I've currently completed my (penultimate) third year studying Computer Games (Design) at Glasgow Caledonian University, where I've picked up a broad range of skills, such as:
- Multimedia and Software Programming in C#, Java and Flash.
- Games Programming & Scripting with Unity 3D, GameSalad, RPG Maker VX Ace, TWINE and Visual Studio.
- 3D Modelling with Autodesk 3D Studio Max
- Game Design & Game Balancing
- Game Testing & Evaluation
Date: August 2013
Type: Solo Project (Game Jam)
The Loch: A Scottish Fishing RPG is a game set in the fictional Loch Saor in the Scottish Highlands, and follows Angela, a fisher who has come to the loch to fish, make new friends, and explore the area. The Loch was initially created as part of the 7-Day Fishing Game Jam and then expanded, using RPG Maker VX Ace Lite, and uses audio samples by inchadney. After release, I documented my experience with developing the Loch here on hyparc.net!
You can download The Loch via dropbox here!
You can download The Loch via dropbox here!
Date: July 2013
Type: Solo Project (Game Jam)
Ava Martin VS. The Binarist Hegemony follows Ava Martin, a trans woman with the power of localised gravity distortion, who seeks to take down a nefarious institution bent on keeping the world locked inside a gender binary. Having infiltrated the Binarist Hegemony headquarters and finding the chamber where Binary Law is preserved, Ava uses her powers to leap from one platform to the next to destroy the Gender Pylons holding up the Gender Binary. This game was made as part of the iamagamer.ca "Strong Female Protagonist" 48hr Game Jam, which I participated in remotely, and I wrote about my experiences of the jam and making Ava Martin VS. The Binarist Hegemony right here on hyparc.net! Ava Martin was developed using GameSalad and published using HTML5.
Type: Solo Project
Hypnagogue is an interactive fiction horror game where the protagonist awakes one night to discover their bedroom has been transmogrified and devoured by a strange, otherworldly maze. My goal with Hypnagogue was to become familiar with the TWINE interface, using HTML & CSS for games, and to try out rapid prototyping to get a workable game finished in a few days time. You can play Hypnagogue over here!
Type: University Project (Third Year)
Team: Mitch Alexander, Suneil Rakhra, Chelsea Toner.
QUID is a text-based adventure game that I created as part of a team in university for a module on the Interactive Storytelling, where we were given the task of creating a piece of narrative-driven interactive fiction that focused on a topic of our choosing from the field of Games for Learning or Games for Health. We chose to create an interactive story exploring the topic of Queer Identity in a way that was meaningful, relevant, helpful and engaging for 13-17 year olds. You can play QUID over at Inklewriter!
Date: April 2012
Team: "Team 13" - Mitch Alexander (Lead Design), Callum Sneddon (Lead Programming), Paul Roache (Programming), Vladislavs Prokudins (Art), Mark Montgomery (Art).
As part of a module in Second Year, I worked as part of a team to create a platformer game based on a story of our choosing from David Eagleman's Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives. I took on the role of lead designer for the game, which included devising the gameplay mechanics, themes and narrative in the game. Gameplay footage and a trailer for our finished game, The Unnatural, can be seen below!
Date: Feb 2012
Type: Independent Project (Global Game Jam)Team: "Team Strawberry Tart" - Mitch Alexander (Design), Leanne Gavigan (Design), Heather MacGill (Design), Suneil Rakhra (Design), Chelsea Toner (Art/Design), Reiss McGee (Design/Programming), Alisdair Muircroft (Programming).
I took part in the 2012 Global Game Jam in a group of second year students. You can download and play our finished game The 41st Tale here, and you can read about my experiences with the 2012 Global Game Jam here!
Date: Jul 2011
Type: Independent Project (Game Jam)Team: "Team Nyan" - Mitch Alexander (Art/Design), Chelsea Toner (Art/Design), Suneil Rakhra (Design), Leanne Gavigan (Design), Reiss McGee (Design/Programming), Alisdair Muircroft (Programming).
I took part in the "Caledonian Summer Game Jam" in June 2011, and created a game based on the theme of "Frenemies: Friends & Enemies" over a weeklong period. I worked in the role of a designer/co-ordinator for a game called The Rapture. You can download The Rapture here, and you can find out more about the game's development here!
I've written a number of reviews and reflections of particular games and elements of videogame culture: I'm currently writing for GayGamer.net, and have also written for Square-Go, a Scottish videogames review site, as well as writing features right here on the blog, such as Minecraft Monday and myEXP.
- Queer Mechanic #1: "Identify as..."
"Queer Mechanics is a new regular feature here on GayGamer – each month, we’ll be presenting a new game mechanic that could be used in games that include or focus on queer identity or culture. Queer Mechanics is a thought experiment, to see both what we could add to games, and to recognise what’s been missing from them; it’s a challenge, both to readers, to come up with novel, interesting and effective ways to use them, and to developers, to include them in games; and it’s a discussion for a more inclusive, more varied, and more innovative future for the games industry." - 'Fear for the Flesh: Francis Bacon's Influence on Silent Hill'
"The Silent Hill series draws upon a vast range of artists and media for the inspiration behind its macabre setting, its disturbing and suggestive monsters, and its unsettling stories ... Of particular importance is Francis Bacon (1909 – 1992), a gay Irish/English figurative painter whose artwork frequently explores themes of dread, violence, sexuality and the human condition – there are strong parallels between Francis Bacon’s work and the monsters, environments and themes of Silent Hill – violence, punishment, redemption, sexuality, death and humanity." - 'Easter Egg Apocrypha: Cheats and Hidden Treats in Videogames'
"The first “Easter Egg” is thought to be a secret room created by Warren Robinett in Adventure for the Atari 2600 – due to Atari’s policy of not crediting designers, Robinett decided to circumvent this by hiding a tiny grey dot in one of the levels of Adventure which allowed the player to pass through a wall into a secret room with Robinett’s signature inside. It was a fairly difficult secret to find, but eventually, someone did – and since then, gamers the world over have sought out Easter Eggs, cheats, glitches and secrets like pilgrims seeking relics." - 'Slender: The Eight Pages'
"The unknown and the unexpected are the bread and butter of the horror genre – and an indie PC game quietly released in June 2012 fits the bill, coming as it did from the relatively unknown developer Mark J. Hadley of Parsec Productions, and unexpectedly becoming one of the most terrifying games of the year." - 'Not Just, Justifiable, nor Just A Joke'
"Harassment seems ubiquitous, inevitable and inescapable in the world of videogames, and targets of harassment run the gamut from folk who show the slightest interest in games, to folk who regularly play and write about games as a career, all the way to folk who create games – and that harassment can come from folk in those roles, too."