Helping to build a new team, new studio, and new project.
Started an independent studio to focus on end to end game development and game design consulting. See below for consultancy client list. Developed 2 mobile titles as designer, programmer, and art/sound director.
Created entirely new ways to interact with a game world focused on 3D building. Designed visual scripting language and simple editing tools focused on players inexperienced with common 3D modeling concepts.
Responsible for the design of Act III of Diablo 3. Designed and implemented levels, encounters, events, and game flow. Built greybox levels in Maya. Worked closely with other designers, managed tasks that involved junior designers, artists, and programmers. Headed several multi-disciplinary strike teams to achieve large goals in a very short time frame.
Created, implemented, and maintained the visual style and layout of all menu, HUD, and interface objects. Responsible for general game design and level design. Tasks included mini-game, weapon, enemy, encounter, and level design, all with extensive amounts of scripting. Managed artists and programmers to achieve the desired results within a strict schedule. Championed addition of scripting language, tutored other designers in LUA scripting.
Responsible for story, dialog, quest design and implementation, level design and population, scripting, and game balance. Assisted with integration of C# based scripting language into game engine. Worked offsite at developer Snowblind in Seattle during development of Champions of Norrath 1 & 2.
Converting physical board game to digital for non-profit advocacy program working with children in war torn areas.
Co-Designed core systems, game progression, levels, enemies, boss fights, and interactive objects for unannounced title.
Iterated on and implemented (using Unreal Blueprint) design of final level and boss, all level transition sequences, and non-combat global systems.
Assisted with design and prototyping of new game ideas. Offered feedback for Rocket League design issues.
Implemented user interface for all internal non-MLB projects. Assisted with managing, observing, and gathering feedback from on site play tests. Designed user experience guidelines from a perspective of usability and meaningful feedback.
Taught first year game design students core concepts of Unreal. Prepared lectures, graded assignments. All students created their own platforming game from scratch, including enemy AI/pathing, collectible power ups, gate/key puzzles, and boss fight.
Spoke to a new batch of 3D environment art students every semester about best practices when working with a level designer. Fielded questions, critiqued design aspects of portfolios.
Designed social multiplayer mini-games for an installation at Disney's Epcot Center sponsored by IBM's Project Big Green.
Wrote a bi-monthly editorial column that focused on technology and videogames.
Unreal, Unity, Spine, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, After Effects, Muse, 3DS Max, Maya, MS Office Suite
C#, Blueprint, Lua, Python, Perl, Javascript, Actionscript, XML, CSS
jake sones — jake.sones@gmail.com