| For Windows and Mac | Last Modified: 2019 |
Fangs and Friends is an award winning, local co-op puzzle game that is focused on asynchronous, environmental puzzles. Playing as either a mage with the power of ice, or a vampire with the power of fire, this duo must work together to escape the prison they’ve been trapped in.
This game was awarded Best Art, Best Gameplay, and the 2nd place People’s Choice award at LevelUpTO in 2019.
My roles: Producer, Level Designer, UI designer, technical narrative designer
Made in collaboration with: Anisha Rohra, Erika Davis, Jacob Rosenberg, Martin Briand, Pablo Gonzalez, and Tonya-Leigh Escalante
One, a master of water and a bearer of the old magic. The other, a master of fire and a lord of darkness. These two unlikely allies will be forced to face their worst nightmare - working together - in order to escape their eternal confinement. Will the mage and the vampire combine their supernatural abilities to defeat the horde of obstacles that await them, or will their irreconcilable hatred lead to their mutual demise?
Initial Concept
The initial concept for this game sprung out of a pitch I had made: the core idea was to have an asynchronous puzzle game that focused on using two characters' different abilities to solve each puzzle. The fantasy theming was also prevalent in this early pitch, which garnered enough support to gather a team around the concept.
In our first meetings as a team, we decided on giving each of our two characters only one unique ability. Our ‘mage’ character had what we’d referred to as a ‘freezing power’, and our ‘vampire’ character had initially been given the power of super strength.
Each of these abilities was harshly limited in this first iteration, as the mage would have a very large energy meter, but die in a single hit, while the vampire was much more durable, but could not regenerate their energy meter without access to blood. This concept was scrapped quickly as it was incredibly punishing, especially as we knew our puzzles should all be designed to require both characters to complete them. It was also markedly less fun than being able to spam each ability just to see what happened.
Development Timeline
From start to finish, we knew we had just under three months to execute on our vision. With this in mind, the original development timeline for this project was scoped down to something we were confident in completing. While some of our timeline did vary, this was what we had set out to accomplish from the start:
Alpha Demo
- Prefabs for all game elements
- 5-10 greybox levels
- Fully modelled and textured tutorial level
- UI elements
- Hover
- Interact look
- Flavour text for first few levels
- Walking animation
- Spell casting animation
- Idle animation
Beta Demo
- All levels aesthetically completed
- Auto-save functionality
- Levels are combined into a single stage
- All other animations
- Enemies-Level stages grey-boxed
Final Demo
- Beginning and end of game cutscenes
- Quit/Restart options implemented
- All final flavour text
- All story elements included
In this timeline, we tried to frontload the more difficult tasks, so as we got closer to the final demo date we could spend more time on fixing bugs and improving on polish, and less time on scrambling to add new features.Testing lots of puzzles upfront for our Alpha Demo let us see what weas working and what wasn't, and we pivotted to focus on the types of puzzles players found more engaging and fun, and that sparked an 'ah-ha!' moment while figuring it out.
First Level Prototypes
Our first level prototypes were simple greyboxes to explore a few puzzle concepts. These were based on some sketches I'd done of an initial potential level-set to test out some of the puzzle ideas we'd had. Extremely early in the process we cut out 'consumable' items so we could focus more on the enironmental puzzles. Additionally, we cut out different door types, because players were easily confused on which doors were burnable and which ones were not, and instead replaced this with un-burnable doors, and burnable planks for more consistent in world logic.
Additionally, early on we established that out levels should be isometric, and that a number of stages should interlock with one another to create one 'level'. These stages were intended to be thematically similar, so the first stage of the level would tutorialize something new for the players, and they would have to learn to apply it to the rest of the level in combination with what they'd learned prior.
The isometric layout provided some constraints to work around - since the camera was intended to rotate as the player progressed to reveal more of the level, it was important even in these early designs to be mindful of what was visible and what wasn't from each vantage-point in the level.
The one level that remained the most consistent was surprisingly our tutorial level. It was the only stage that did not have any connecting stages, and consisted of a single room. Since the tutorial level was just meant to show each player their respective character's abilities, we made the space an area that was easy to experiment in. It's easy for the players to also hit each other by mistake in this smaller space, something we emphasized more later on as playful griefing was appreciated by the player base as the concequences for it were very minimal.
| This game was made with Unity | Time elapsed: 3 months |
| For Windows and Mac | Last Modified: 2023 |
With Flowers Comes Dance is a laid-back, single-player rhythm game about using the language of dance to communicate in a world of birds who don’t use spoken language. Playing as Em, a young bird who has just completed their first solitary migration, you rejoin family and friends at an annual spring festival where you catch up with one another through dance..
One, a master of water and a bearer of the old magic. The other, a master of fire and a lord of darkness. These two unlikely allies will be forced to face their worst nightmare - working together - in order to escape their eternal confinement. Will the mage and the vampire combine their supernatural abilities to defeat the horde of obstacles that await them, or will their irreconcilable hatred lead to their mutual demise?
Initial Concept
The initial concept for this game sprung out of a pitch I had made: the core idea was to have an asynchronous puzzle game that focused on using two characters' different abilities to solve each puzzle. The fantasy theming was also prevalent in this early pitch, which garnered enough support to gather a team around the concept.
