GameCraft

KEY LEARNING: VISION AND PILLARS

This was a really fun project, which I led from Concept into Production. During which time I used my combined knowledge of game design, project management, and publishing acumen to establish a clear set of design pillars and go-to-market strategies. 

I challenged the team to build around a few core design pillars- 1) gameplay had to be something you couldn't experience on another game platform/screen, 2) mechanics should be scaleable systems (not one off hard coded implementations), and 3) the environment should provide narrative in a natural way.

KEY METRICS: One of the top selling games on Steam, with review scores of 9 out of 10. Many awards and accolades as the new gold standard for VR games. 

KEY LEARNING: BUILD FOR THE PLATFORM /  MEDIUM

Part of this games success was building something unique to the medium (in this case, 6DOF VR). Many VR games fall short because they try to copy and paste mechanics or gameplay that could be experienced in other mediums. 

This taught me the importance of building something that takes advantage of the platform it's played on, not simply what is popular elsewhere. 

KEY METRICS: First VR title to hit #1 on Steam, and the first VR game to reach $1M in sales.

KEY LEARNING: LIVE OPS & MONETIZATION

This is the most played game I ever designed & produced, with over 100M downloads. It launched as a free to play game with excellent drift racing mechanics, but we didn't have a monetization manager or live ops team during development. 

As hard as we tried to take advantage of such a large payer base, the DNA of the game simply wasn't built for it. 

I now work with teams to ensure Live Ops &  Monetization are treated as core features from the beginning, as they can't be bolted on after the fact. 

KEY METRICS: Many awards for this one, including Apple Editor's Choice and Mobile Excellence. 

KEY LEARNING: MULTI-VOTING & TIME BOXING

We used a team brainstorm technique called Multi-Voting, and a production methodology called Time Boxing, to great effect on this game. 

Multi-Voting is a brainstorming tool where each team member gets multiple votes to cast on brainstorm ideas they like the most. It helped hone in on the things that were of most interest to the team, which the design team then used as one of many data points when focusing the design. 

We then implemented our plans by following a strict Time Boxing methodology, where development efforts flowed back and forth between disciplines in a series of 1 and 2 week sprints. This  allowed for good Agile development, while keeping everything on track. It requires immense discipline and ruthless cuts when Time Boxes expired. But it was worth It and gave us a great game; on time and on budget (with a dose of critical acclaim).

KEY METRICS: 36th Annual Annie Award winner for Best Video Game, beating out Dead Space and WALL-E. 

KEY LEARNING: CO-OP PLAY & SCOPE REDUCTION

This was the first game I worked on that was built with 4-player co-op as a core feature. It matched the target audience perfectly, and was simply fun. 

The initial designs called for a game that was too large for the time and resources we had, so we made the early call to reduce scope by an aggressive 25% (levels, characters, features). This saved our schedule and gave us room  time to add extra depth and fun to the core co-op gameplay.  

KEY METRICS: We created a game that was critically well received, on time with the movie, and generated multiple hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. 

I’ve worked on dozens of other games over the years, alongside some incredibly talented people. My career has gone from the Games Workshop mail room, to an amazing game design apprenticeship at MicroProse, into the triple-A halls of Activision as a producer and lead creative. The past few years have involved building new studios and business models, at the cutting edge of media and technology. It’s an ever changing journey, where I’m always learning from new challenges. 

Feel free to contact me if I can be of help, or you'd like to to hear more about this ongoing adventure.