Unreal MegaJam 2020 - No More Papers Please
​Game Designer

I was a Game Designer for No More Papers Please, a game in which an office worker has to do overtime instead of going home at the end of the workday. 

Within the theme "It's been a long time, but we are not done yet" our team came up with a game in which an office worker is forced to do overtime, and trying to finish the work put on his desk. With messages from concerned family members popping up on the computer, the office worker performs menial tasks such as scanning QR codes, signing papers, and stamping documents.

My contribution
 - General game design (concepting, system design)
 - Design & implementation of the dialogue system
 - Main menu design & implementation
 - UX Design
 - Implementation of game-over conditions, level transitions and scoring system
 - Balancing the game's difficulty

Ending sequence

Project info
Development time: 7 days (one weekend and on workdays every evening after work)
Team size: 4 people
​Engine: Unreal Engine
Link: Itch.io
Developed for: Epic MegaJam 2020
Link: Jury shoutout

Looking back
As of writing this on 16/06/2024 No More Papers Please is still getting downloaded and played every day, 4 years after its release. It seems to really resonates with people, the gameplay is chaotic, fun, and easy to understand, but I think it is the setting that sets it apart.

No More Papers Please shows us a mundane job that many people feel stuck in in real life. In the game, the job is meaningless and demands unreasonable commitment from the employee. Players get confronted with this set-up, and can compare it to their own job. How much is their company asking from them?

​I am proud of the ending sequence in which the player is overloaded with work in the span of seconds. Players universally react with shock and disbelief, until the screen fades to black. The consistency of these reactions shows how well this set-up works.

---

Brains Eden 2019 - Dream Scheme
​Technical Game Designer

I was a technical game designer for Dream Scheme, a 2 - 4 player game in which players try to convince people on the street to join their pyramid scheme. 

Within the theme "Chain reaction" our team came up with a game in which the players run a pyramid scheme. Each convinced pedestrian starts convincing other pedestrians. The different players try to get the people invested in their specific product in order to win. 

My contribution
- General game design (concepting, system design)
 - Player input and controls systems
 - Quick time event system that generates a button combinations based on a given difficulty. A higher difficulty leads to longer sequences, shorter valid press times, and more complicated combinations.
 - A gate and button system, to obstruct certain roads and block other players
 - Game polish, including transitions, countdowns, and the game-over screen
 - Force feedback for gamepad

Project info
Development time: 48 hours
Team size: 5 people
​Engine: Unreal Engine
Developed for: Brains Eden 2019 

Stylized instruction sheet for our game

The blue player convinces a red NPC to join their pyramid scheme while the red player watches

---

GGJ 2019 - Tiny Tidiness
​Technical Game Designer

I was a technical game designer for Tiny Tidiness, a 1 vs 3 game of cat and mouse

For the Global Game Jam 2019 we assembled team of 11 people to create a game within the theme "What home means to you." In the end we made a variant on tag, where a cat hunts & traps mice while the mice try to destroy everything in the house.

My contribution
- General game design (concepting, system design, balancing)
- UI design and implementation
- Mouse catching and trapping system (The cat can catch the mice,  which are then trapped in a toilet bowl until they are freed by other mice).

Mouse catching system

The mouse catching system needed to have:
- As a cat, pressing the catch button near a mouse catches the mouse.
- A mouse is automatically put into the toilet bowl if the cat carries it near the toilet.
- If a mouse interacts with the toilet bowl the mice stuck inside it will be freed.
- User interface and effects to display to the cat that they successfully caught a mouse.
- User interface to display to the mouse that they are caught.
- User interface and animations to display that the mouse is trapped in the toilet bowl and how to get out of it.
​

- Functionality for winning the game
- Functionality for the stress meter (level of trash in the room)
- Implementation of particle effects
- Controller supported UI

Project info
Development time: 48 hours
Team size: 11 people
​Engine: Unreal Engine
Developed for: Global Game Jam 2019 
Link: Global game jam site

Overview of the living room, all objects you see can be "trashed"

Two mice being followed by a cat