A Portfolio of a Game Designer

@LosttoLauren

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ONCE UPON A CRIME IN THE WEST - 2019 - Unreal Engine 4

Somewhere in the Old West, there lies a cabin full of corpses.

If you had arrived moments sooner, you might have been one of them.

It all started on Christmas Day, when The Old Sheriff of New Town was murdered. In the days that followed, several dangerous strangers would make their way to the Mount Inn, an isolated shelter on the mountain path between New Town and Old Town, and kill each other.

Now it’s down to you to untangle their motives and piece together the bigger picture from the gruesome aftermath.

The third National Insecurities murder mystery game, I worked on the game’s general assets, mechanics, prototyping, programming and design.

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END OF TRANSMISSION - 2018 - Unreal Engine 4

EARTH IS DESTROYED. FIND THE LIGHT.

Our GGJ18 puzzle game, where you play as an alien aligning ancient light pylons to extract data from a ruined Earth.

I worked on the project with 5 others, my focus being on programming and particle systems.

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2000:1 - A Space Felony - 2017 - Unreal Engine 4

2000:1 is a murder mystery courtroom drama set aboard the USS Endowment, an interplanetary Spacecraft that has lost communication with Earth.

I worked on the game's general assets, mechanics, prototyping, blueprint scripting and design.

(Trailer)

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Tempest - 2015 - Unreal Engine 4

Tempest is a multiplayer open-world sailing adventure, where players must cooperate to operate sailing ships and explore the world in search for treasure.

I work on this project with 6 others, where my roles include blueprint scripting, networking, 3D art and level design.

(Early multiplayer footage)

(IndieDB Page)

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Hogwarts - 2015 - Source Engine (Garry's Mod)

A cancelled project, this was a large level designed for a Garry's Mod role-play community, giving the player extensive freedom of Hogwarts Castle and the surrounding grounds.

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pigeongame.exe - 2015+2018 - Unreal Engine 4

Another short project, pigeongame.exe is an open-world game where the player is a pigeon in a bright, colourful city. The game incorporates an artificial blind spot on the player, so that although they have a large field of view, they are unable to see what is directly in front of them.

I lead this project with Gary Kings, and was involved in blueprint programming, visual design and level design.

Made with Gary Kings, Jackson Rolls-Gray and Sam Beale.

(Development Videos)

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Jelly Runner - 2015 - Unreal Engine 4

A four day gamejam challenge project, this is an Unreal 4 version of the Gamemaker game made in first year by two of our team members, Jackson Rolls-Gray and Mitchel Leatherdale. The player must avoid obstacles and collect gems while they are constantly pursued by a ball of ice-cream. This is our first attempt at building a game with mobile devices in mind.

My roles in this project involved blueprint programming, modelling, Android prototyping and level design.

Made with Jackson Rolls-Gray, Mitchel Leatherdale and Sam Beale.

(Development Videos)

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Game Design & 3D Art Showreel - 2015

Includes content from rp_station13, Nix and Comet's Tale. Also includes models produced for the 3D Modelling module in my second year of Computer Games Design at USW.

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Comet’s Tale - 2015 - Unreal Engine 4

My current project, a puzzle platformer using a unique mirror mechanic where the mirror's reflection shows more truth than the actual world. I'm working on this with Sam Beale and Faye Allen, the pair of whom made an early version of the game in UDK3 during their second year.

I've been working on blueprint scripting, modelling and texturing, while also building a few of the levels.

(Development Videos)

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Nix - 2014 - CryEngine 3

2014 Winner of the Off The Map GameCity9 competition.

An underwater Oculus Rift exploration game, putting the players inside a twisted form of Fonthill Abbey, a country house that was destroyed in 1846. This was made during my second year at University of South Wales for the Off The Map competition hosted by Gamecity, Crytek and the British Library, and was designed for the Rift from the ground up. This game proved the importance of play-testing, which had a huge impact on many of the design decisions we made.

I worked primarily on the mechanics and level design, focused more upon two of the interior segments - the Tower, and the Library.

Made with Faye Allen and Jackson Rolls-Gray.

(Trailer)

(British Library Press Office)

(Development Blog)

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Xibalba - 2013 - Unreal Engine 3

Second year project at the University of South Wales. This was a puzzle-platformer in a fantasy setting inspired by Xibalba, the Mayan afterlife. Our task was to create a game in a specific theme, of which we chose Mayan. I worked on the level design of a platforming oriented part of the game.

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Jet Potential - 2013 - Gamemaker

First year project with Andrew Sweeting and Rob Pearce at the University of South Wales. With the keywords 'Inside', 'Under', 'Jet' and 'Potential', we made a 2d platformer about a pilot crashing their jet in a cave, and how they escaped. I worked on the mechanics, art and level design. 

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Various minor projects 2009 - 2012 (Source Engine)

A few small experiments, with focus on either getting a specific atmosphere into an environment, or working with specific game mechanics.

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Various renders - 2009-2012 - Terragen 2

These were mostly for personal use, various 2x1080p renders of skylines and landscapes to act as display backgrounds. Some were adapted for use as 3d skyboxes in my maps on the Source Engine, such as for gm_skylife.

Download links to the full-sized variants can be found here.

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rp_station13 - 2011 - Source Engine (Garry's Mod)

This map was made with Jackson Rolls-Gray in homage to Space Station 13, a game by BYOND where a traitor must perform a set of objectives on a station inhabited by players, who must work to keep the station operating. I lead this project, built the layout and worked on half of the station alongside my teammate.

This is a remastered version of rp_deadspace, made in 2009.

Sci-fi Texture Pack by Philip K.

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gm_skylife - 2010 - Source Engine (Garry's Mod)

Featured on the official Garry's Mod website in 2010

Heavily inspired by Na Pali's floating island levels in Unreal (1998), this level gives players a peaceful environment above the clouds to build on or explore. I designed the level and rendered the skybox used.

(Facepunch Post)

(Steam Workshop)

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ons_wastelands - 2009 - Source Engine (Garry's Mod)

This map was designed as an onslaught for the player to survive, providing them with a small, AI noded area for them to build defences and fight endless waves of monsters, of increasing strength. The map comes with a set of brush-based tools for the players, such as mounted turrets, mine-layers and wall pieces.

(Facepunch Post)

(Steam Workshop)