This is a portfolio of all the professional studio projects I’ve worked on, most of which had me in roles doing of game design, production, and quality assurance. As a long-time independent and small-studio developer, I’ve rarely had any position where my roles were specific to one category, and have gotten used to being able to wear as many hats as a team needs to ensure success for the project. Below are the noteworthy projects I’ve worked on, and my smaller / independent projects going back to 2010 can be found on the Flash & Global Game Jams page.
Every project from 2013 and onward was made in Unity.
Deathwish Enforcers: Special Edition (2024)
Title: Assistant Director
Developer: Monster Bath Games
Publisher: Monster Bath Games
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtaUQeA2F8M
Platform: Steam
Current State: Released
Best Reference Contact: Chris Obritsch (CEO)
- Additional design, production, publishing, and quality assurance tasks for the Steam release and post-release updates
- Designing every level from scratch, as informed by designs of arcade-style platformers from the 80s and 90s
- Carefully designing and tuning gameplay for the right balance of fun and challenge
- Managing issue tracking and other logistics throughout the life of the project
- Extensive quality assurance testing on every aspect of the project
- Standards and system testing on native Unity builds to improve porting to the target platforms
- Assisted with sound effects, and a voice over for one side character
Deathwish Enforcers: Special Edition is the first version of the game published directly by Monster Bath Games, allowing for more rapid post-release updates and adjustments! It contains all the hard-hitting action of the original along with the new character Maxwell, increased character movement speed, keymap rebinding, dedicated slide button, support for a variety of screen resolutions and computer gamepads, and Steam Deck support!
GuardGrave (2023)
Title: Gameplay Designer
Developer: Monster Bath Games
Publisher: Monster Bath Games
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcnV-qwkPBI
Platform: Available on Steam and Itch.io
Current State: Released
Best Reference Contact: Chris Obritsch (CEO)
- Contributing to gameplay systems, level, and concept design
- Thorough quality assurance testing on every aspect of the project
- Tracking buildup and burndown lists for soft sprints and version targets
GuardGrave started with Chris Obritsch having a game idea that he wanted to squeeze out as a fun little three day project, and it quickly escalated into a proper one-screen-per-stage classic arcade style game reminiscent Burger Time and similar games of that era. We had a great time making it, and it was only a few month between start and release.
Deathwish Enforcers (2020-2023)
Title: Assistant Director
Developer: Monster Bath Games
Publisher: Limited Run Games
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0nNWuv8GAc
Platform: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 & 5
Current State: Released Physical and Digital
Best Reference Contact: Chris Obritsch (CEO)
- Designing every level from scratch, as informed by designs of arcade-style platformers from the 80s and 90s
- Carefully designing and tuning gameplay systems for the right balance of fun and challenge
- Managing issue tracking and other logistics throughout the life of the project
- Extensive quality assurance testing on every aspect of the project
- Standards and system testing on native Unity builds to improve porting to the target platforms
- Assisted with sound effects, and a voice over for one side character
Deathwish Enforcers was a blast to work on! There were a few candidates for the next game after Super Battle Princess Madelyn, and this is the one that was chosen. We dove deep into the 60s-70s era references to help set the stage for something mechanically familiar to fans of classic arcade platformers like Sunset Riders and Mystic Warriors, and ended up with a great game which fills an arcade niche that gamers didn’t realize they were missing.
Super Battle Princess Madelyn (2019-2020)
Title: Game Designer & Level Designer
Developer: Monster Bath Games
Publisher: exA-Arcadia
Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/WH-0bhUSrVI
Level 3B Demo Video: https://youtu.be/PAs23Cb8VCo
Platform: exA-Arcadia format for Arcades
Current State: Released
Best Reference Contact: Chris Obritsch (CEO)
- Redesigning multiple levels, including treasure and enemy locations
- Managing the issue tracking system throughout the life of the project
- Extensive whitebox QA engineering to ensure the highest quality for arcade audiences
- Standards and platform testing for the exA-Arcadia platform
- Designing new bosses and enemies, and fine-tuning existing ones
- Designing the layout for the printed controls stripe for the arcade console
At the end of a long journey, Super Battle Princess Madelyn is the final culmination of everything the BPM series was always meant to represent: a faithful arcade-quality Ghosts ‘n Goblins game for the modern era, featuring lead developer Chris Obristch’s daughter as the main character.
