What makes you a valued asset to our company?
Well, apart from being charming, handsome and fantastic lover, I'm also unbelievably humble.
Jokes aside, a trait game developers have is that we don't like to boast; this is compounded by my Britishness. In this 2019 GDC session, Dry Cactus' Patrick Corrieri talks about some taboos that many developers fall into. One of these is the fact we say things like "oh if you would like to look at this project please do, but if you don't like it don't worry it's not that good anyway". So in an attempt to break this mindset let me spend the rest of this blog post talking about how bloody brilliant I am.
I feel there are a few areas where I can bring value to a company, project or game I'm involved in.
1. To misquote George Orwell "All passions are created equal, but some are more equal than others". I can get passionate about any project I work on. Even projects that were total failures, which have never featured on my portfolio, I have done some fantastic work on. You wanna make a game about basketball, sure man that sounds fantastic, I'm going to throw myself fully into this project and learn as much about it as I can. But get me onto a topic I already have passion for and I can keep going for days. Like say Tabletop Roleplaying games, for example. Luckily game design is one of those passions, so if we are making a video game that is inspired by TTRPGS, well, my passion just got squared by the power of excitement. 2. I'm funny, well, I think I'm funny (and I think that because I am). I had the 2nd year design students play my game-jam game Flybird Steals Time. And gosh darn it some of those jokes in-game jokes landed. It felt so good to be watching them play and the room was filled with a soft chuckle. In our Oblivion Mod people talk about how much they enjoyed the quest and that too makes me feel good. Even with my Tabletop games Urban City Smackdown!!! and 4 and a Quarter Finger Fillet, people have enjoyed my writing and have contacted me independently to say they wanted to see more. It's not just comedy, Urban City Smackdown!!! won the first-ever spotlight award from the Tabletop Designers Guild due to its innovative, fun and unique mechanics. And the tabletop modules The Lonely Station; Five Zombie Lords; and Sorrowful Spearows were praised for the level of terror it instilled in the players. 3. An understanding of accessibility, during my studies one topic that really reached out to me was that of accessibility in games. I have spent a long time reading and researching - for the fun of it- about what the best way of helping people play and enjoy games. It really fascinates me seeing what changes in the approach you can set in place for an under-representative audience. During my consulting for the game Chromatose, steps I outlined made more sales for the game, as its photosensitive epilepsy mode had it featured in an accessibility blog.
These are all well and good, but still. What is my USP?
Interconnected Design, Metagame implementation or emotional feedback requirements. This is the area where I truly shine. I love cognitive dissonance, Pavlovic conditioning and rewardic conditioning; having elements reinforce the game's design in both narrative and systemic ways. Be it system sweeping situations such as how shooting is set up or even the idle pose of an NPC that helps sell the setting of the world. The way each of these things feed into each other is what elevates an amazing game into a life-changing one. This is something I implement in all my projects, even the none game ones, and is something that will continue to win me awards and accolades for myself and the company I work for.
Did I mention that I was insatiably humble? 1. Community Driven Discoverability for Indies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIbO7OKx0Eg 2. Blooming twins : https://chi-time.itch.io/bloomtwins 3. The Rules of Basketball - EXPLAINED! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYjp2zoqQrs 4. FlyBird 5. Oblivion Mod, https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49348?tab=posts&BH=1 6. 4 and a Quarter Finger Fillet https://gamesdisk.itch.io/4-and-a-quarter-finger-fillet-rpg 7. A website on game accessibility http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/ 8. https://www.chromatosegame.com/
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