For the blog, I plan on instituting some new sections – a Level Design section is in the works featuring some of the cool levels I have built and intend to build. I’ll also begin listing some of the projects I am currently working on (whatever I can list about them anyways). In addition to those features I also intend to start a series of game idea posts as well as general writing musings. So if you’re interested in some of the stuff in my head be prepared to be given the keys.

Another feature I have been toying with is the inclusion of an entire game design featurette in which I will design an idea into full pre-production beauty and chronicle all the steps along that path – including the mistakes and how I solve these problems. I figure that this will give the world a better insight into my psyche and design philosophies as well as helping me get a very documented exhibition of my talent. This idea is sort of on the back burner though compared to the other sections. We’ll see how it goes.

Till then, onward!

Mechanice emerged from one of a bunch of small prototype toys DePaul students and I made in an effort to invent simple but appealing play mechanics with AR. We discovered that investigating virtual hidden content around the surface of a physical cube with a handheld device was fun and intuitive to do. To enable a richer interaction and leverage more of the affordances of AR, we developed the toy into a game in which the player could not only inspect but transform and push the virtual cubes around the physical cube.

My involvement on the project consisted mostly of designing how the game would play with the AR cube and worked together with some other designers in the initial conceptual gameplay and context. After the busywork with design was handled and the game was underway I also took up graphical designing on the game as well. I was the only designer left on the project through the last stretch though, in charge of whatever little things needed to be polished to get it out the door.

This project took about 3 months of actual development, though hardly full time, after a few months of prototypes and general learning with how to use Augmented Reality solutions. It was developed in Unity and will likely be seen on app stores in the near future.

Here’s to hoping for a successful summer. Stay cool everyone.

~Joe

Thanks for stopping by, I am going to be making these updates a tad more frequent over the summer especially as I roll into any summer projects that may occur.

~Joe

My involvement on this project was working with the other designers on Gameplay and Level creation, Visual Design direction, and a majority of time spent on UI Design / Development using Scaleform 4. (As well as integrating many of the opening scenes and finishing touches on the game to give it a full game feeling).

Below is a trailer and a gameplay video of this game in its most current state.

• A mesoamerican artyle complimented by an entire score of building music depending on your current power level.
• Procedural obstacle placement with some serious design intent (thus not completely random).
• Face paced but whimsical gameplay.

This game originated from a concept at Global Game Jam 2012 amongst myself and some peers. We developed a majority of the current beta in those 48 hours and won second place for the Judge’s pick, we added some tweaks to art and fixed a few bugs and submitted it for Project Nightlight 2012, a game development competition held yearly at DePaul and won.

My role on this project was that of Lead Designer (I was the only game designer for that matter), and officially Team Lead for the Game Jam event – whether or not I maintain that status for this title depends on future factors. We plan on getting this game released potentially on some mobile platforms. 

This game was created by 5 people including myself over the course of about 8 weeks using the Unity engine. 

• Fast paced  difficult to master flying.
• Awesome dubstep soundtrack.
• Cute, eclectic adventure.

In Mack vs. Windows you play as one of the world’s worst (and clumsiest) interns, Mackenzie, at a science facility filled with all sorts of gadgets to destroy the universe. In a freak fetching accident she blows up the universe. Now it’s up to her to avoid the blame of this horrendous event by escaping her boss’ reprimand.

Shift, Slam, and Slide windows around on the screen to solve puzzles and get to the exit. Use the force of the dodgy physics of this broken universe to smash your way to victory in this 2.5D Puzzle Platform adventure about shifting blame, silly science, and super jumps.

I almost feel bad about using the same text as the other website but I wrote it so I suppose I can steal that. This game I felt had a lot of promise and unfortunately it did not garner much attention from the IGF unlike the previous two DGE teams, but hey there is always next year. The game was a success in my opinion. On this project I wore many hats, I was Team Lead and Lead Designer. It was one of the largest productions I have worked on with nearly 20 people working on the project. If you’d like to play it you can download it on the website I linked earlier, oh look I did it again.

Thanks a lot for visiting, and stay tuned – I’ll be making that interactive version up and running hopefully by the end of April if not March.