Pitch: Pitched gameplay, cost analysis, and road map. Worked closely with R&D to perfect all aspects of pitch.
Production: Tracked all art and production costs, releasing a live cost analysis each week to executives. Checked in regularly with printing factory to check on shipment schedules, costs, and other needs.
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Gameplay: Created card effects to match player expectation of theme in each release. Requested and retrieved proper artwork from licensor (Capcom).
Art: Collaborated on card layouts and promotions with graphic design, legal, and licensor.
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Balance: Balanced all of the above gameplay, coordinating internal and external playtesters to provide feedback in an organized, digestible manner.
Legal: Submitted all necessary documentation with legal dept to secure approvals on releases.
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Resident Evil is a hero-centric, progression driven deckbuilding game with a focus on creating tension through exploration of the mansion, forcing players to never know what's behind the next door.
Released in December of 2010, REDBG spawned 5 expansions total. Each expansion either expanded the game with completely new mechanics, new game mode(s), or new unique cards, all themed to the narrative focus of the set. My core tenet with the design was to capture the essence of the digital game and make it analog. I wanted the player to feel the fear of the unknown as a core concept, while showing a bit of flair for diehard fans. |
Gameplay, Art, & Balance
Rulebook: Wrote rulebook and standardized oracle texting practices together with manager and graphic designer. Iterated based on feedback from internal as well as external sources (conventions).
Organic Teaching: Game flow revolved around organically teaching the player, as well as keeping the card designs simplistic yet powerful. Players are introduced to the dual economy system of bullets and money early on, the theme of each weapon family, and each character's playstyle. Set Theming: Each set introduced a new cast of heroes to play, new cards, and entirely new mechanics. Set 2 introduced the ability to control 2 heroes at once, set 3 introduced players turning into zombies, and set 5 introduced fully customizable ability pools for players to upgrade. Fan Flair: Sets typically featured not only mainstream favored heroes, but also niche fan favorites. Of note, series 3, Outbreak, pulled lesser known heroes from the Outbreak game, and had a great deal of throwbacks as well. Communication: Constant communication was maintained with Capcom throughout the process for approvals, artwork requests, and syncing for future releases and marketing pushes. Balance: Balanced all mechanics and cards, typically using threshold-based methods to control progression and limit game from finishing too quickly. I used an analytics tracking sheet based on playtest session progression to establish balancing tenets and norms. |
Pitch, Production, & Legal
Pitch: Gathered data on strength of IP, including current trend, market & cost analysis, and turnaround times. I pitched the product to executives together with the R&D manager to secure funding and time for development.
Weekly Reports: Presented current marketing trends for the game in weekly digests to managers and executives, highlighting not only current trends with the product, but also the IP and possible opportunities to pursue. Development: Kept sheets to track current status of releases, including a road map tracking goals for each sprint, chunking out times for R&D, development, approvals, printing, and shipping. Approvals: Submitted approvals for artwork requests, legal, licensor, and printing. Turnaround times were tracked in various sheets, as well as gathering signatures for approval from managers and executives involved. Printing: Reviewed proofs for fidelity of print quality compared to expectations and cost. |
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