Hi, I'm Theo. I'm a certified Unity game developer with professional contributions to a dozen games (several from the pre-production phase, 10 of which shipped) across all major platforms, specialising in PC and mobile. I've worked on both independent titles and well-known IP from big publishers.
I've been in the games industry for over 10 years in design, brand, and marketing roles, working at both small and large publishers and developers.
Having this understanding of where art meets business gives me a more holistic view of designing with business and product goals in mind.
I also make games solo in my spare time (8 so far!) for fun and continuous learning, and I mentor underrepresented individuals new to or looking to enter the games industry as part of the Limit Break mentorship program.
Professional Contributions Highlights
Short Description: Snipers Vs Thieves: The Heist is the latest instalment from the blockbuster PvP multiplayer shooter franchise with over 10m+ downloads across the App Store and Google Play Store.
Design Contribution Overview:
Core gameplay features
Meta & retention systems design
Monetization design
FTUE & onboarding design
Gameplay balancing
Platform: Mobile (Android & iOS).
Project Length (individual time on the project): 6 months.
Engine & Tools: Unity (2019), Adobe XD (wireframing flows), Photoshop, Playtest Cloud (playtesting analysis), Google Sheets (remote config for balancing), TortoiseGit (Git interface), Confluence and Jira.
Short Description: Unannounced Football Game is a new mobile (with PC & console aspirations) football game franchise. It's the spiritual successor to a legendary British football IP, led by its pioneering co-creator.
Design Contribution Overview:
Core gameplay features design
Content roadmap planning
FTUE & onboarding design
UX design
Platform: Mobile
Project Length (individual time on the project): 1 year+ (ongoing).
Engine & Tools: Unity (2022) Adobe XD (wireframing), Photoshop, TortoiseGit (Git interface), Confluence and Jira.
11 Casual & Hypercasual titles
Short Description: Before our studio's pivot to solely developing the Unannounced Football Game, I had been alternating between our casual & hypercasual projects (roughly 2 per month), performing numerous design duties, from the pre-production phase to post-launch.
Design Contribution Overview:
Level design documentation & white-boxing
In-engine (Unity) level creation
Game design documentation creation
Gameplay, economy & meta balancing
Art design pass (reskinning)
Monetization design
FTUE & onboarding design
Progression & meta-design
Platforms: Mobile
Cumulative Time On Casual & Hypercasual Projects: 6 months
Engine & Tools: Unity (2022), ProBuilder, Adobe XD (wireframing), Photoshop, TortoiseGit (Git interface), Confluence and Jira.
Self-Made Games Highlights
Chuck The Duck In: Crossy Seas
Short Description: A casual roguelike using streamlined tap, drag and release mechanics to navigate through levels, dodging and attacking enemies, using currency to unlock abilities for that next run.
Core Design Concept: There were very few streamlined roguelike games for a casual mobile audience, and even fewer that embedded light city-building mechanics, allowing users to build their own city, with each unlock providing both a cosmetic and practical (abilities) benefit.
Platform: Mobile (Android).
Project Length: 12 months.
Engine & Tools: Unity (2020), Visual Studio (C# Programming), Blender, Photoshop, Openshot (open-source video editor), Trello & DALL•E (generative image creation via Bing Create), Sourcetree.
Short Description: Place numerical cards to ensure rows and columns equal a total sum, underpinned by an emotional narrative about loss and acceptance.
Core Design Concept: To utilise the already-established mechanics of the walking simulator genre and the benefits that gameplay type brings alongside a second, entirely different gameplay type centred on using cards and tabletop-like mechanics to solve puzzles.
Platform: PC (Windows).
Project Length: 12 months.
Engine & Tools: Unity (2020), Visual Studio (C# Programming), ProBuilder, Blender, Photoshop, Openshot (open-source video editor), Sourcetree and Trello.
Short Description: A hypercasual idle game whereby the user spends soft currency on unlockable tiles that grant power-ups, cash, resources, and scenery that reveals more of the world around them.
Core Design Concept: To create a streamlined, simple, and partially hands-off experience that could be played by a wide variety of different audiences, offering incremental moments of joy with quick earnings and progress.
Platform: Mobile (Android).
Project Length: 6 months.
Engine & Tools: Unity (2020), Visual Studio (C# Programming), Photoshop, Clipchamp (open-source video editor), Sourcetree and Trello.
Short Description: A casual reimagining of darts with different boards and challenges to overcome.
Core Design Concept: I got thinking about how confusing darts' scoring system is for children or those unfamiliar with the sport. I wanted the challenge to come from hitting the right quadrants on the board to reach a target score. I wanted to do this by stripping away dart rules that may be hard for my target audience to instinctively understand.
Platform: Mobile (Android).
Project Length: 3 Months.
Engine & Tools: Unity (2019), Visual Studio (C# Programming), Blender, Photoshop, Openshot (open-source video editor) and Trello.
Short Description: A satirical (both in its absurd nature and due to our lockdown-longing to get back on a busy train [sarcasm]) take on the eager businessperson making their way onto a train just before its doors close.
Core Design Concept: Flappy Bird but with a vertical drop as opposed to horizontal progression.
Platform: Mobile (Android).
Project Length: 6 Months.
Engine & Tools: Unity (2019), Visual Studio (C# Programming), Blender, Photoshop, Openshot (open-source video editor), Microsoft Paint (for pixel art) and Trello.