Meta Horizon is Meta's social platform for the metaverse, spanning Quest, mobile, and web, where players explore user- and Meta-made worlds, hang out with friends, and jump into games together. As a Technical Designer, I worked on gameplay features and improvements to the underlying tech stack that shipped across Horizon Central — the social hub that welcomes players into Horizon Worlds — and Events, the space built for large-scale live gatherings.
My work sat at the intersection of design and engineering: prototyping and shipping gameplay systems, and building out tooling and tech stack improvements that let the broader team iterate faster and ship bigger features with more polish.
Work Highlights:
Gameplay feature design and development for Horizon Central and Events
Tech stack improvements to support faster iteration and larger-scale features
Cross-functional collaboration with design, engineering, and production
Noro & the Cosmic Coast is a cozy adventure-puzzle game in which players follow a traveler across the cosmos as he looks for a cure that will save his little girl, Noro. Each planet along the journey is a tiny puzzle that fits in your hands and is full of unique creatures that the traveler must work with to solve problems, create happiness, and ultimately save Noro.
Noro was selected as an Oculus Launchpad winner in 2021.
Above the Rim is an over the top VR slam dunk challenge that is currently being played at NBA and college basketball games all around the US as part of the Cox Communications Virtual Experience.
Players fly through the air in slow motion while completing a series of insane tricks. Each trick is shown through a trail of glowing spheres that the player must swipe the ball through to collect.
Work Highlights:
Game design and development: Primary gameplay mechanics, game progression
User experience design and development: Feel and feedback, UI
In Power Blast players step into VR and swing for the fences in a home run derby style hitting challenge. The game uses a 3D printed bat connected to an Oculus controller to create a strong presence and immersion. Power Blast can be played at various major sporting events as part of Cox Communication's Virtual Reality Experience.
Work Highlights:
Game design: Primary gameplay mechanics, game progression
User experience design and development: Feel and feedback, UI
In Pass to Glory players put on the helmet of an Arizona Cardinals quarterback and compete in a rapid pass challenge. Players select from a series of routes and are scored on how accurately they can throw to their receiver. Pass to Glory can be played at University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals.
Work Highlights:
Game design and development: Primary gameplay mechanics, game progression
AI design and development: Receiver logic and animations
User experience design and development: Feel and feedback, UI
Spectrum 3 Point Shootout is a VR experience in which players get the chance to feel like an NBA all-star and sink as many shots as possible in ninety seconds. The experience is currently playable at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the Charlotte Hornets.
Work Highlights:
Game design and development: Gameplay mechanics, game progression
User experience design and development: Feel and feedback, UI
Creative direction: Music, art
Art: Created particle effects
Farmers Insurance Claims Virtual Reality Training is an award winning training experience used by Farmers Insurance to train adjusters. The project had amazing results for Farmers and won a 2019 CIO award for innovation.
Work Highlights:
Game design and development: Primary gameplay mechanics, game progression
Learning design: Built gamified lessons from Farmers course material
User experience design and development: Feel and feedback, UI
Big meets bigger in Project Rampage VR, the official virtual reality game for the movie Rampage. Using CRISPR technology, create monster mutations in Energyne’s lab and unleash destruction across the world.
Work Highlights:
Game design and development: Energyne lab monster DNA puzzle mechanics
User experience design and development: Feel and feedback and UI for Energyne lab
The Walking Dead Social Game: Chronicles was an open world tactics game based on the hit TV show. It featured an original story which included characters from the show as well as a cast of new characters. Among the game's social features was a raiding system in which players attacked each other's camps to steal resources.
Work Highlights:
Game design: Combat mechanics, balancing and tuning
Narrative design: Story and scenarios for chapters 2 and 3
Level design: Created maps and scenarios for chapters 2 and 3
User experience design: UI, player feedback
The Real Housewives was a social adventure game in which players managed their social lives by gaining, trading, and gambling social resources with other New York socialites. The game featured the cast of Real Housewives of New York and an over-the-top story featuring high drama confrontations and hilarious twists. The game gave players the chance to create their own housewife and build their lifestyle by customizing their wardrobe and apartment.
Work Highlights:
Game design: Social mechanics, balancing and tuning
At Talespin we were hired by DasCoin to create an immersive data-visualization of the blockchain to help customers understand the technology. Users were given the ability to step into, slow down and touch a 3D model of the blockchain network. Each transaction could be selected by touch and inspected.
Work Highlights:
Learning design and development: Visualization of data
User experience design: UI, player feedback, 3rd party observer experience
Tome+Totem is an adventure/puzzle game for iOS & Android. Become a powerful god by solving the problems of the people and earning their worship. Wield a multitude of godly powers; Hand of Power lets you literally move mountains, Fury gives you the ability to smite with incinerating fire, Flourish calls down rain from the sky to nourish the earth, and Gust lets you control the winds and storms with a stroke of your finger.
Work Highlights:
Game design and development: Gameplay mechanics, puzzles, game progression
Narrative design: Story, lore, dialogue
User experience design and development: Feel and feedback, UI
Creative direction: Art style, SFX
Sound: Music
The Incredible Corpse was a stealth action game being developed for mobile. Since I left Eyes Wide Games the project it has been rebranded as Ace Wild and later cancelled.
Critter Cubed is a 3D puzzle game being developed for mobile devices using Unity. This game started as a Global Game Jam project but has continued on as an independent project with new features and content being added.
The game plays like a 3D sudoku puzzle in which the player must figure out what the needs are of the critters on each side of the cube. Changing the environment of one critter will also affect at least one other critter, so finding the right balance can be difficult.
Tilting at Windmills was made for Global Game Jam in 2014.
Cor Ex Machina was a game developed using the Unity engine for the Atlanta Global Game Jam, at which it won 2nd place overall. The player controlled an orb floating through the mechanical arteries of a defunct robot. The player had to use magnetic force to guide balls of energy into the robot's heart.
Cor Ex Machina is an interesting game to reflect upon because we actually made the game considerably less fun at the very end of development. We accidentally took a fun, addictive, and zen-like demo and made it a chore to play with just a few bad decisions. We slowed down the game to give players more time to be strategic with their decisions. We also added more obstacles for the player to navigate around. But this just made the game feel clunky and annoying. We didn't take the time to realize we were forcing in new dynamics which conflicted with what was making the game fun.
Fishku is a short game developed using Flash and Action Script 3. It's a puzzle game that gives players riddles in the form of haikus. Players must use the game pieces on the screen to solve the haiku.
Wide Awake was a solo project developed using the Unreal Game Engine. The game served as a learning tool for UDK and kismet, but was never expanded past one level. Wide Awake focused on 3D platforming and put the player in the role of a frightening creature who invades a child's dreams and turns them into nightmares.
