Writing Portfolio

Game Design (GDDs) 

I’ve written and scripted for a number of games both professionally and personally.

During my time at Scholastic Media I have written for several games including: 
Magic School Bus: Dinosaurs*
Word Girl Superhero Training App* 

In scripting these games, I worked with well know brands and established characters. A large part of the challenge was creating narratively seamless work that incorporated game design.

Below are samples of other general doc writing:

Illustration & Concept Art Gallery

Storyboarding Gallery

WAYWARD

When the subconscious thoughts of others turn into demons, it is up to the dimension shifting duo, Owen and Ryan to send these demons back to Wayward.

Storyboards
“Pizza” is a 2 minute short about Ryan’s aching desire for breakfast pizza.

Breathe Life In

A 3-minute hand animated journey designed for IAC’s panoramic video wall which stands at 120 ft x 11 ft. It speaks to the journey, how we are impacted by it, and how it continues to impact us. 

The project was conceptualized and developed in less than a month and after its showcase at the IAC, Breathe Life In has since shown at the NYU Tisch Gala 2012 and the Philly Feastival 2012.

The Charcoal Boy

A black and white short film that plays inside a dollhouse. It tells the story of an inn-keeper, Lilith, and the strange mute boy she welcomes into her inn. 

Concept Art

Storyboard

THE ACADEMY

An action fantasy series follows the story of a solider who was ready to die given a second chance at life.

STORY

Snowdrift

A handmade pop-up book about the thoughts of a floating boy in the snow.

The hand-drawn illustrations are printed onto 110 lb. cardstock, cloth and cellophane are used for added texturing.

GENESIS

Genesis is a retro-futuristic virtual pet adventure game where players raise and train creatures to help them reconstruct their world. 

Trailer

Premise

What actually happens if children were given pet monsters to fight? 

In what kind of world is this normal? 

Genesis’ narrative and gameplay deconstruct the virtual pet genre, exploring what it means to give life to an AI creature and the psychological impact on these creatures when they are used as toys or tools. Genesis subverts and pokes fun at the stark black and white moral choices found in contemporary games, offering more realistic dilemmas. Game tropes are tested, cheating is encouraged, and consequences are enacted every turn. 

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, players are given AI creatures called chimera to raise, teach and train, to aid in reconstructing their world. This creates an unique personal narrative experience as each environment adapts to the player’s choices. Chimera respond to and learn from these choices, mirroring the player’s true nature. 

Genesis is built in Obj-C using Cocos2D Framework.

Story

“Man, oh man, well this just isn’t pretty. The world’s been pretty beaten up, only a few towns really remaining and all that. 

See, after what could only be explained as an apocalyptic nightmare, things grew quiet. No one is really sure WHAT happened. Who is to say really. Just a lot of booms, a lot of crashes, and then everything became pretty bleak, dark, empty. And as we said, well, quiet. We were pretty sure we weren’t going to hear about you humans ever again.

But you surprised us. Even with a pitiful number of survivors, you foolishly wanted to keep living, keep growing and restore the world back to the way it was. Right away you started rebuilding as if it was a mere flesh wound! Resilient little creatures aren’t you? 

We question if this is a good idea. After all with the way the world was, it did lead up to the nightmare in the first place. So we presume. 

Still, it’s hard to tough it out with everyone living off of scraps. You humans have a lot of motivation but it just isn’t enough, is it? You humans are scrawny weak little things. 
Right right, so of course you all have been bugging the most competent out of you beings, the Alchemist at the Elixir Emporium. Strange fellow came up with these little buggers called Chimeras. Genetic marvels. Very malleable too. Here for your assistance, your entertainment, your pleasure. See, they need very little but produce a lot. All about how you raise them, so The Alchemist says.”

- The Omnipresence

Gameplay

The player receives an egg, which they can then hatch, raise, and through their adventures out into the world, the player’s choices begin to effect how the creature grows and develops. Ultimately the gameplay is about making choices. Click on certain characters, items, chimera to discover what menu options and interactions you can have with them. Some of these interactions will lead to more complex, direct interactions such as mini-games that allow you to train your pets, or more menu-based interactions such as working.

Intended as a iOS sandbox game, Genesis is about giving the player as much functionality to explore and rebuild their world.

Thesis Presentation

Games vs. Life

A while back I made this flash game as a response to the question “what will games would be like in the future?” for a project that sadly had to be dropped. Still, I like a lot of the seeds planted in this scrapped design!

Mellifluous

An interactive narrative where anyone can step up to the installation and become a maestro. As you conduct you unfold a personal audio-visual narrative of unique otherwordly characters and weave their unique sounds into a mellifluous song. Conduct the story as you conduct your own song.

When you approach the tree, wave your hands to unlock the lives hidden in each of the windows. Depending on the other characters that you awaken at the same time, the narrative and song evolves and grows.

