About
Biographic
I am a South African born game designer and programmer, currently existing in Cape Town. 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 experience as a gameplay programmer with experience porting Unity games to various platforms
Before I made games professionally I worked as a bookseller in an old second-hand bookstore, and spent time 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 role-playing games 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, as well as storytelling that these types of games offer has always interested me
I am game jam addict, which mostly started with being on the winning team of the South African Campus Game Jam in 2022, and has seen me join over 15+ jams to date. 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 and this is also something I am looking to continue exploring in the future
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)
Complete Unity porting experience for the Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms
Web development (HTML, CSS, Javascript, ReactJS, Phaser)
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
Veteran bookseller
Bad guitar playing
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
2+ years of professional game development (Unity)
5 years of making games at University (Unity, Flash, boardgames)
9+ years of making my own games (Unity, Flash, Gamemaker)
Awards
Winner of 3 catergories in SA Game Jam 2024
Winner of “Best Humour” and “Diversity” in Phyiscs Jam 2023
itch.io/jam/physics-game-jam-2023
Best Game at the 2022 Campus Game Jam