SUMMARY

TGA (The Game Awards) winning Lead Designer with 25+ years’ experience across AAA and Indie development working with talented teams on well-known IP. I have gained valuable expertise at delivering player-first experiences having led the creative vision, systemic direction, and accessibility strategy for key Team17 titles from concept to release. Currently Lead Designer at Lab42 Games.

Over my career I’ve developed deep cross-discipline knowledge and a design skill-set across multiple platforms, game genres, and team sizes. Having a proven track record for creating, owning, and delivering features, and games on time and to a high standard.

Highly experienced at mentoring and coaching designers as well as leading teams to success, looking to use these skills as part of a team culture that embraces collaboration and challenge on projects where I can help deliver world-class player experiences.

EXPERIENCE

Lab42 Games

22-Present - Lead Designer

  • Lead Designer on Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 whilst working externally with The Chinese Room. Leading strike teams for: The Open World, UI, and Player Progression.

  • Acting Game Director on a support project for PUBG.

  • Lead on prototype and pitch work resulting in securing contracts with established, well known IP.

  • Responsible for the mentor and development of the design department.

Team17 Ltd

04-22 - Game Designer/Lead Designer

  • Oversaw the full product lifecycle for The Survivalists from concept to launch, aligning design with marketing to secure over 430,000 Steam Wishlists

  • Led the design and project for Overcooked 2, a hugely successful title for the business both critically (The Game Awards Winner “Best Family Game” - 2018) and commercially.

  • Lead across many of Team17’s major releases, responsible for game, system, and level design as well as leading and developing multi-disciplinary teams on projects across multiple platforms.

  • Played a pivotal role in Team17’s commercial output for over 15+ years working on franchises such as Worms, Alien Breed, and The Escapists.

  • Design and in-engine implementation of systems and levels across many games and genres using both Unity and proprietary engine tools.

  • Design consultant on several external projects published by Team17, leaving regular feedback and offering my wealth of expertise leading to improvements in game design, level design, and combat.

  • Introduced Accessibility practices.

Rare Ltd

95-03 - QA/Game Designer

  • Designed character move sets and core combat mechanics on Killer Instinct 2

  • Developed in-game tutorials for Killer Instinct Gold

  • Game and level design on several well-known IP, including: Donkey Kong Country, Banjo Kazooie, and Conkers Bad Fur Day

  • Worked in several proprietary engines on console and handheld projects

  • Held a key design role in the in-house handheld development team working on commercially successful projects

SKILLS

LEADERSHIP

  • Team Leadership

  • Hiring & Interviewing for design departments

  • Mentoring hard & soft skills

  • Cross-Discipline management

  • Clear development documentation standards & processes

  • Scheduling

  • Coaching design teams

  • Team motivation

DESIGN

  • Game Design Documentation

  • Pitch documentation & presenting to stakeholders

  • Experience-led design

  • Game

  • Systems

  • Accessibility

  • Level

  • User Interface & User Experience

  • Procedurally Generated Content Design

SOFTWARE

  • Unreal Engine

  • Unity

  • Proprietary Engine

  • Confluence

  • Jira

  • Miro

  • MS Office Suite

  • Photoshop

  • Source Control

PERSONAL PROFILE

I’ve always been involved in a wide variety of creative endeavours, from making board games as a child, creating and studying art and of course creating games. Even at the age of 13 I designed and created games with friends for the Atari ST, something I’ve been lucky enough to later do as a profession.

I have a love for Video Games which has only grown the longer I’ve played them, from Dungeon Master to Shadow of the Colossus to Destiny and everything in-between, even playing some fighting games at a competitive level. More recently I have become an advocate for accessibility in games and spend a lot of time exploring this topic.

Outside of games, I love movies, especially horror (Scream being my favourite horror franchise) sci-fi, and music - having been an avid festival goer through my late teens and 20’s. Sports are also something I actively took part in for a large portion of my life, playing football for several local teams and the companies I worked for.

Like everyone else I consume unhealthy amounts of “trash” on Netflix and YouTube. I have a strong circle of friends that I involve in most aspects of my life which helps to keep me sane and often leads to interesting new opportunities to try new things and explore new places.