Game Designer
Coming up on a year of experience in professional game industry, here’s my current workflow and thought process for the games I currently have shipped on Itch.io with my most recent completed shipped game being TAX FRUAG.
There are some projects that are still in progress that cannot have core essentials revealed. They will elaborated on and revealed once released.
Featured Projects
Tax Fraug (CLICK Tax Fraug to play)
Project Summary
When audited by the IRS, a greedy frog must rapidly relocate his assets across a series of ponds to avoid financial collapse and imprisonment.
This is a 2.5D action game developed by a small team over a 4-month production cycle as a class project. After strong player feedback, the game was published on Itch.io and received recognition, including a People’s Choice Award from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
I worked as both Game Designer and Gameplay Programmer, focusing on core mechanics, movement systems, and gameplay balance.
Design Goal
The design goal was to create a fast, chaotic action experience built around the fantasy of bribing your way to freedom under escalating legal pressure.
The player is constantly balancing survival and corruption using limited offensive resources to influence enemies while avoiding incoming threats.
Design Issues & Iteration
Enemy System Failure
Early in development, enemies spawned inconsistently and often failed to execute core behaviors such as projectile attacks. In some cases, enemies would spawn but remain idle, breaking the intended gameplay pressure.
Solution:
We corrected the enemy AI and spawning logic to ensure consistent behavior, including proper activation and projectile firing upon spawn. This restored the intended combat pressure and gameplay rhythm.Lack of Clear Win Condition
The game initially lacked a clearly communicated end condition, causing players to continue indefinitely without understanding how to complete the objective.
Solution:
We introduced a defined win condition requiring players to defeat a set number of enemies. This provided structure to the gameplay loop and gave players a clear sense of progression and completion.Enemy Overcrowding
When functioning correctly, enemies could accumulate indefinitely if not defeated quickly, leading to pacing issues and overwhelming gameplay that reduced strategic decision making.
Solution:
We implemented a cap on active enemies at any given time. This stabilized gameplay pacing and ensured encounters remained readable and strategically manageable.
BAT Out of Hell (Click on Bat out of Hell to Play)
Project Summary
Bat Out of Hell is a game jam project developed for Mini Jam 69: Hell. The project was designed around a fast, arcade style gameplay loop built for immediate readability and replayability within a short jam timeframe. I worked as both Game Designer and Sound Designer, responsible for core gameplay structure, player feedback systems, and audio design.
Design Goal
The design goal was to create a simple but highly satisfying arcade experience where the core action drives all progression. The intended player fantasy was a powerful swing that clears hell through pure momentum and precision. We focused on instant gameplay comprehension, a tight repeatable core loop, strong visual and audio feedback for every action, and short session replayability.
The core gameplay loop is hit baseball, destroy demons, gain reward and progression, escalate challenge, and repeat until completion. Each successful hit directly results in enemy destruction and progression, reinforcing a simple cause and effect structure.
The game was designed for instant readability, meaning players immediately understand what to do, what happens when they do it, and why it matters. A strong focus was placed on high feedback gameplay, where every action is reinforced through immediate visual impact, audio cues, and clear reward signals. Rather than complex systems, progression is driven by repeated successful hits, efficient enemy clearing, and escalating challenge over time, keeping the experience focused on execution and rhythm.
Contribution
I contributed to core loop design by ensuring the hit to destruction relationship was immediate and readable, structuring progression around repeated successful actions, and maintaining pacing suitable for short session gameplay. I also focused on player experience design by making the game fast, responsive, and easy to understand within seconds while reinforcing satisfaction through consistent feedback.
On the audio side, I designed and implemented sound effects for baseball impacts, enemy destruction, and reward progression signals. Audio was used to strengthen impact, improve timing clarity, and increase satisfaction from repeated actions, helping make the simple mechanic feel more engaging and responsive.
Key Issue
A key challenge was ensuring clarity in a fast-paced loop, as early versions lacked strong feedback between hitting the baseball and enemy destruction, which reduced impact clarity. This was solved by strengthening both visual and audio feedback to create immediate cause and effect understanding. Another challenge was balancing simplicity with engagement, which we addressed by refining the core loop and improving responsiveness instead of adding additional systems.
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