To Play or Not to Play! (2020) – Digital Game (Unity)
My Role: Co-designer for a Team (Five people)
‘A fortune teller in Copenhagen drew the fateful card… adultery. She gave me the ingredients of an ancient magical spell, to unearth an act of betrayal… The inner-shells of the unborn avian. Runny and churned bovine lactose. And hellish heat!‘
A comedic acting simulator. Made in 48 hours as a jam entry for GMTK Game Jam 2020.
In To Play or Not to Play! you control young actor Niles Stiffcroft who is starring in the experimental play: ‘A Significant Pancake.’ Niles plays John Horatio Jones, a young nobleman who will embark on an investigation of lies, infidelity, and batter-based revelations… as well as the dreaded secret ingredient of the infernal pancake.
Rated 381st in terms of originality out of 5,397 entries.
Play (itch.io)
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The Pauper King of Abalus (2020) – Interactive Fiction (Ink)
Solo project
‘Legends tell of a wager that King Piotr made on the eve of his defeat. Lancelot: They tell of a bargain with some higher power to have the Kingdom vanish from all lands and all maps, till some angel writing in the margins of history is ready to see it returned to us.’
An entry to Inkle’s Campfire Tales call for their game Pendragon. In this campfire story we learn of an aberrant Kingdom, where the peasantry took control and square off against the weight of history. As requested by the brief, this was written to match the game’s in-house style – as showcased by this example.
Play (itch.io)
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Abtohka (2019) – Digital Game (Unity)
My Role: Lead Designer for ‘Team Pengala‘ (Four people)
“When we are finished we will have unturned worlds. Our deeds will be etched forever into the fabric of history. In this world, and beyond it. This tapestry depicts our meeting at the Chronos-Needle. The four Travellers from four fallen worlds. The Oracle. The Brute. The Warden. The Apostle.“
Abtohka is a digital game created as a final dissertation project for an undergraduate degree in Game Design. Embark through the ruins of fallen fantasy civilisations, slip through the cracks of time, to reactivate an ancient machine that will change the past forever. Swap between four distinct characters as they each carry their own burdens, yet strive to work together, in Abtohka: Kingdoms of Despair, a dark fantasy, 2D action/adventure, puzzle game.
Play (itch.io)
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Axis Mundi (2019) – Board Game
Solo project
‘In a gothic, surreal, mystical land shattered from the collapse of several fallen empires, who but the faithful can reunite these disparate cultures and end the chaos of this world, bringing forth the apocalypse. Only one faith can succeed but what is an ending but also a new beginning..?’
Axis Mundi is a board game created as a final dissertation project for an undergraduate degree in Game Design. In Axis Mundi, 2-4 players compete to bring their personalised fantasy religion to the masses in a fantasy world. Players will assemble their Faith Deck with deck-building, whilst they gather followers across a changing/modular World Board with area control mechanics. Unique personalised Scriptures are created out of combinations of Subjects (e.g. ‘Cats are…’) and Conditions (‘Divine‘ or ‘Treacherous‘). These Scriptures along with other in-game actions shift the alignments of religions which is tracked on the Creed Board. Character art illustrated by Edward Welch.
Download Rules (.pdf)
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my home, the reef (2019) – Digital Game (Clickteam Fusion)
My Role: Co-Designer for Global Game Jam team (Four people)
‘Then here ends our reef. No fish shall feed, no bubbles shall be made. Weep now, for none dared resist. All is lost, like tears in… ocean.’
A team game jam entry for Global Game Jam 2019. Take control of the Parrotfish in a polluted and dying sea. Unite the creatures, small and large, to put an end to the spillage and to save your shared home among the reef – in a darkly comic action adventure.
Play (itch.io)
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Victorian Exorcist (2018) – Design Work
‘It is 2020, and various paranormal societies have gathered to confront a growing problem: history has become unshackled and the past is haunting the present. Victorian London’s dead are flooding into the modern era, causing a growing spate of otherworldly disturbances…’
Created as a series of assignments of design documents as a hypothetical pitch for Failbetter Games:
Victorian Exorcist is a mobile-based, educational, adventure game for young-adults, where the player hunts ghosts across the city of London. Players will need to investigate central London using GPS, research real-world Victorian history through game-based learning, and solve mysteries using Augmented-Reality – to exorcise the vengeful spirits
haunting London, casting them back into the shadows of the past once and for all.
Horsemen Jousting (2018) – Digital Game (Unity)
My Role: Lead Designer for ‘Team Pengala‘ (Four people)
‘Once, it is whispered, that humans ruled over the lands of earth. They were uncanny and wild creatures.
That was until the fated night when all would change, a new ruler had risen within the small hours – proud equine men with fierce hearts…
Humans were left with no choice but to abide by the Horsemen’s new rules, living their lives in fear as their entertainment and toys.