Software

The software was written in C++ using OpenFrameworks, using ofxQTKitMoviePlayer to play the different animations, and ofxKinect to help communicate with the kinect. Taking the data from the kinect we calculated measured blobs as hands and tracked them to create a smooth interface.

Animation

Animations were created in Adobe Flash, while backgrounds were painted in Photoshop.

PARACOSM

In Paracosm you play a game of Hide-and-Seek. You can create light with just your fingertips, but the light chases away the children who go to find another hiding spot. Lead the children home to their houses the bring them out of the shadows, or bring them to where the monsters lurk and they’ll be swallowed whole.

Paracosm is an immersive narrative, where players interact with a shadow world, and use touch and physical objects to introduce light into the environment to alter the narrative.

VIDEO

STORY

In the dark lurks another world where children go to play their games. They remain unaware that within the same shadows, Shades cultivate, hungering for those foolish enough to enter into their darkened realms. Guide fireflies bridge the two worlds, casting light within the shadows and lead the children safely to their homes. But be careful, the light that can bridge the worlds can also bring the shades out of the shadows.

ANIMATION

Characters were animated and illustrated using charcoal and then using photoshop.

AUDIO Audio was a mix of environmental sample sounds and noise, originally composed audio and some classic horror audio. Done in Logic Pro.

SOFTWARE

Developed in C++ with the aid of OpenFrameworks, we created Paracosm in three stages. First, we implemented the particle flocking to fingertips and OPEN_GL shaders. Simultaneously we built basic AI and general interactions with the children and monsters. Third, we implemented multitouch TUIO communication using CCV (Community Core Vision) to read all blobs and assist with calibration.

HARDWARE For the touch surface we used a Diffused Surface Illumination (DSI) Table. The materials used were a projector, IR camera, IR LEDs, projection surface and a specialized piece of Enlighten Acrylic.

Paradox

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011 - Finalist

A 3D, top-down adventure game where players travel through space and time to help people across Paradox’s fantasy world in order to manipulate and influence their future.

Features:

- Play as a boy or girl

- Travel through time using the fountain in the center of town to see your influence.

- Explore different and unique districts and tackle the challenges that plague them.

- Gain SP or Social Points in each district by aiding others. This will grant you special skills and tools you can use throughout the world. It allows you to explore and unlock secrets in the present and future.

TRAILER

SCREENSHOTS

Message in a Bottle

An interactive installation inspired by the tradition of the “message in a bottle”, wherein a personal message is sealed inside a glass container and thrown out to sea in the hope of it reaching a reader at the end of its maritime journey.

The viewer is presented with a simple glass bottle and a plank of wood. Five distinct quotes surround five separate areas of the wooden platform. Upon being picked up and moved across the plank, the bottle triggers different sounds. The five auditory signals serve as another form of guidance, each relating to a certain quote. When the container is placed on one of five specific points, an image or animation is projected into it. Each one of the five locations has its own set of imagery evoking a different character’s life. Every time the bottle is placed on a point, a new aspect of that person’s story is revealed.

Software

The software was written in Processing in communication with Arduino. Relaying the signals of both the magnetic digital controls [on/off] and the analog numbers read by the range finder, the software was written to randomize what images are show in each of the different locations the bottle is placed.

When placed in each unique location the images in the bottle are randomly displayed to tell one complete story before looping through the randomization again. Video and Images are read all through image sequencing.

Hardware

We used two Arduinos to communicate the software data. Sensors included:

RangeFinder: The RangeFinder tracks the location of the bottle so that as you move the bottle, the music shifts to give the wielder clues as to where they may find another story on the map.

Magnetic Sensors: The Magnets were unique switches that allowed us to make the bottle the only control piece,  allowing for only the bottle to unlock the animations.

GamePainter

GamePainter encourages adaptive and conversational gameplay, closing the gap between those who develop games and those who play them. One player plays a wiimote game while the other builds and designs levels.

The game itself uses a 3D platform where a player tilts the platform to lead a ball around the landscape to collect points. The player must collect a certain number before the time runs out in order to move onto the next level while keeping the ball from falling off the field.

The second player introduced to the game is the level-builder. They control what the landscape looks like in real time by painting a 3D landscape for the first player to traverse. The level-build can choose to help the other person, hurt them or just paint whatever they should choose and ignore the game entirely.

SOFTWARE/HARDWARE

I developed a table where one moves around glowing paint and goo to construct levels. A camera then reads the brightness and color of the paint introduced and generates mountains and other obstacles determined by the color scheme and brightness.

The game, built in Processing, reads the wiimote’s accelerometer determines the tilt of the platform and the 3D platform is created by reading pixel by pixel color contrast which then determines the Z-axis of the platform.

(GamePainter using iSight) 

Concept Illustration

Prior to the actual development of the project I designed the concept through sketches.