Projects

An upcoming video essay which analyzes how Tetris went from a score-attack, puzzle game to a distinct game genre. With over 200 officially licensed versions, all overseen and controlled by The Tetris Company, the genre provides a clear timeline as to how it evolved into many different directions.

It’s a player-versus-player (PVP) game. It’s an artistic experience. It’s another game to sell copies to people who loved Tetris on the gameboy. Tetris has created an entire market and culture surrounding the Tetris Guidelines, but many developers look to circumvent or innovate their titles in spite of it.

Unlike live-service videogames which are constantly changing, most Tetris titles are frozen in time. They, unashamedly, showcase the priorities of the development team responsible for their creation. We should analyze how Tetris games attempt to innovate in the face of a stagnant governing body.

Read, "Exploring the Design of Contemporary Tetris."

Prebuilt engines have steadily risen in popularity as they become more competent at producing games and onboarding new developers to their platforms. GameMaker is well known for being the leading 2D videogame development platform, responsible for many well received titles over the past decades.

Using GameMaker I’ve been studying how game mechanics are implemented by developing AI simulations and genre prototypes. For each project I’ve written a scope document to help guide the development challenges I face.

Because of how simple the engine is for prototyping and early development, GameMaker proves that game engines aren’t just a way for developers to cut down on development costs but also prove as an invaluable way to concept out games before committing to a full technical build-out.

Read, "Studying Game Mechanics with GameMaker."

Source 2, developed by Valve Software, is the long overdue follow-up to the original Source game engine. Despite announcing that Source 2’s Software Development Kit (SDK) would be free to developers, Valve has yet to release any stand-alone tools.

FacePunch, interested in producing the spiritual successor to Garry’s Mod, licensed the Source 2 engine with the vision to develop and release their own dedicated SDK. However, this development kit looks to modernize many of the legacy features of Source 2.

With a new editor, design tools, and a way to publish games in and outside of FacePunch’s ecosystem, it competes not only as its own game engine but against industry giants like Fortnite and Roblox. S&box, while small scale, shows potential to break into a market of preexisting corporate giants.

Read, "Efficiently Designing Levels in S&Box."