Just Add Sharks!

I made Three Kings for the 2013 Holiday Game Jam by Glitch City. It’s an interactive exploration of one of my favorite Christmas carols: “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”

I’ve worked on it since then, cleaning up the bugs and making it a little less “game-jamy” The levels ended up being a little too long, and cinematic scenes are still a little rough, but overall I’m very happy with how the game turned out.

The music for this was done by the ever amazing Angus McKay.

Download Three Kings for Mac and PC

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been inspired by stories of american slaves escaping north through the Underground Railroad.

I built this game prototype to see how these stories could play out in an interactive experience.

The build of the game is in a decidedly Alpha state. The core experience is there, but it’s missing lot of models / animations / sounds. Especially the slave hunters – who are pink capsules – and the cabin at the end of the game – which is a pink cube.

I’d love to develop this game further sometime.

Jordan – Windows

Jordan – Mac

I’ve always been fascinated by simple pleasure found in physical play where the rules are enforced socially rather than mechanically. My kids have given me plenty of opportunities to experience this.

This game is an experiment to see if rules can be socially enforced by an NPC. I think it works pretty well.

Play Monster

I made Squirrel Fight for a one-button game competition in 2009. The idea for it hit me as I was riding my bike home one day and by that evening I had my first prototype. It’s an RTS game – like Starcraft – but with extremely simple controls.

It’s a two-player game, so you’ll have to grab someone nearby and play with them.

This one requires some explanation.

In 2009 I was a new graduate student in the Interactive Media program at USC (now the Interactive Media and Games program). One night during our weekly seminar, Scott Fisher – head of the program at the time – announced that because students kept stealing his water bottles he was going to put a new water cooler in the lab. The new water cooler came, and worked great for about 10 days – until we drank all the water in the two provided jugs.

Weeks went by with no replacement jugs. We worked late nights in the lab – groups of students huddled around glowing monitors furiously trying to make awesome games  – with that dry husk of a water cooler leering at us, mocking our thirst.

One night I’d finally had enough. Taking a cue from our many in-class discussions on “Serious Games” and “Games for Change” I opened up Adobe Flash, and in an hour or so built a game. A game with a powerful contemporary message. A game that would show the elites that they could no longer ignore our suffering. A game that could inspire all humankind to lay aside our petty differences and be united in the cause of ensuring well-hydrated game designers!

And that was how Water Cooler was made.

Anyway it worked. You can still see the reaction to it on the USC Interactive website ( look for Scott Fisher’s response 🙂 ). New water arrived shortly afterwards and the cooler was finally filled.

I worked in that lab for 3 more years, and every time I drank from that water cooler I felt the satisfaction of having made the world a better place.