Arcade publisher exA-Arcadia requested for the game to be redesigned to be completely different from other versions, which gave us the opportunity to remake existing levels and design new ones, as well as adding new enemies, fine-tuning the controls and difficulty, and making substantial revisions to match the exA-Arcadia format. Chris and I worked in tandem in both the redesign and fixes, where I handled a lot of the designs and whitebox testing, while Chris focused mainly on art and code. I also managed our issue task list throughout the project, which reached over 500 total entries.
As of August 2020, branded arcade cabinets started appearing for site testing in a few specific arcades. For the video above, I recorded the second of the branching path choices for the third level, as it is one of the levels I truly enjoyed making. This recording is not from the final version.
The Adoraboos (2017-2020)
Title: Game Designer
Developer & Publisher: MyDream Interactive Inc.
Gameplay Video: https://vimeo.com/user57277956
Platform: iOS and Android mobile devices
Current State: Early Access on iOS and Android
Best Reference Contact: Andrew Leker (Project Manager)
- Designing the progressive learning system, and the minigames to utilize that system
- Managing the team’s issue tracker in Airtable and other spreadsheets
- Creating new vocabulary subject content, including definitions and true/false assertions
- Creating and testing all of the Balloon Battle encounters
- Extensive blackbox and whitebox QA testing on all parts of the game, for all iOS and Android formats
- Handling social media, marketing, and promotion tasks
- Engaging in business development opportunities for the project
The Adoraboos is a vocabulary education game that uses minigames to teach vocabularies for various subjects and standardized tests, as well as enticing players to play on and earn the Adoraboo characters, decorations for them, and more stickers for the sticker gallery. Aside from spearheading the QA and issue-tracking systems, I worked extensively with the Project Manager on functionality and gameplay design, and came up with the progressive learning system that we ended up using to introduce terms, their spelling, their definition, and finally ways for the user to demonstrate their understanding. I also created and reviewed vocabulary content for multiple subjects, as well as designing all of the battle encounters and fine-tuning the progression systems.
To further explain the progressive learning system, the goal was to teach a user a vocabulary term’s spelling and definition by building upon the foundations of what they learn in earlier minigame lessons:
- The Dragger game is used to present a word with its spelling and definition so they can be introduced to it.
- Decipher asks the player to unscramble the term’s letter when given the definition, to help reinforce spelling.
- Definition provides the term and requires the player to unscramble the definition, which reinforce memorization of the definition.
- Quiz is a pass-fail multiple-choice test to help the user reinforce association of terms with their definitions.
- Adora-Battle’s assertion quiz requires the player to show that they understand a term and its meaning in-context by deciding if an assertion using the term is true or false. Passing means a full round of darts to throw at enemy balloons, failure grants just one throw.
Previously, the game had been called All Mine, and was meant to be a Serial Proof of Work aggregator for our proprietary Jewelz Red cryptocurrency, but we refocused to education-only after GDC 2019. We showed All Mine at GDC 2018 in San Francisco.
Battle Princess Madelyn: Royal Edition (2019)
Title: Game Designer, Level Designer, and Sound Designer
Developer: Causal Bit Games (now Monster Bath Games)
Publisher: Limited Run Games (Physical), Causal Bit Games (Digital)
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUve-IhxqOE
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Project Status: Released
Best Reference Contact: Chris Obritsch (CEO)
- Blackbox testing PC builds that were analogous to the Switch version
- Assisting with intensive gameplay rebalancing and tuning
- Redesigned level sections for better playability and overall fun
- Handling issue tracking tasks
This is the second installment in the Battle Princess Madelyn saga, which is an arcade-only variation of the original version that gets away from the story mode altogether. The arcade experience features both Madelyn and the King–who only wields Insanity’s Blade, the titular weapon from Causal Bit Games first release–for a high-jumping, fast-action, sword-pogoing adventure. I contributed to the gameplay, level, and sound design, along with heavy QA and fine-tuning. It was released exclusively for Nintendo Switch, and had a physical release through Limited Run Games along with the digital store version.
