Specialties#
Content and Narrative Design#
I acted as the lead designer on all of Trove’s monthly in-game events from December 2018 to September 2020. This included everything from conceptualization to shipping the event. I wrote detailed design documents and collaborated with Artists, Engineers, Producers, and QA to ensure everyone had what they needed to create the assets, tech, tasks, schedule, and test plan for each event. I reviewed player logs after events to see what stage of each event quest players got to and used this data to inform future quest design. Through these events, I also expanded Trove’s lore, while remaining true to what existed before I joined the project.
In addition to creating the monthly events, I also worked as a general designer on Trove and created a tutorial for the gem system, as well as reworked the entire quest flow to allow players to better understand the quest progression.
Of all the content I created, my favorite was an elaborate series of riddles that players could solve to unlock a special costume for Pride. This was intended to be solved via community effort and took the community about 7 hours to complete. This is pretty impressive for an MMO!
Level Design#
I designed a new hub world for Trove that added in physical representations of the UI that had previously only been available via menus. This change also made the hub more modular, allowing for easier extension by future content and level designers.
I also added onto existing levels when creating the Prismatic Questline.
Class Design#
I reworked the Tomb Raiser class from the ground up, while still utlizing existing models, animations, and SFX to make it’s gameplay more dynamic, raise the skill cap, and increase its base damage to allow it to be competitive with other classes.
System Design#
I also worked on farming for Trove, determining what items could be composted, what type of compost each item gave, and how much compost was used to craft new plants.
Encounter Design#
I designed the moveset for “Ifera, Underlord of The Deep” who was the most powerful new boss introduced in the “Into The Depths” patch. As Trove is a game targeted for younger players, the mechanics had to remain simple. In general, Ifera attacks the player with the highest aggro, occasionally she will spin, and then pull random players into her. After a few seconds she spins again, which kills any players still in melee range. This leads to an engaging encounter where players have to pay attention but that isn’t overly punishing or confusing.
Monetization Design#
I developed the Sweet Sixteen Pack, The Level 25 Boost Pack, as well as created the events that made space for the monthly event packs.
Junior Engineer#
I assisted with code reviews for the engineering team to get familiar with the C++ codebase. From there, I began performing small bug fixes and feature additions. I added the functionality for items to be consumed to set a player’s class to a specific level. I used this new functionality to create the Level 25 Boost Pack. I also worked to revamp the new player login system, making it clearer when players had received their rewards and when they would next receive rewards.
At a glance#
- Conceptualized and implemented plausible, in-scope ideas for new features, content, and monthly live events
- Ensured live update cadence was maintained for persistent events
- Organized and prioritized the current milestone tasks for the design and engineering teams to solidify upcoming features
- Monitored player communication on Discord for current and upcoming content to find actionable feedback
- Reviewed code changes for the engineering team
- Implemented minor code improvements to existing components
- Maintained working relationships with third-party partners
- Reviewed and implemented player-created content
- Created and maintained self-documenting design data through the use of detailed YAML comments and release notes.
- Designed a developer ally on Stream. The fans later held an art contest and provided me with a plushie of my pet.