• Indie

    A hooded figure looms heroically in the centre of an action-packed image, with large sword pull out behind it. The white mask they wear has a wide red vertical between the eyes, and down to the split where the mouth is. Witherbloom appears in stylized letters
    Project Showcase

    Witherbloom

    Hub and base-building mechanics The Hearth Act 1 Narrative implementation Levels The Outpouring, Floor 1 of the Sanctum of Harmony The Scatter, Floor 2 of the Sanctum of Harmony

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    Ever Curious Entertainment text and logo of green and yellow cat that has question mark tail.
    Work History

    Ever Curious

    I supported the Witherbloom project as a Senior Game Designer starting on May 20th, 2025. Initially, the plan was to have me on this game only as owning the hub world design and narrative workflows. I was to deliver on…

    Posted on JD
    Logo: Unreal Editor 5 Title: Unreal Fellowship Subtitle: Games
    Project

    Unreal Fellowship

    Broken Wing is my personal project created during the three week fellowship program. I implemented gameplay to achieve a high quality arcade experience that includes these features as intended for playing on a single joystick:

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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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    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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    Beamdog logo
    Work History

    Beamdog

    I worked on MythForce project as a Technical Designer starting on March 15th, 2021. There were a series of Release Candidate milestones leading up to the games’ Early Access release on April 20th on the Epic Game Store. In May…

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    Hinterland logo
    Work History

    Hinterland

    I started working at Hinterland Studio on March 26th, 2018, on The Long Dark.My title is Mission Designer, and my responsibilities match those of a Level Designer as well as a  Technical Narrative Designer at this studio. My employment at…

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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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