Divinity: Original Sin 2 (2017)
Released: 14/09/2017
I worked as a quest design and scripter intern at Larian on the sequel of Divinity: Original Sin.
– Divinity Website
– Metacritic
Role highlight:
– Quest design
– Scripting quests
– Scripting behaviours
Engine:
– Divinity Engine
A large part of my time was dedicated to creating exceptions: “What if the player does ‘X’ instead” or “normally the user can use an item to do ‘Y’ so this quest item should have the same functions”. So when it came to quest creation I always needed to make sure the quest properly handled and reacted on every exception.
Quests should never be blocked and preferably the quest should still have a satisfying ending for the player and make them feel like: “Cool I could actually do that”.
Additionally I created global behaviours that are shared between many characters if they are not currently involved with something else (Like quests or combat).
Designing quests (Gameplay and Narrative)
Scripting quests
Creating detailed quest flowcharts
Discussing narrative with Writers
Implementing dialog logic and placeholder text for quests
Scripting character behaviours
Engine:
Divinity Engine
Platform:
PC
PlayStation 4 (2018)
Xbox One (2018)
Personal Software, Tools & Programming language:
Divinity Engine
Osiris (Divinity Scripting language)
Lucid Chart
Perforce
Google Docs
Personal time on team:
±6 months scripter intern
The Automatician (2016)
Released: 24/07/2017
I worked on the Automatician as a technical designer to sort out and rework the existing quest system and implement designed quests.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/657700/The_Automatician/
Role highlight:
– Technical designer
Engine:
– Unreal Engine 4
In The Automatician, players will explore a Victorian mansion at their leisure, as well as design and craft Rube Goldberg Machines to solve puzzles and uncover secrets.
The quest system created was functional, but the design team and Programmers never properly communicated which made the tool near impossible to use for the designed quests. Yet other systems were using the quest system so it could not be removed or easily altered.
I reworked the Quest system in Blueprints and created Actor Bases from which quest objects could inherent as well as Blueprint functions that in part still called the old quest system to set quest states. Additionally I documented the entire quest system so people knew how to use it and implemented 4 out of the total 5 quests using the new system.
Technical Designer
Reworked quest system
Engine:
Unreal Engine 4
Platform:
PC
Personal Software, Tools & Programming language:
Blueprint visual scripting
Microsoft Word
Total Team Size:
33 team members
Personal time on team:
±15 weeks
Corona Memory Game (2020)
Created in Corona time for free to aid a teacher teaching foreign children the Dutch language remotely
This game was created by me to aid a teacher so she could teach foreign children Dutch. It is created in such a way that the cards and video can easily and remotely be swapped out for new cards and a different video.
Role highlight:
– Designer
– Programmer
Engine:
– Unity
The video is uploaded on a server (the same that runs this website) and replacing the video replaces the cards. This means the children do not have to download a new version each time the cards need to be uploaded.
Unity Engine
Platform:
PC
Mac
Personal Software, Tools & Programming language:
C#
Total Team Size:
Solo project
Development Duration:
±1 Week
Acheron (2015)
Dutch Game Awards:
Best Student Art Direction Nomination
On the project I was both lead designed as well as concept designer. I lead a small team of designers and additionally designed, prototyped and implemented gameplay.
Role highlight:
– Lead designer
– Gameplay designer
– Technical designer
Engine:
– Unreal Engine 4
I also conceptualised mechanics for the game and made prototypes (visual scripting) for testing purposes as a technical designer. Additionally I implemented mechanics created by the programmers and edited them where needed.
Lead designer
Vision holder
Communication facilitator
UX designer
Gameplay designer
Narrative designer
Engine:
Unreal Engine 4
Platform:
PC
Personal Software, Tools & Programming language:
Blueprint visual scripting
Adobe Photoshop
Pivotal Tracker
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Total Team Size:
12 team members
Development Duration:
±15 Days (Over 15 weeks)
Monskey Skate (2014)
Client Project
Monskey Skate was a client project on which I was lead designer, I was in part responsible for making sure the the game maintained the vision of the brand as well as making sure the game was properly playable for the target audience of 7 to 9 year olds.
Role highlight:
– UX designer
– Technical designer
– Lead designer
Engine:
– Unity
I also worked as a technical designer, implementing mechanics created by programmers, editing these where needed and creating simple scripts for the procedural generation of the game.
Lastly, I was the lead designer. I held the overall vision, made sure the project was within scope, in part wrote documentation and acted as the main communication facilitator between departments.
Gameplay designer
Lead designer
Vision holder
Communication facilitator
UI designer
UX designer
Engine:
Unity
Platform:
Smart phone
Tablet
Personal Software, Tools & Programming language:
Adobe Photoshop
Hansoft
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
C#
Total Team Size:
11 team members
Development Duration:
±15 Days (Over 15 weeks)
The following is a Blueprint example of the Conversation Manager I helped create.
Functions discription
-Gets dialogue from a Data table
-Enables the dialogue HUD
-Displays dialogue and character name on HUD
-Calculates words per minutes display time
-Seeks the characters that are talking to display icon above their head
-Auto next dialogue and end dialogue
The following PDF is the mission design of the tutorial level. Note that the level has since gone to major itterations within the engine.
Blank Slate (2016)
42 person project
In the pre-production phase I was the lead designer followed by becoming mainly a technical designer on the project as well as designing levels and gameplay.
Role highlight:
– Technical designer
– Level designer
– Gameplay designer
Engine:
– Unreal Engine 4
The game is set in a dystopian world on an alternative timeline in which consumerism took a turn to the worse in a totalitarian regime.
Additionally I was a level and gameplay designer. I would take the existing narrative and use it to create a mission structure, following by translating this mission into level design and implementing mechanics and features in the level to make it playable. The main level I worked on was the tutorial level in which, additionally to normal mission and level design, mechanics also needed to be introduced in a natural way with a proper difficulty curve.
Technical Designer
Lead designer (Pre-production)
Gameplay designer
Level designer
Mocap actor
Writing technical design documents
Engine:
Unreal Engine 4
Platform:
PC
Personal Software, Tools & Programming language:
Blueprint visual scripting
Adobe Photoshop
Pivotal Tracker
Houdini (via in-house created Unreal plugin)
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Visio
Total Team Size:
42 team members
Development Duration:
±40 weeks


Rising Tides (2015)
Mediterranean Game Jam
My main role was designing the game and to make the ideas of other team members practical and possible to implement as non of the other team members were game designers and they had never created a game before. Overall I kept track of the game as a whole and helped guide the team by creating various templates they could use.
Role highlight:
– General designer
– Scripting (C#)
Engine:
– Unity
– Physical card game
My main role was to design the game and make the ideas of other team members practical and possible to implement. I created an easy to work with template to keep track of rules, alterations and help along with playtesting and the quick iterative process. Later I also wrote the GDD, if we want to further develop the game.
Additionally I scripted certain functions to help out the programmer who was creating the app for the game.
General Designer
Gameplay designer
Scripting (C#)
Engine:
Unity
Platform:
Physical (Cards)
Smart phone (App)
Tablet (App)
PC (App)
Personal Software, Tools & Programming language:
Adobe Photoshop
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
C#
Total Team Size:
5 team members (non-game developers)
Development Duration:
48 hours