Portfolio

Below you can find blurbs regarding any projects that I was or am still involved in. Currently they include audio/video game development and audio/sound design, but in the future that list may expand to include more.

Tactical Battle

It would be remiss of me if I did not mention Ian Reed's Tactical Battle here, considering that is what got me interested in game development to begin with.

My work for Tactical Battle can be found here. The War For Earth was mine, and I also contributed to the Demon Wars Cycle pack. More on both of those is below.

Tactical Battle was a grid-based strategical audio game engine which allowed a user to create their own games using a combination of text documents and an inbuilt map editor. Developers could create units, items, skills, status effects, terrain and new damage types using simple text file templates. Custom points were also doable, from simulating things such as health, mana, stamina and ammunition, to more complex things such as a petrify point that, if damaged and brought to zero, would cause a unit to be afflicted by the petrify status condition. Maps were also very simple to create; a user created a text file, added the necessary lines in order to tell the engine what the document was being used for, place it in the 'Maps' folder, and then enter the map editor built into the engine. From here, they could easily place terrain, items, units and regions, as well as add a custom soundtrack. This was more intuitive than editing and placing things into the text file directly.

There were limitations as to how far you could go, but even so the engine allowed for a ton of customizability. This was further enhanced with the ability for users to write their own scripts using JavaScript, which would add more enhanced features to the game if shared with the community.

I started messing around with Tactical Battle, or TB, back in 2014. I quickly found that I greatly enjoyed creating games through the engine, and when I started wanting more features, along with poking the devs to add more, I decided to try picking up JavaScript. I didn't have any books, so I learnt by both doing and by poking a couple of the other scripters who were more than happy to sit down with me and walk me through concepts, or give me hints as to how I could improve my code. Thanks to their aid, I was able to release my first script to the game, which gave a user the ability to summon a random unit instead of a fixed one. Over the years I added more scripts on top of that, including but not limited to counter attacks and a subset of features to further customize them, stealing items from enemy units, randomly adding a set of skills to newly-generated units, item creation, and source and target effects after damage.

I was also brought in near the end of the project to help with the Demon Wars map pack. The devs were completing map 3, which, unlike the earlier levels, was more akin to a rogue-like dungeon crawler rather than a defense strategy game. I aided them by creating sounds and discussing the viability of a couple features, and was also allowed to add my own mobs to the game for a while. I decided to build an out-of-the-way cactus garden as a side area. Players were not required to go there in order to complete the mission, but they would be rewarded with plenty of potions, both healing and otherwise, if they chose to do so.

After Demon Wars, and while still working on my fantasy project, I decided to create a smaller set of maps for release. The beginning did not have much of a story; it was just an excuse to create a space invasion type of game where players had to defend against alien ships, and if they weren't careful, against aliens themselves. I released two levels for that pack, which was titled The War for Earth, and was working on a third. Unfortunately, Tactical Battle was finally officially discontinued in the summer of 2018, putting an end to both War for Earth and the other projects that I had in the works.

You can find more information about Tactical Battle, as well as links to some of its packs, here.

Ebon Sky Studios

I was an active member of Ebon Sky Studios from its infancy in 2017, to its final days in 2024. Originally I was asked to come on as a sound designer, but I soon proved my worth with the actual development side of things as well. I was particularly interested in map creation, or level design.

Ebon Sky Studios, for those who may not have heard of it, was an audio game company focused on developing games primarily for the blind and visually impaired. Audio games typically do not require graphics, and are solely based on sound-based output. This provides the perfect setting for a blind gamer to be able to enjoy playing a game, whereas with the traditional game they might have to rely on walkthroughs and sighted assistance in order to complete a playthrough. We started out with the development of Sable, our audio game creation toolset, or engine. Sable allows for a user to create a full game without any knowledge of coding or scripting, making it an ideal tool for someone who wants to create a game and doesn't have the experience or ability to program. Eventually, we decided to try our hand at using Sable to create a game, which we had titled Crimson Eclipse.

My work namely dealt with the design aspects: creating monsters, abilities, areas and items. I worked with Justin, our other game designer, to come up with and implement these elements and then check them for balance issues. I also designed a few of the formulas for Crimson, such as the experience table, which determines how much experience a player would get after killing different monsters. In addition I was in charge of managing the company's website and updating the public changelog for Sable.