Battle Princess Madelyn (2018)
Title: Quality Assurance Tester
Developer: Causal Bit Games
Publisher: Causal Bit Games, 3Goo (Japan)
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7gbjs6KN3A
Platforms: PC, XB1, PS4 and Switch
Current State: Released
Best Reference Contact: Chris Obritsch (CEO)
- Blackbox testing builds delivered to the Steam beta branch
- Thoroughly testing story mode for critical path errors or other failure points
- Heavy testing on art and levels to find layer breakage and areas lacking colliders
This is the first of Battle Princess Madelyn, which was designed for cross-platform release on PC, Xbox, PS4, and Switch, featuring the lead developer’s daughter in the form of a warrior princess. Unlike the later iterations, this featured a metroidvania-style story mode, as well as a very rough arcade mode. I had backed the kickstarter after having been satisfied with Insanity’s Blade, and when it came to trying early access versions, I was really unable to play the games without running into a host of significant bugs. I volunteered to assist with the QA efforts for the game, and helped bring it to a level of worthwhile polish and playability in the months prior to release.
Candy Squad (2017)
Title: Game Designer
Developer & Publisher: MyDream Interactive Inc.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Nx_b3Ltjg
Platform: Google Cardboard, Google Daydream, and Oculus GearVR
Current State: Released
Best Reference Contact: Andrew Leker (Former Project Manager)
- Extensive whitebox testing in Unity and blackbox testing on devices
- Designing and executing test plans with the team
- Designing and refining the levels, and each wave of every encounter
- Designing overall gameplay features with the Project Manager
- Handling production, social media, and marketing tasks
- Demonstrating at booths for multiple conventions
- Engaging in business development opportunities for the project
Candy Squad was built to further extend the hands-free playability that we started in Siege Hammer, focusing all on the hammer as the core of gameplay, while removing deployable turrets to simplify overall gameplay, in order to make a genuinely fun 100% hands-free experience. I designed all the levels, scripted every enemy deployment encounter on each level, and fine-tuned the health, difficulty, and hammer-charging wisp earning rate, in order to accommodate multiple challenge levels. I also acted as QA lead, taking on the bulk of the testing and issue tracking. We released Candy Squad for Google Cardboard, Daydream, and Oculus Gear VR.
Siege Hammer (2016)
Title: Game Designer
Developer & Publisher: MyDream Interactive Inc.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjZXYCwmpTw
Platform: Steam, Google Cardboard, and Oculus GearVR
Current State: Released
Best Reference Contact: Andrew Leker (Project Manager)
- Extensive whitebox testing in Unity and blackbox testing on devices
- Designing and executing test plans with the team
- Designing and refining the levels, and each wave of every encounter
- Designing overall gameplay features with the Project Manager
- Balancing turret damage and upgrade costs, as well as enemy health and speed
- Handling project management tasks and some marketing/social media efforts
- Demonstrating at booths for multiple conventions
- Engaging in business development opportunities for the project
Towards the end of production on MyDream, we were starting to build in a VR tower defense mode. We realized that the encumbrance of a full voxel sandbox was going to harm overall performance, so Siege Hammer was created with new assets and starting from a fresh Unity project. This was designed to use one controller, or be played hands-free, and was designed for both PC and mobile VR. With a great deal of iteration and revision, I was able to design compelling levels, encounters for those levels, and balancing to make the turrets worthwhile but balanced. Along with design tasks, I was in charge of QA, and assisted with production and organizational tasks for the team. We released it on Steam, Oculus Gear VR, and Google Cardboard, and used the Unity project as the backbone for Candy Squad.
MyDream (2014-2016)
Title: QA Lead, Community Manager, and Game Designer
Developer & Publisher: MyDream Interactive Inc.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r1EeVSUNRY
Platform: Steam
Current State: Released
Best Reference Contact: Andrew Leker (Project Manager)
- Extensive whitebox testing in Unity
- Developing and executing test plans to check for breakage of new and existing features
- Designing new gameplay features and controls to improve the overall experience
- Using Atlassian products for productivity management
- Building, maintaining, and interacting with the MyDream community
- Managing Twitter and Facebook interactions
- Streaming weekly on Twitch to further demonstrate the game and building techniques
- Demonstrating at booths for multiple conventions
- Engaging in business development opportunities for the project
MyDream, the company’s namesake first-person sandbox designed around building and sharing content with the player community, and had been in development for a few years before I joined. Initially I was hired as a part-time QA Engineer and Community Manager, and was quickly brought on full-time and given more responsibilities including production, design, marketing, and interfacing with the PR team. I also got the Twitch channel partnered, and broadcasted weekly streams to promote the game while building a massive obstacle course and puzzle for the community to visit and attempt. Hard work and effort got the game to a point where we were able to add VR capabilities to it towards the end of production.