Development Timeline
From start to finish, we knew we had just under three months to execute on our vision. With this in mind, the original development timeline for this project was scoped down to something we were confident in completing. While some of our timeline did vary, this was what we had set out to accomplish from the start:
First Level Prototypes
Our first level prototypes were simple greyboxes to explore a few puzzle concepts. These were based on some sketches I'd done of an initial potential level-set to test out some of the puzzle ideas we'd had. Extremely early in the process we cut out 'consumable' items so we could focus more on the enironmental puzzles. Additionally, we cut out different door types, because players were easily confused on which doors were burnable and which ones were not, and instead replaced this with un-burnable doors, and burnable planks for more consistent in world logic.
Additionally, early on we established that out levels should be isometric, and that a number of stages should interlock with one another to create one 'level'. These stages were intended to be thematically similar, so the first stage of the level would tutorialize something new for the players, and they would have to learn to apply it to the rest of the level in combination with what they'd learned prior.
The isometric layout provided some constraints to work around - since the camera was intended to rotate as the player progressed to reveal more of the level, it was important even in these early designs to be mindful of what was visible and what wasn't from each vantage-point in the level.
The one level that remained the most consistent was surprisingly our tutorial level. It was the only stage that did not have any connecting stages, and consisted of a single room. Since the tutorial level was just meant to show each player their respective character's abilities, we made the space an area that was easy to experiment in. It's easy for the players to also hit each other by mistake in this smaller space, something we emphasized more later on as playful griefing was appreciated by the player base as the concequences for it were very minimal.
| This game was made with Unity | Time elapsed: 7 months |
| For iOS and Android | A Sago Mini app |
| Web Game | Last Modified: 2021 |
| Web Game - Writing Sample | Play the game free. |
Kindred Souls is a visual novel about soulmates, long-distance relationships, and human connection. The following is a short exerpt of dialogue.
It's been.... how long again? “Six months?”
“Try a year and six months! Time flies, huh? I can't forget the first time you 'wrote' to me.”
"Please don't. Don't do this to me."
"You had so, so many drawings on your hands!"
"I told you, it was art night at the bar! We were supposed to be doing art!"
"But you're supposed to use paper aren't you? Or a canvas!"
"We had drinks! It seemed like a good idea. And I apologized!"
"I know. You didn't have to. It was cute."
A short visual novel about long-distance relationships, and human connection. Kindred Souls explores themes of destiny, and the concept of soulmates in a low-stakes story. Spend an evening at home, and talk to a special someone in your life.
| This game was made with Unity, and uses Fungus. |
| Web Game - Writing Sample | Play the game free. |
The first act of a dramatic space-opera, in space no one can hear you bark follows red squadron in their fight against the jellies and is composed (almost) entirely of barks, save for the bookends of the act. The player can only choose whether to speak or stay silent, in real time.
Written in collaboration with d.h. croasdill, Jason Guisao, and Sam Sorensen. The following is an exerpt from the game. Cinnibar is the name given to the player character.
Crimson: Let's really throw 'em for a winger!
Turkey: This fight is for the Republic! We do them proud!
Everyone! Attack! - Cinnibar
Cardinal: Fleas on the back of a titan.
Carmine: For my family!
Sanguine: I'll make sure you end up buried.
Scarlet: Line up a clean shot and make it count.
Tomato: CHARGE!
Tyrian: I won't make the same mistakes again.
Oh shit--- - Cinnibar
Crimson: They're repelling our assault!
| This game was made with Unity |
| Web Game - Writing Sample | Play the game free. |
Star Port is a text-only, interactive fiction detective game, where a slightly cynical employee of Port Corp. has a mystery to solve. The following prose are exerpts from the game.
The room is large enough that it shouldn't feel cramped, but cluttered enough to manage it anyways. Tables are pushed up against two of the walls - one of which is being used as a makeshift coffee station, and the other to hold documents. To the south is the employee only entrance into the breakroom from the outside, next to which is the archaic punch-card station to clock in. To the west is a larger doorway, into docking bay CF-4.
The thin red lights of the landing strip glow on the floor, having replaced the original paint markers some years ago. Starliner-C ##22 occupies the middle of the space, perfectly centered between the lines. The boarding ramp is down. To the east is the employee room, and to the west is a storage center, marked obviously with the word 'STORAGE' painted in large print across the door. Cameras stare down from the ceiling. There is a distinctly empty spot where the Starliner's cargo should be for inspection - and isn't. Perhaps the cargo has already been packed away?
| This game was made with Inform 7 |
| Web Game - Writing Sample | Play the game free. |
Snack or Treat is a text-only, interactive fiction mystery game. It’s Halloween, and your roommates are the creatures that go bump in the night. And one of them is making trouble... The following prose are exerpts from the game.
The streets are lit, and the sound of laughter can be heard outside, faintly, down the roadway. A crisp October breeze signals the changing of the times, for tomorrow would herald the beginning of a chilly November. Most trick-or-treaters know to avoid the dilapidated house at the end of the cul-de-sac This one - or in this case, what remains of them - clearly did not..
You find yourself in the narrow entryway of your humble abode, shut away from the rest of the world by only a wooden door to the south. To the north, the entryway opens up further into a hall. Dim lighting leaves the entrance just barely visible in the moonlight from the window - there's no street lights close enough to the property to provide extra illumination. Upon the kitschy, mud-stained welcome mat, obscuring the saccharine sweet welcome catchphrase, is a torn up costume, and a few fragments of bone.
| This game was made with Inform 7 |