Thus, came to life Horsemen Jousting; a sport made to entertain the Horsemen. Entering a one on one combat to death, the Horsemen ride on top of a human steed in a jousting match for GLORY!’
Horsemen Jousting is a competitive jousting simulator featuring horse knights, human steeds and vegetable-based weaponry. Both players must alternate their button presses to increase the speed of their steed whilst attempting to out-joust their opponent. Getting the angle of your lance is vital. High beats Low. Medium beats High. Low beats Medium. Once they clash a knight will be impaled and must wiggle for freedom!
Created in 36 hours as an entry for the UKIE Student Game Jam 2018 by Team Pengala.
Play (itch.io page)
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Star Opera: Desolate Frontier (2018) – Digital Game (Unity)
My Role: Lead Designer for ‘Team Pengala‘ (Four people)
‘Millennia into the future, time has ravaged all but a few dwindling outposts of sentient life. Will these fragments survive? And who will be their masters?’
Star Opera: Desolate Frontiers is a turn-based tactical duelling game for two players made by a group of four students in 48 hours for The Time Jam. Emulating the drama of the light sabre battles of Star Wars players will try to outsmart their opponent in melee combat and can additionally throw out taunts and retorts to psychologically weaken them.
Play (itch.io page)
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> Run Rashomon.exe (2018) – Digital Game (Clickteam Fusion 2.5)
My Role: Co-Designer for Team ‘Two-Sides of a Melon‘ (Four people)
‘A digital hellscape invades a physical reality; what remains..? A world where time and space itself is contorted and twisted, everybody and everything is now a complex mix of digital and physical genetic code. A world, where old and new civilisations clash. This! Is Katabasis.‘
> Run Rashmon.exe is set in a collapsing world of juxtaposed medieval and futuristic culture and technology. In the far future the dreaded zealot known as the Oni has opened a breach to a virtual hell through which digital demons have overrun the surrounding lands. This has left the city of Kyoto as the last safe haven for humans.
The game is a singleplayer action roleplaying game (RPG) featuring squad management and simulation mechanics. The player rotationally controls a band of cyberpunk detectives known as the ‘Neo-Nytes’, tasked with defending the realm by hunting, planning, investigating and any other means necessary. This game prototype is the product of undergraduate group work across several months using Scrum methodology.
Pitch Video: Youtube
Setting & World Draft Design Document
Play (itch.io page)
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Cyber Chauffeur (2018) – Digital Game (Unity)
Solo Project
“What right does humanity have to survive when it cannot learn even from its worst and more damaging acts? Where is Kyoto now? Lost to the wastes beyond indifference, isolationism and new age mysticism. They say Kyoto is humanity’s last hope. Perhaps it was but now Kyoto is the absence and shameful dereliction of hope, not in just in practice but of imagination.
I have worked, all my life to save this city and it has taken everything from me. I would spit on and leave were there anywhere but the slums and wastes for me to go. Kyoto… Kyoto is a carbuncle of a city. Yet it is the last carbuncle we have, and when it bursts a mess far greater than anything we’ve seen will manifest.”
– Floretta Lexianicon, Last surviving member of the Bitter-Brigades
Set in the same setting as > Run Rashomon.exe, act as an undercover assassin posing as a luxury cab driver in the future. Unravel the conspiracy regarding the origins of the digital hell of Gehenna, as well as your own mysterious identity through a first-person driving simulator with interactive dialogue and first person shooter elements.
Pitch Presentation: Slides
Play (itch.io page)
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For the Colony! (2018) – Design Work
Solo Project
‘So come arthropods and vertebrates,
For the struggle carries on,
The intersectionale,
Unites the hive in song…’
– The Intersectionale
For the Colony! is a turn-based tactical roleplaying game set in a insectoid society. The game shows the struggle of small sub-factions trying to survive and carve out influence in a deepening civil war.
The game plays out in two central environments. One is on the Colony Map – this is a turn based hexagonal map environment where the player directs ‘Bands’ of Units across the map. When one Band of one faction meets another an Encounter begins. The Encounter Map is isometric and tile based. Encounters can be resolved through variations of Combat, Diplomacy or Stealth. As their units level up they can apply more upgrades and control more units. Eventually they will most likely need to pick a side in the civil war between the monarchy or republic, if they wish to survive.
Pitch Presentation: Slides Handout Doc 1 Handout Doc 2
Design Work: Coreloop Diagrams Numerical Design
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Solmec: Among Stars (2017) – Digital Game (Clickteam Fusion 2.5)
My Role: Designer for Octopus 8 (Within an internal team of five people)
‘After the Utrix was defeated, the Ankazil fell into a deep hibernation. Now, hundreds of years later, the space roaming beast has woken, still infected by the Rot and with a desperate need to return to its home planet.’
