As a kid, I was obsessed with mazes. Over time, my love of video games made those mazes transform into game levels. That’s when I decided to learn about game design. Here is a look at some of my greatest works.
Iron Pawn is an “old-school” RPG created with RPG Maker XP. I started creating this game because I enjoy the style of classic Japanese 2-D RPG’s. So many of today’s video games are so concerned about top-notch graphics and movie-length storylines that much of the fun and playability has been lost. I decided that RPG Maker XP provided all the necessary aspects to recreate this lost genre, while managing to add some more modern elements.
A great majority of my time spent developing the game has been on level design. I enjoy making levels fair, but with plenty of well-hidden secrets which may only be found by the most avid of gamers. And since battling is a huge part of RPGs, I included hundreds of items, accessories, and enemies to keep things interesting up until the end.
I had a unique instructor for my Software Engineering class. He assigned a large project to the class in which groups would work on different aspects of software engineering to produce a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game based off an old pencil RPG known as “Champions—The Roleplaying Game.”
My team was assigned as the “Game Design and Story” group. Our job was to read through the Champions rules booklet, study how the game mechanics work, and design the new MMORPG based on the ideas of the Champions system. During the Requirements Analysis phase, we talked to our client—the instructor—to determine exactly what features he expected to be in the game and what features would be most important. We also discussed the various changes needed to make such a dramatic jump from a pencil-and-paper game to a MMORPG. We determined how character statistics and missions would be dealt with and we drew up mock interfaces of certain screens in the game. A major challenge of the project was interfacing with the other groups—each responsible for other aspects of the game. Each group needed to learn how the others were dealing with the various aspects of the game, such as sound design, database systems, artificial intelligence, visuals, and processing. The project was an exciting challenge!
I had the opportunity to design and implement a full-featured computer game during my senior year of college. Quoridor is a board game created by Gigamic Games in which two to four players advance tokens across a board in order to get to the other side. Players move one space at a time on a square grid, while utilizing “walls” that can be used to block an opponent to facilitate one’s own progress. The mission of “The Quoridor Team” was to create a computer game version of Quoridor that would also allow for AI and network play.
My focus in the project was user interface design and user experience. After the programmers on the team designed the initial gameplay, I adjusted the interface and board layout to improve the flow of the game and make the game easier to use. I performed an extensive set of one-on-one usability tests with actual students from SIUE, who our client deemed to be the software’s target audience. Based on suggestions from the students and with approval of the team and our client, I could then adjust the interface and layout of the software accordingly.
I also acted as the team’s technical writer. I created four important documents. The Requirements Analysis Document defines what the existing product functionality was and what the the new intended functionality will accomplish. This covers the basics of the board game, the functional and non-functional requirements, optional features, and the intended flow of the program. The Project Plan covers the project time lines, risk management, team structure and roles, and coding and testing plans. Setting realistic goals and staying on track were the team’s primary concerns. In the System Design document, the team’s design goals, lifecycle model, and system architecture are defined and explained. The user manual explains the game from start to finish - how to install the program, how to play the basic game, how to play a network game, how to use the logs to track game progress, and how to create AI modules for the game.
