August 2016

I Love Hue

I Love Hue

Coming soon to iOS and Android: A gentle game about colour harmony.

August 2015

Play-Doh Jam

Play-Doh Jam

Level design, monetization and economy balancing for Play-Doh Jam, a free-to-play mobile game for kids.

Play Play-Doh Jam

January 2015

I’m Lead Designer at Fat Pebble

I’m Lead Designer at Fat Pebble. We make delightful hand-made games like Clay Jam, the award-winning monster action game!

August 2014

GlowGrid

I made GlowGrid, a minimalist, retro puzzle game with a neon aesthetic and a dreamy 80s synth soundtrack. It plays like a classic – simple mechanics leading to deep, strategic gameplay.

Featured as a Best New Game on the App Store and as a best new iPad/iPhone in The Guardian.

September 2013

Videogames for physical rehabilitation

For my Masters dissertation as part of the Evolutionary & Adaptive Systems degree at Sussex I conducted research into the use of motion controlled videogames for physical rehabilitation. There has been a lot of interest in this field recently, however I found that the games produced so far typically have not been designed by games professionals and are consequently low on the fun factor.

As a starting step towards remedying this, I performed an experiment investigating the effect of player engagement on body movement: Can changing the type or level of player engagement lead to different types of body movement? If so, then a well designed rehabilitation game could manipulate a patient’s physical movements simply by virtue of them being immersed in the game.

The experiment was achieved using the Microsoft Kinect hardware and built in Unity.

October 2012

Pushcat

Pushcat, the first title from my indie game studio, Zut, is out!

Another collaboration with Gary J. Lucken, Pushcat borrows the basic dig-and-push mechanics of Boulder Dash and adds elements of Match 3, resulting in an original, fast-paced mix of puzzle and action arcade gameplay.

The player plays the hero Pushcat, a purple cat who just loves silver – which he creates by combining gems of the same colour. As he progresses through the game new elements are gradually built on top of this basic mechanic, then mixed and matched to produce a wide variety of different play experiences – from slower, puzzle-based levels to action-packed, chaotic madness.

Get Pushcat on Steam!

May 2012

Chris Moyles’ Hackney Dash

Design and code for an epic fly’n’roll quest through the streets of London, promoting BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012.

Produced by Littleloud with art by Gary J. Lucken.

Fly, bounce, roll, surf.

July 2011

Sweatshop

Sweatshop

An educational strategy game for Channel 4 highlighting the plight of workers in developing countries and questioning the ethics of consumerist high street fashion. At least that’s what all the blurb says… my goal was just to make a really fun little management game where you could set fire to everything! (see above)

Produced by Littleloud with art by Gary J. Lucken and music by Michael Reaney. I designed the game mechanics, programmed it and had lots of fun (and a few late nights) building the levels.

Play Sweatshop.

January 2011

Misfits

Misfits

I worked with Kerb to make a few minigames for the BAFTA-nominated Misfits campaign for E4.

November 2010

CBBC prototyping

I’ve been working closely with the CBBC R&D department to design and prototype a series of game engine templates which can be skinned, modified and extended. The project goal is to allow development teams within CBBC to be able to theme a game template for a particular brand without the need for much-squabbled-over technical resources or outsourcing to external agencies. Thus putting myself out of a job.

So far I’ve worked on a very flexible board-game engine, complete with AI, a ‘cannon’ game template (eg. Tracy Beaker Party), a ‘break-out’ type game, and more to follow!

I love this kind of work as it allows me to focus on gameplay and production workflow rather than the ‘final 20%’ aspect which for me is the most laborious part of Flash production.

April 2009

Trapped!

Trapped!

A multiplayer game for CBBC, based on the TV quiz show of the same name. Players must work together to complete a series of tasks… apart from the saboteur, who must scupper their plans!

This was a pretty ambitious project. I worked closely with the BBC Prototyping team to get a multiplayer server up and running on BBC infrastructure – no mean feat. I designed the games, built the Flash client and prototyped the server-side too. Note to self: Multiplayer games are HARD to make.

Play Trapped!

April 2008

Bow Street Runner

Bow Street Runner

Bow Street Runner is an interactive drama produced by Littleloud for Channel 4 set deep in the seedy gin-soaked underground of Georgian London. I designed and built the game engine and a content management system driven by Google Docs.

It won loads of awards, including a BAFTA!

Watch a trailer here or play it here.