Member of the Sandbox Team (the guys that work on weapons, abilities, armor, aka player systems). Worked on weapons – pitch, prototype, polish.
Notable Exotic Weapons:
Sleeper Simulant, Trespasser, Nemesis Star, Sweet Business
Author Archives: mecno
I love a good montage
Rubber Physics Game (pitch doc)
Unreleased Prototypes
First person adventure game about identity theft and Afikpo masks
Metroidvania set in a floating robotic city
Game Jams
The Order: 1886 (PlayStation 4)
Moving on from Ghost of Sparta, a PSP action adventure game, we had to start from scratch on pretty much everything. In this way The Order: 1886 was an incredibly rare opportunity – to build a fully fledged cinematic third person shooter from the ground up – finding problems and coming up with solutions at the lowest level, while at the same time trying define the IP from the top.
“One thing I admire is just how different each weapon feels, and how every single one… is effective in its own way. It’s one of those rare experiences where I felt comfortable using almost any weapon, and couldn’t pick a favorite.”
The Jimquisition
List of things under my responsibility
- Weapon balancing, tuning, and polish
- Interact system and implementation (inspects, doors, seamless transitions)
- Traversal system and metrics (vaulting, ledge, climbing)
- Gun recoil system
- Hit reactions system
Other things I helped improve
- Movement modal
- Cover system
- Controller layout
- Controller rumble implementation
Video
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PlayStation Portable)
Encounter design and scripting
Putting together encounters for Atlantis, the first level of the game. Earliest to be fully implemented also used for the demo. Set the bar for all levels to come.
Boss battle design and iteration
Worked with other designers to create initial spec for major boss battles. Collaborated with programmers and animators to bring the specs to life.
“the fight against her [Erinys] is one of Ghost of Sparta’s high points.”
GamesRadar
Lots of other stuff
Necessity of small team game development (~25 at ship). Collectible placement and XP economy balancing, camera shakes, animation troubleshooting, destructible placement, and scripting/tuning for puzzles, encounters, and set piece moments.
Steam Curation
I created a little steam curation page to highlight some of the games that have most influenced my design aesthetics over the years. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them are console to PC ports that probably play terribly outside of the original hardware.
Indiecade GameU 2014
I recently spoke at IndieCade 2014 for GameU, a series of talks “for folks interested in learning about the game development process, how to start developing on their own, and what making a game is about.” They asked for a beginner’s guide to combat design, and a couple of sleepless nights later, I managed to pull something together.
Combat Design & Layering Details aims to be an introduction into the patterns and methodologies that designers use to create satisfying and functional combat. After a brief note on what drew me into the design field, I try to make sense of all the tiny details that come together to create a simple player attack. The whole thing is a bit of an Ode to the Nitty and Gritty.
I tried to do as much showing as telling, so the presentation has quite a few videos embedded throughout.
Game Kids 1
My little cousin enjoying a pirated version of Mega Max X2 on his Game Boy Advance.