A Tiny Game Engine That Runs In A Swift Playground (2019)

In 2019 I spent a little while building a tiny game engine that runs within a swift playground. It’s a lot of fun, and I may spend some more time on it. So far it has separation of game and engine logic, a little display that you can draw to, an update loop, collision detection and touch input! Great fun! And a great project to experiment with swift.

A Funny Collaborative Music Game (2016)

Ditch all that music stuff. You don't need it. Your friends are your band, and you need a hit.

In late 2016 I set about prototyping a funny music composition game. Designed to be played with friends, the game lets players take turns composing musical parts for their friends to perform. The first player's performance is converted into onomatopoeia which the next player must then perform vocally, and so on. As the players pass their phone around, alternately composing then performing, their tracks are mixed together to create a 'hit song'.  Designed to inspire no-strings-attached, spur of the moment creativity, the game is hilarious to play and the finished songs are hilarious to listen to. This prototype continues my work on amusingly constrained creative tools that are designed to make making easy.

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3D Tools (2015 & 2016)

In 2015 and 2016 I spent some time prototyping novel tools for 3D modelling. These tools shared philosophies around play, constraints and creativity that were becoming more and more common in my work at the time. Each prototype was designed with a different input type in mind - touch, virtual reality, and mouse input. The VR prototype was a particularly satisfying experiment in UX design constraints. Input on the google cardboard platform is limited to just one button - this limitation freed me to design a system that allows the user to construct in 3D space with only this button and the rotation of their head for input. See the videos below for demonstrations and discussions of the design thinking that went into these prototypes.

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Sheep Storm (2015)

Created in 2015, Sheep Storm is a thoroughly experimental prototype for a sheep-centric-weather-anomaly-based-game. Development began when I accidentally made sheep rain from the sky, which turned out to be much more interesting than what I was trying to do at the time. From that point on I built the game 'straight-ahead', allowing material/technical errors and luck to take my hand and lead me through the development process. I created all of the models in Sheep Storm using my Approachable 3D Construction Tool. There's not much more to say about this except that I had a lot of fun making it.  

Plane Plain (2015)

A figure/ground experiment.

A Game Where You Are The Train Tracks (2016)

Rather than play as the train, why not play as the tracks? This one was a lot of fun to build, and made for a very satisfying interaction.

Masterpiece Golfing (2019)

I spent a holiday afternoon or so prototyping a mini-golf game where you paint the course out before you play on it. Lots of fun.

Wooly Work (2015)

A hastily assembled Woolly Mammoth workplace simulator. This is one of my very first Unity prototypes, and the prototype that later inspired another prototype: Masterpiece Mammoth.

The not too distant future… You have been cloned successfully. Struggling to find your place in this new world, you have taken a job at the local business company. It is your first day. You are a Wooly Mammoth. Work.

It may look like what it is - a first step into unity - but I still love this idea of playing as a Mammoth and using only your trunk to interact with the world. The Masterpiece Mammoth prototype was a big step forwards from Wooly Work, but I’d love to explore this more one day…

Masterpiece Mammoth (2016)

Masterpiece Mammoth was conceptualised, fully prototyped, and won first prize at the 2016 International Game Concept Challenge in Singapore. The challenge allowed less than two weeks to produce a prototype, with teams composed of international contributors. I was the designer, working with Edmund Ang (Programmer, Singapore), Léa Lescuyer (Artist, France), Bryan Lim (Artist, Singapore) and Yasuhiro Kawamoto (Programmer, Japan) to create the game. It was a pleasure to work with such a capable team, and to experience the creative process internationally. The 2016 iteration of the International Game Concept Challenge was hosted by Nanyang Polytechnic, I attended as a representative of RMIT University, with several other institutions from around the world taking part.

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Beat Fountain (2016)

A rather annoying little musical instrument that I built one sweltering hot afternoon in January 2016. Catch the falling beats. Move them around. Annoy your cat. That kind of thing.

A Train Game That Uses MacPaint Patterns

I love Mac Paint, and I love making things with the original Mac paint pattern set. I’ve tried to do a Mac Paint train game in a few different ways, I’m keen to do it but haven’t hit on the right formula for it yet.

Don’t Drown (Save Your Town) (2016)

A cool little puzzle game where you aim to save as much of your town as possible from rising sea levels.