Pug Run (2013)
Title: Level Designer
Publisher & Developer: Tic Toc Games
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDVVrRyxc-8
Platform: iOS and Android mobile devices
Current State: Released
Best Reference Contact: Shereef Morse (CEO)
- Designing a bulk of the level segments
- Decorating the level segments with art assets in Unity
- Developing new standards for level segment design
- Committing level changes using TortoiseSVN
- Participating in team planning meetings
Tic Toc Games hired me to design the level segments for infinite-runner Pug Run, which led to a more detailed process of reworking the standard for level designs with the Project Manager. This took a lot of iteration, and we eventually decided to completely eliminate one gameplay element due to the exploitability and how it essentially took all the skill out of the game. After the standards were revised, and a reasonable set of level segments were designed, I was asked to teach the Technical Artist how to design the level segments, which marked the successful completion of my contract. Between my prior experience working with the CEO and Lead Engineers while at Neopets, and the work I had been doing to grow my development skills, I found this job to be naturally easy and satisfying.
Neopets Site Games & Petpet Park (2009)
Title: Quality Assurance & Production Intern
Developer & Publisher: Nickelodeon Virtual Worlds Group (formerly Neopets)
Website: http://www.neopets.com/
Petpet Park Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW8www3Fyo8
Platform: Website
Current State: Neopets is still running, Petpet Park was discontinued after release
- Assisting QA Lead with reviewing user reports, new site games, and new site features
- Assisting Production team with review of upcoming products and features
- Assisting the Art Lead with minor fixes in Petpet Park
- Providing in-depth feedback on gameplay features for Petpet Park
- Attending and following up on Production stand-up meeting tasks
- Utilizing TortoiseSVN to access and modify the repository for Petpet Park
- Using JIRA to track, manage, and reassign bugs and issues
I worked at Neopets through a couple of sequential college internship programs, which had me working a limited amount of hours per week at their office. The first internship was in QA and Production during the spring semester, where much of the day was spent handling tasks assigned through JIRA, as well as assisting producers with organization and attending stand-ups. Testing new site games before release, reviewing old site games to make sure they’re hooked up correctly to special events, making sure the features of special events are working properly, reviewing games for quality, selecting appropriate music and sound effects, testing Petpet Park, and testing KeyQuest, were tasks I’d receive from JIRA or from a stand-up meeting. The second internship was a couple months over the summer, focused specifically on production, especially with Petpet Park.
Scooby-Doo: Mystery Mayhem (2003)
Title: Quality Assurance Tester
Developer: Artificial Mind & Motion
Publisher: THQ
Longplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g_8X9SBe8g
Platforms: GameCube, Xbox, and PS2
Current State: Released
- Extensive no-cheats blackbox testing on the PAL version
- Finding, replicating, reporting, and following up on bugs and other issues
- Constant regression testing on builds sent multiple times a day
- Localization testing to make sure all languages played the correct VO audio
This is the first game I worked on professionally, and it was a bittersweet experience. We got to work hard–perhaps too hard with 88 hour weeks–but not for very long, on a 3rd-person puzzle platformer featuring the duo of zoinks themselves, and a grimoire that captures the evil ghosts crawling across the land. I was on the team covering chapters 3 and 4, aside from a week of assistance with localization verifications.
The team was extremely well filled-out, but the volume of testers wasn’t the problem. Three of the team were sent to A2M’s office, since they complained that they couldn’t execute the bugs, understand our writeups, or tell what was going on in the videos we sent–which were not always clear due to the overused PAL equipment we recorded with. With three testers on-site, the team of around thirty was no longer needed for that project, and unfortunately THQ didn’t have enough room on other projects to disperse everybody into at that point. I learned a lot from the experience, and was glad to have my first credit on a console game, or any released game in general.