction card game for 5-11 players. The players are divided into two secret teams: The Imperials and the Rebels. The Imperials try to eliminate all of the Rebels while the Rebels attempt to assassinate the Imperials’ Emperor. Each player has two secret roles - one their true identity, one a false identity. Both of these roles give the player special abilities and special restrictions. While these abilities are powerful, they and the restrictions give the other players information needed to deduce what the everyone's’ real identities are. Players take turns passing each other cards, using abilities, and buying information in order to deceive, bluff, and assassinate their way to victory.