worch.com
GDC 2014: “Decisions That Matter – Meaningful Choice In Game And Level Design” | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/decisions-that-matter
The Wheel of Time. GDC 2014: “Decisions That Matter – Meaningful Choice In Game And Level Design”. March 23, 2014. As a direct follow-up to my 2012 talk “Player Stories and Designer Stories”. How, when and why the brain makes decisions. A map of the Doom enemy possibility space. Examples of Prioritization Choice, using Doom. Analysis of how game systems combine into complex patterns. You can download the full lecture here. If you would rather like to watch, my presentation is free in the GDC Vault:.
worch.com
GDC 2010: “What Happened Here? – Environmental Storytelling” | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/2010/03/11/gdc-2010
The Wheel of Time. GDC 2010: “What Happened Here? 8211; Environmental Storytelling”. March 11, 2010. This lecture, which I presented together with Harvey Smith. The functions of a game level. An example of telegraphing. Game examples of environmental storyteling. Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 7.5MB). Slides Notes, Compressed. Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 2MB). Slides Only, Compressed. Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 6MB). GDC 2014: “Decisions That Matter – Meaningful Choice In Game And Level Design”. Beyond Belief In One Map.
worch.com
Lair | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/portfolio/lair
The Wheel of Time. Lair was a dragon-riding game for the Playstation 3, levering all of Factor 5’s experience with Rogue Squadron and flight game technology. The game had a long and complicated development cycle and ultimately did not turn out to be a lot of fun. I will write a more detailed retrospective when I have the time. I was the Technical Art Director on this project. The Wheel of Time. My wife Victoria’s portfolio and blog. Must-read game design lectures by Clint Hocking.
worch.com
Unreal 2 | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/portfolio/unreal-2
The Wheel of Time. Hardware-accelerated static vertex buffer (the green wireframe you see in this shot) where one of the big innovations for Unreal 2. On Unreal 2, the LDs would still be the ones pulling everyting in a level together. But with these static vertex buffers enabling a lot of additional detail, it became much harder to actually. The problem with all this technical and visual novelty? Issak does the weapons loadout before each mission. 8220;What is the game about? The Legacy…and XMP. As for t...
worch.com
Sin | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/portfolio/sin
The Wheel of Time. Getting the job at Ritual Entertainment was one half of the battle. Trying to get into the United States was a whole different story. Of course it all worked out, and Sin was the first professional game I worked on. In 1996 and 1997, I hung out on IRC all the time. It was the hot new thing; chatting with people from all over the world was pretty damn cool and novel. (It wasn’t a bad way improve my English, either.). My heart very much was in level design, however. And when it final...
worch.com
Dead Space 2 | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/portfolio/dead-space-2
The Wheel of Time. I worked as senior level designer on Dead Space 2. I was responsible for all of chapter 2, chapter 3 (the residential and commercial districts between the hospital and the church), and the design and blockworld of chapter 6 (backtracking of the residential sections, including the school). I have talked about Dead Space 2 in a couple of my game design lectures, particularly “Player Stories and Designer Stories”. And “Decisions That Matter”. My wife Victoria’s portfolio and blog.
worch.com
Doom Modding | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/portfolio/doom
The Wheel of Time. My computer was broken when Doom came out. There I was, with this shiny, super-fast 486 DX2-66 that my dad had bought from the computer company he shared his offices with, and it was friggin’. While all of my highschool friends were excitedly sharing stories about how cool this new “Doom” game was. I had never paid much attention to Wolfenstein 3D, preferring the more “sophisticated” RPG games of the time, but Doom was impossible to ignore. Initially, Doom 2 didn’t live up to tha...
worch.com
My Games | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/portfolio
The Wheel of Time. My wife Victoria’s portfolio and blog. Must-read game design lectures by Clint Hocking. Roland Austinat’s blog. Roland writes about games (and localizes them! The AAA game studio at 2K Games that I work at. Harvey Smith’s page. Harvey is the co-creative director at Arkane.
worch.com
Return To NaPali | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/portfolio/return-to-napali
The Wheel of Time. My first contact with the engine had been during my initial, short stint on The Wheel of Time. As chronicled on the WoT page, I couldn’t get into UnrealEd at all and gladly went back to Quake editing. But after Sin was finished and I’d made the decision to go work for Legend Entertainment, there was no way back. I was going to work on Unreal 2, and I was going to learn UnrealEd! My desk in Legend’s old LD cave. Beautiful graphics and effects. At the time. It felt too unbelievable t...
worch.com
Rebel Strike | You Got Red On You
http://www.worch.com/portfolio/rebel-strike
The Wheel of Time. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3 – Rebel Strike. As the follow-up to Factor 5’s Gamecube smash hit, Rogue Leader, Rebel Strike tried to build on its predecessor’s success by adding ground combat elements to the game experience. Not everything worked out the way it should have – the ground gameplay was frequently chaotic and hard to control. I will try to write a more detailed retrospective at a later point. I was credited as a Mission Design Director on this project.
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT