Category: game development

3D race track design & creation: We developed a spline based track editor that procedurally created track and collision geometry. I then tested, iterated and finished the tracks.
Once the tracks played well, I populated them using in-house crowd and VFX systems, added environment animations and scripted events.

Terrain modelling, camera editing: Terrain background was modelled based on actual LIDAR and geologic research data, processed in Blender 3D and then converted for shading and texturing in the game engine.
Camera work included cinematographic creation, placement, animation, multi-track editing and triggers for pre- and post-race cameras.

Character animation: I edited poses for racing, which were then procedurally combined with IK animations derived from movement physics. For this I created blend trees and conditional animation layers.
Outside the race mode, I created emotion poses for post-race reactions.

UI & UX design and implementation: I created in-game HUD user interface designs and assets and integrated them in the game. I also created in-game menus for frontend, shop, competitions, outcomes and reward screens.
This included 2D artwork, both pixel and vector based, VFX animations and creation of the hierarchical menu structures.

UI tech art: This was work in the proprietary snowdrop engine editor. The real-time graph editor was used for all UI elements and animation.

HUD tech art: I created node for in-game HUD visualization of game data, wired with artistic assets. This required managing specifications of game code with artists, communicating with art & game play direction and implementation.

Event visuals animation: Custom animations for game events were scripted for real-time display with context sensitive variations.

In-game & pause menus: I created menu pages, entries and dynamic screens for game progress, settings, save games, progression and the in-game knowledge base. This involved both art assets and node scripting.

All UI had to work on multiple platforms, resolutions and with swappable input devices without reloading.

Creative Direction:
After creating a working VR prototype, I pitched the game to the company green lighting committee. We then proceeded to create the game, under my creative direction. I created the initial story, setting, characters and game play concept.

I was also part of the funding team, applying for funding and successfully spoke in front of the committee to receive the grant. I worked closely with producers and company creative direction throughout the project. When the team grew I onboarded a level designer onto the game play scripting process, passed on writing to a external writer for outline, and internal writer for dialogs.

Audio and music direction
included regular direction of game-play based compositions and style, which I developed in tandem with the composer.

Cinematics, Character animation & scripting:
All character animations were based on 3rd party assets, subsequently edited in Maya to fit the requirements. Character scripting was done in-engine in conjunction with dialog editing.

Environment concept & design:
I created to complete game world layout to fit the setting and story. This involved sketching, research of historical accurate (1970ies Barcelona) architecture, creation of mood boards, 3D blocking of buildings, creating texturing and shading guidelines and finally placing and editing the artist’s creations in game.
I added navigation elements once the block out was done.

Finally I created a chapter-based time of day look that varied the game environment based on the story progress. We also visualized a change of weather to fit the story mood.

Writing:
I co-wrote outlines and script on The Lion’s Song episode 1-4. This was done in a rotation with the game director and an external writer.

Contributed pixel art & animations i various scenes. I also created some visual concepts for environments.

Scene scripting was done in the internal c++ based scripting language, which included multiple dialog outcomes and consistency tests.

Towards the end I developed a concept for cross-episode replay-ability, which allowed players to jump between episodes, replay scenes with different outcomes and witness changes in the resulting story. I created a showcase scene for collecting the resulting story variations.

Mobile platform development:
We created a mobile client for a server based game. This included a rework of the client-server based front end architecture to match platform UX standards.

UI & UX design then was coordinated with the server developer in live operation. To avoid user pain, I created a priorization matrix for interfaces, interaction standards and game play feedback.

UI Art included a complete redesign and creation of all frond end assets. I also developed a 3D asset based icon visualization to circumvent memory limits. We essentially re-created hundred of bitmap based icons in flat 3D, using texture pages for gradients.

This allowed for lossless image enhancement, which was a requirement for high resolution mobile devices. The results could also be rotated and zoomed nicely, without pixelation artifacts.

Xbox in-game UI/UX: I was in charge of implementing a new HUD and menu for the xbox version. This included asset creation, animation, scripting and exporting into the game engine.

Xbox Game Menu design & creation:
I was in contact with the Xbox Advanced Technology Group and succeeded in implementing game controller artwork that matched the game’s style, which was a first in this console generation.

Xbox vehicle art remodelling coordination & shader design:
The games featured updated character, vehicle and environment art. I coordinated outsourcing talent that produced the new vehicle assets. We also managed to implement a pre-rendered lighting solution which I created on top of existing buildings, based on a custom global illumination calculation. This gave the game a more solid look.

Vehicles received new shaders for reflection which I tweaked for all time-of-day and weather situations.