Game Design Portfolio
Game Design
2021-2025
Fear the Spotlight
Co-creator & Creative Director
Created all art assets, designed levels, designed puzzles, wrote story & dialogue, and directed VO actors. Worked directly with publisher on marketing, PR, legal, and porting teams.
Fear the Spotlight is rated Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam with an 83 Metacritic score. Nominated for a GLAAD Award and The Indie Game Awards for Narrative.
Fear the Spotlight is the first published title from Blumhouse Games.
Level Design
Each level was designed to service the gameplay, pacing, and narrative. Whether it was to provoke unease, give clarity for players, or to keep exploration exciting, all level layouts had specific purpose. A significant challenge was creating levels that were easily memorable to players since there is no in-menu map. This was done with visual interest, unique space shapes, varying traversal, and landmarks.
Library Level Breakdown
The library was our tutorial level and was used to introduce the player to the core tactile puzzle gameplay. The main objective here was to find the spirit board and start the seance!
1. Pointing to golden path
Lighting, visibility, points of interest, and your buddy companion were all used to nudge players towards the golden path.
If players go off the path they are rewarded with points of interest that allow for world building and story.
View from Starting Point
2. Mutli-purposed Objective
Your main objective served multiple purposes. The first was to introduce the “select item” system for how key items are used. The second was using your inventory menu as an opportunity for storytelling!
3. Inspect Points
A twinkling star is used to show players what they can inspect. These inspect points were placed strategically in the level.
4. Tactile System Introduction
Simple set ups with the tactile system were placed to get players used to inspecting, selecting, dragging, and clicking.
5. Memorable goal
The final goal was to get the Spirit Board to start the seance. The objective is memorable, core to the story, and puts players on edge for what will happen next!
Narrative Design
Narrative was an important part of Fear the Spotlight and made a lasting impact on players. Our goal was to integrate narrative using environments, puzzle designs, and diegetic elements to make the story more immersive interwoven into gameplay. Since the story is a dark mystery, it was important to design when players were revealed key information and in what form.
Puzzle Design
My goal with puzzle design was to make set ups that were satisfying to solve, feel part of the world, and connect it back to the story. Since players might be juggling multiple objectives at once, it was important to make each set up distinct and memorable. Our tactile system (turning knobs, smashing items, pulling nails, etc) was implemented to make puzzle set ups even more satisfying and immersive to play.
2016 - 2021
Game Jams
While working full-time in TV animation I made small game jam projects! I used these as opportunities to learn new skills and to have fun. Here are some of my favorites.
