About

Biographic

I am a South African born game designer and programmer, currently existing in Johannesburg. As a passionate game designer, I have been making games, thinking about making games, and studying how to make games since I was 15. While my personal focus has always been on game design, I am skilled at coding and technical work, and have a growing interest in technical art. I have worked as a freelance game developer, doing all the technical aspects of a small game. I also try to keep my art skills up, whether its minimal/retro 3D art, pixel art or graphic design.

When i'm not making games I work part time as a bookseller in an old second-hand bookstore, and have been exploring the relationship between games and literature, particularly the textual elements of storytelling in games. I have a keen interest in how text and complex mechanics interact in games.

While I like to work on a variety of games, and somehow keep creating small puzzle games, my greatest passion is for role-playing games and immersive sims. For the last three years I have been building a series of prototype RPGs as a way to teach myself more Unity skills and understand how to develop bigger and more complex systems. The mix of system building, world and level design, and storytelling that these types of games offer has always interested me. This site should soon be documenting the process of my side project as I make it more public and show off my progress, but this project is personal and not for commercial purposes.

I enjoy participating in game jams, being on the winning team of the South African Campus Game Jam in 2022, and especially creating experimental games and protoypes. My final project for university was an exploration about the potential of making musical mechanic games that required audio for the player to be able to progress.

Outside of making games, I have also been playing games since before I could read, everything from Civilization 3 to Counter-Strike. But I do have a special passion for role-playing games and immersive sims, with the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Deus Ex having played a big part in helping me see the potential of games to tell stories while have engaging and provoking mechanics.

Skills

Technical

• Unity development (C#, Shadergraph, Animator)

• Web development (HTML, CSS, Javascript, ReactJS)

• Graphic design (Adobe InDesign, Affinity Publisher)

• 3D asset creation (Blender, Unity ProBuilder)

• 2D asset creation (Pyxel Edit, Adobe Photoshop)

• Virtual reality/AR film making

• Unity augmented reality

• Unity sound implementation (FMOD)

• Unity Mobile & WebGL implementation

• Twine game creation

• Organisation & minute taking

Creative

• Game design

• Puzzle creation

• Analogue game building

• Creative writing (Game narrative, dialogue, plot)

• Certified art snob

Esoteric

• Bookselling

• Bad guitar playing

• 3 year Spanish Duolingo streak

Education

• University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) - BA (Hons) Digital Arts [University 2019-2022]

• University of the Arts London - BA (Hons) Games Design [University 2017-2018] (unfinished)

• Dwight School London - International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme [High School]

Experience

• 5 years of making games at University (Unity, Flash, boardgames)

• 7+ years of making my own games (Unity, Flash, Gamemaker)

• 8+ game jams

• WWF-SASSI Ocean Challenge: Freelance developer [June 2022]

Awards

Best Game at the 2022 Campus Game Jam (South Africa)

itch.io/jam/the-campus-game-jam-2022.itch.io/