system design and design documentation

MASTER’S THESIS: VIRTUE & STRIFE —

My MFA Thesis: the design document of a competitive multiplayer combat game that uses a short personality test to determine which of 128 character classes the player will be in the game. When the class is generated, the player is then (technically) stuck with the class permanently.

The game represents the player as a metaphorical ‘identity’, rather than a race or designation. Using philosophy and encouragement of societal empathy and positive self-image, the game intends to steer competitive multiplayer gaming in a direction towards self-concept and player identity as a way of “mastering yourself”.

You can view/download the full project here:

Below is a video demonstrating the prototype version of the Test (as it is referred to in the thesis above) which was built using the Unity engine. The final version is used with Google Cardboard as a single-input Virtual Reality experience. The Test is a 7-question test that generates a code for the player and the code corresponds to a character class in the list of classes. There are 128 potential classes that the player can be!

GRAVITAS: GRECO ROMAN THEMED TURN-BASED RPG —

An RPG that I wrote for my senior project at SCAD which I’m still really proud of. I wrote both the story and design document as well as developed the battle system which I think holds up today. I referred to this design document when I was working on my thesis, half as a starting point for developing a skill system and half as a reminder that I just love to design games.

You can read the full design document here:

You can read the full story script here:

SOLSTICE: ANIMAL KINGDOM TABLETOP RPG —

A Dungeons & Dragons-like RPG that allows the players to play as virtually any creature in the known animal kingdom. An excellent exercise in system design, structuring and balancing, as well as just darn fun to make and play with friends.

You can view the full RPG here: