Destiny 2

Senior Game Designer
Respawn Entertainment
Dec 2023 - Current

Destiny 2 is Bungie's FPSMMO title. I've been doing work on the enemy Combatants team working on new enemy AI and PvE content as a whole for the latest expansion, The Final Shape and future updates. Currently working on new unannounced features and content! Designers are embedded into a team of other designers who frequently interact with artists, animators, and engineers. Feature work is generally delegated out to the team as a whole with ICs picking up different sections and parts of the feature.

  • Design and Feature owner for new unannounced content
  • Designing enemy AI behavior and combat abilities
  • Maintaining and evolving current roster of enemies in Destiny
  • Working with Encounter Designers to deliver complex and fun dungeons, raids, and activities
  • Working in an in-house proprietary engine and scripting language.

Apex Legends

Game Designer
Respawn Entertainment
Mar 2022 - Dec 2023

Apex Legends is Respawn Entertainment's Battle Royale franchise. I'm doing work on the Game Modes team creating new modes and maintaining and updating existing ones. Generally, I own features from ideation up until season launch working with many teams in collaboration like Level Design, Environment Art, UI Script, UX Design, Product, and Production.

  • Design and Feature owner for Mixtape and Mixtape modes like Gun Run, TDM, and ​Lockdown
  • Prototyping new modes both BR and Mixtape
  • Maintaining and evolving base game rules for Apex Legends as whole.
  • Script upkeep with existing modes and updates to older gameplay to past events like Winter Express
  • Scripting in Squirrel in an in-house version of Source.

Legends of Runeterra

Game Designer
Riot Games
Jan 2021 - Mar 2022

Legends of Runeterra launched in April 2020 and is Riot Games' CCG. I did work on new expansions which includes designing new cards, gameplay features, and overall gameplay systems.

  • Working in Python scripting cards and implementing in Unity
  • Working on Legends of Runeterra on upcoming card sets as well as current card sets.
  • Maintaining text and templating to ensure consistency across cards.
  • Refining cards for simple player understanding while maintaining deep gameplay.
  • Collaborating with other designers on card design both existing in Live game and future upcoming expansions.

ARK: Survival Evolved

Technical Designer, Gameplay Programmer
Studio Wildcard
May 2020 - Dec 2020

ARK: Survival evolved released in 2015 and has been one of the most popular games on Steam since.  I did gameplay engineering and design work for the new DLC Genesis Part 2
  • Working in C++ with Unreal 4
  • Developing new gameplay features including weapons, enemies, level hazards.
  • Designing missions for core Genesis gameplay
  • Rapid iteration and prototyping in collaboration with a lead designer
  • ​Bugfixing  and maintaining legacy and inherited code

Halo Infinite

Technical Designer, Gameplay Programmer
343 Industries
December 2018 - May 2020

Halo Infinite is the next title in the Halo franchise and in development for Xbox One and Windows 10. I did engineering work for designer workflows as a part of the Combat team.
  • Working in C++ with the Slipspace Engine
  • Developing fast encounter designer workflows to be used at large scale.
  • Iterating and maintaining character combat AI behaviors: managing behavior trees, building mutexes, and creating new behaviors
  • Build management
  • Bug triaging and assessment for distribution in a legacy codebase.
  • Working with designers and artists to build more organized workflows and debugging tools.

​Untamed Battle ARena

Technical Designer
Happy Giant AR, Wowwee
April 2018 - August 2018

Untamed was developed for Wowwee as a tie in app along with the respective series of toys.  Wowwee was fairly liberal with our creative control over the app. We built everything from the ground up including gameplay design, UI, and battle systems. It was built with Unity 2017 with C# and 8th Wall AR plugin. I came in part way through the project to help maintain some gameplay features and manage backend systems such as, friend's list, matchmaking leaderboards, player item economies using PlayFab.  I also helped tweak some character classes and balance numbers for skills and stats.

Programming Responsibilities

  • Implementing UI menus, messages, and combat info.
  • Back-end management using PlayFab: friends lists, leaderboard matchmaking, item economy, and stored player data.
  • Coordinating with other programmers to bug fix and maintain code structure.