Play as the Ankazil itself, a giant alien creature, collecting different resources to build weapons, turrets and gain new abilities, helping you as you travel across new galaxies and fight against creatures infected by the Rot. With a randomly generated universe, unlockable player characters and upgrades, no play through will be the same in this resource management game.
Made as part of a summer project programme with Octopus 8. The middle part of a thematic trilogy (the first part being Solmec: Colony Adrift and third part Solmec: Hollow Planet). Published to Steam!
Play (Steam Page)
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Hearticulturist: Gardener of the Mind (2017) – Design Work
Solo Project
‘It has been years since The Player last visited our village. Since then things have begun to slow down, become overgrown and the village has forgotten itself… But surely you, this lost and forlorn girl could not be her?’ – Cornelius Crow
Repair the village, discover your past, face your fears…
Hearticulturist – Gardener of the Mind is a life simulation game that takes place in a village populated by anthropomorphic villagers. But all is not as it seems. Hearticulturist is explicitly set within a video game. Taking place within the protagonist’s in-game save data. As the gardener of the village you will need to restore your surroundings, unlock your past by recovering moments lost deep within the memory cache of the game and confront your demons – fierce emergent artificial intelligence rampaging through the world that are manifested from your own emotional trauma.
Hearticuturist explores themes around mental health vis-à-vis your daily goals as well as through connections with the supporting villager characters. Hearticulturist will seek to challenge your resolve, but also offer links to real life support organisations as well as exploring positive solutions to person problems through the themes of self-care, community, support-networks and mindfulness. In support of these aims this game was created as an assignment to support the values of mental health charities.
Pitch Presentation: Slides Summary Document
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Super Mario City: Urban Fracas (2017) – Digital Game (Clickteam Fusion 2.5)
Solo Project
‘Time to make the mushroom kingdom great again…’ – President Bowser
A new video game concept borne from the fusion of the first Grand Theft Auto title and Super Mario Maker – incorporating classic top-down, two-dimensional (2D) open-world/urban sandbox gameplay as well as custom level design through the constructions of new buildings, skyscraper to skyscraper platforming and desperate battles for control of the city’s buildings and territory.
Pitch Presentation: Slides Summary Document
Play (itch.io page)
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Our Dreams, Our Nightmares (2016) – Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Solo Project
‘Your dream is my nightmare…’ – Giant Drag
This is a simple, zero-preparation, improvisational, collaborative, one-shot, role-playing system with frequent rotation between who is the player (a phantasm) and the storyteller (dreamer).
The game utilises a degree of randomness and dynamic storytelling whereby means all players work together to generate the campaign, taking turns in placing traditional playing cards from their hand or opting to draw them blindly. Each number and suit correspondents to a different development of the dream (story) itself.
In this game the player characters (phantasms) are trapped in a shared collective hallucination: The Dream Space – a dark fantastical reality of rapidly shifting dynamics and tone that stems from their mutual fears and desires. As they journey deeper through different dream worlds they will try to defeat their nightmares so that they may recall their forgotten pasts and escape.
Download Game (.pdf)
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Go, Frame! (2016) – Board Game
My Role: Producer & Co-Designer for Team ‘7 Studios’ (Five people)
‘In a breakaway, landlocked, micro-state in South America a cruel, isolated and paranoid dictatorship reigns. The one true leader of the navy’s junta government – Admiral Simón delivers his paternalistic messages and rapidly changing laws to the populace through his serialised radio broadcast of ‘Admiral Simón Says…’ Over the last few months an armed and influential network of actors, flâneurists, emigres, con-artists, renegades, coiffeurs and bohemians and have formed… They are the ‘Adorable’ Frame Artists!‘
In this 2 – 4 competitive board game the goal is to frame as many corrupt officials as you can, freeing territory from the ancien regime around the city. You can win through either taking out 4 officials (one of a kind) or through getting enough points (as each official’s region is individually ranked). To do this the player receives mission card with varying evidence requirements. These are the plans to frame an official for narcotics, terrorism, murder, or fraud. Through trading of valuable evidence, misdirection and tactical gambling the players will occasionally work together but ultimately compete to see who can do the most for the coming uprising against the dictatorship.
Servitude (2015) – Interactive Fiction (Twine)
My Role: Co-Designer for Team ‘the anon-a-mice’ (Two people)
‘Eshmun. An intricate tangle of cobbled streets on the west bank of the river. Townsfolk congregate in a large courtyard stretched out in front of a clock tower. Opposite, the large but plain lodgings of the Redfriars of Talek…‘
A short Twine game about failing in your quest and adopting the values of the villain instead. Additionally featuring several randomised story names and events making each playthrough different. Made with Chris Gilbert for ProcJam 2015. Title art illustrated by Edward Welch.
Play (itch.io page)
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James Nowlan Games 