• First Person Perspective

    A menu screen from MythForce showing the abilities and upgrades for Victoria, a knight. Her Sling Shield ability is selected displaying an example video, a tree with one upgrade selected, and the upgrated ability's modified stats.
    Systems Design

    Class-based upgrade systems

    Project:  MythForce Engine:    Unreal Editor 4 Feature:    Player Abilities For each of our twelve abilities, I designed and reached approval on three additional upgrades. These varied in scope, with the original intention that each upgrade must add a differentiator on the…

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    A skeleton holds a bow and arrow, facing towards and to the left of camera, with a menacing grin.
    Technical Design

    Technical Gameplay and Level Design

    I joined the team in mid-production, a bit over 6 months before this release candidate build.Initially, I audited project workflows and architecture; to improve consistency and advocate better for designer empowerment.

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    Promo Art featuring Nightingale N logo. It is wrapped by a huge portal, similar to those in game. There are two different worlds on the left and right sides of the portal. One person stands in the middle, while creatures and humanoid enemies run towards them.
    Project

    Nightingale

    I implemented “A Realmwalker’s Initiation” along with the rest of Aurelio Acevedo Ortega’s plot line, and more. My contributions as a Senior Narrative Designer all fell within the eight month period leading up to Early Access launch. Looking for something…

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    A clip from "MythForce" game's opening 2d animation sequence with Victoria in front, Maggie casting a spell behind here, Hawkins aiming left offscreen, and Rico facing right offscreen. A horde of enemy silhouettes surrounds them.
    Project

    MythForce

    Early Access release Spring 2022 Page Link: MythForce

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    "The Long Dark" logo with stylized hatchet. Astrid's face is shown as a close up with a red and blue sky background. The crashed airliner is in the foreground, with characters like Father Thomas and Molly in the midground as well as a scene showing a wolf jumping up towards Astrid as a hurt survivor holds their arm in a sling..
    Project

    The Long Dark

    Multiple post-launch releases from Fall 2018 until Fall 2021 Page Link: The Long Dark

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    A menu screen from MythForce showing the abilities and upgrades for Victoria, a knight. Her Sling Shield ability is selected displaying an example video, a tree with one upgrade selected, and the upgrated ability's modified stats.
    Systems Design

    RPG Mechanics for Hero Progression

    Identifying the Problem Space Mythforce launched into Early access with four characters, each having three active abilities. For each of these twelve abilities I designed three upgrades, then documented & completed approval stakeholder review processes on them. These intentionally varied…

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    Technical Design

    Playing a Support role on the Design Team

    Project:  MythForce Engine:    Unreal Editor 4 Timeline:    Leading up to September 2021 Release Candidate I joined the team in mid-production, a bit over 6 months before this release candidate build.My initial task was to audit project workflows & architecture. Our goal…

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    A picture of Ash Canyon from the Hesistant Prospect release announcement.
    Open World Design

    Ash Canyon

    Project:  The Long Dark / Survival Mode Engine:    Unity 3D Timeline:    In Fall 2020 for the Hesitant Prospect update My Achievements as Open World Designer Tuned gear items and wildlife spawns to ask player new questions in survival gameplay Layered…

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    Concept Art of the Cannery including a boat and stilted buildings over a frozen ocean. Wolves walk near a collection of wood detritus on the ice.
    Open World Design Showcase

    Bleak Inlet

    Bleak Inlet is a cold and windy region of ruined coastal industry, including a frozen delta and the ring of wilderness around an inlet of icy ocean.

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    About

    Curriculum Vitae

    Welcome to my portfolio. My name is James, but feel free to call me Jim. I am a level and narrative designer living in the Greater Vancouver Area of British Columbia, Canada. Before games I spent more than 6 years…

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