Technical Designer Responsibilities

  • Translate client feedback and requirements into actionable changes
  • Tweak balance numbers on different creature classes
  • Managing player item economy and catalog
  • Balancing player lifetime unlockables: rewards for level ups etc
  • Designing UX/UI for menu flow

​The IOTA Project

Gameplay Programmer, Technical Designer
​DreamSail Games
December 2016 - January 2018

The IOTA Project is Dreamsail's next title. It's a VR Giant Robot Destuction game built for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive developed in Unreal Engine 4 and C++. I transitioned into the role from just programming responsibilities to working as a designer in order to quickly iterate and develop new features as an integrated member of the design team. Switching back to full programmer responsibilities when needed. The IOTA Project currently has a pre-alpha demo released on Steam free and ready to play.

Programming Responsibilities

  • Cooperate with 3 other programmers to maintain C++ codebase.
  • Developing AI behavior structure and framework for all enemies. Building out behavior trees using Unreal's blueprint system.
  • Creating flying Gunship Drone enemies
  • Helping designers and artists create and manage blueprints.
  • Using WWise plugin and collaborating with and audio designer to implement all game audio.
  • Building 3-D UI for Virtual Reality
  • Collaborating with artists to implement character models, animations, and material animations for enemies,                                      players, and UI.
  • Building scalable infrastructure for core gameplay systems, such as gameplay abilities, UI/UX systems, NPC creation and interaction, and enemy AI.

Technical Designer Responsibilities

  • Working with Lead Designer to plan core features planned for Vertical Slice.
  • Working with Project lead and Team leads to scope out features for time and game impact.
  • Developing tools for designers easily to tweak values and interact with game properties without programmer help.
  • Helping translate and scope out design needs into programming workload and time.
  • Developing wireframes  for laying out and building core gameplay features designed to be given to productions teams.
  • Playtesting and iterating over existing features. Number tweaking adjusting level layouts etc.

Blade Ballet

Technical Designer
​DreamSail Games
May 2016 - December 2016

Blade Ballet is DreamSail Game's first title launched August 9th, 2016. It's a multiplayer battle bot death arena. Blade Ballet was developed in Unity using C# with online networked play. I joined the team partway through the project to complete and iterate upon the games UI and UX systems to polish them for a release on Steam and PS4. My role extends into maintaining the code base as well as adding new features outside of UI/UX such as new game modes and skins. As a technical designer I worked closely with both the programming design team to help translate design needs into programming tasks as well as being integrated into the design for quick access for tuning and developing gameplay features with little overhead.

Programming Responsibilities

  • Working with existing code bases to develop the UI of all gameplay systems.
  • Collaborating with artists and designer to deliver clean user interfaces and polished user experiences.
  • Implementing new features such as game mode options and improved gameplay experiences.
  • Working with other programmers to bugfix and maintain an extensive code base.
  • Adapting the game to fit platform standards for both Playstation Network and Steam.  (Developed against Playstion's CRT checklist.)

Other Responsibilities

  • Working with Lead Designer to plan core features for patches and game launch.
  • Working with Project lead and Team leads to scope out features for time and game impact.
  • Developing tools for designers easily to tweak values and interact with game properties without programmer help.
  • Working artists to create animations based around gameplay for things like attacks and movement.
  • Developing wireframes  for laying out and building core gameplay features designed to be given to productions teams.
  • Running weekly playtests with outside help to gauge game reaction and game state to new players.

MegaloMalady

Lead Producer, Lead Designer, Lead Programmer
​MassDiGI
May 2015 - May 2016

MegaloMalady is a product of the Summer Innovation Program out from MassDiGI.  The original alpha was produced in 11 weeks and carried on into the Live Code program from Becker College. I was part of the summer team as a programmer to implement core gameplay features and code structure in Unity with C#. I also helped shaped most of the core gameplay elements. I continued on to work on the project as the Lead Producer and project owner.

Designer Responsibilities

  • Develop gameplay features designed for long term play
  • Analyze data based on playtests and analytics to refine game  mechanics.
  • Tune numbers for smooth player progression
  • Develop polish features designed to increase game feedback

Production Responsibilities

  • Managing a team of 13 people to meet commercial demands.
  • Working with a publisher Thumbspire for marketing and release.
  • Proving game design with analytics and iterating on data.
  • Releasing weekly builds and tracking deliverables using Agile.
  • Developing and designing new features to influence KPIs.

Programmer Responsibilities

  • Implementing 80% core game play functionality.
  • Developing all support features such as game saving, progression and IAP.
  • Adding secondary systems such as Analytics and Ad Networks.
  • Working with artists to develop UI/UX structure.
  • Managing build releases 2 times a week on iOS and Android.