I've worked on several AAA games over the course of my career. On this page you can find out all about them, along with a few details, and links to dedicated pages on those games.
Sea of Thieves
Role - Senior then Lead Designer Platforms - PC, Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5 Official Website - https://www.seaofthieves.com/
Sea of Thieves is the ultimate pirate sandbox adventure. Players form crews, grab a ship and set sail in search of treasure. With over 70 islands to explore, across multiple seas, and with quests and world events to complete, adventure awaits.
Sea of Thieves is a live service game, and content for it is delivered in Seasons. A season typically contains a mixture of new content or features for the game, grouped around a unifying theme, with a smattering of limited time events alongside. Working with Rare, ultimately as a lead designer, I helped deliver several seasons and accompanying events.
Click on the tiles below to find out more about each of the Seasons I worked on.
Season 18
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Season 18 - Return to the Devil's Roar
This season sends player to the volcanic eastern edge of the Sea of Thieves, exploring uncovered ancient ruins, sieging Flameheart's fortresses and taking on the fearsome Eternal Guard. This was my first season as a lead designer, and involved me leading my team of designers through the setup of all of the season's features and content. I provided direction and feedback, as well as liasing between departments to ensure that resources were available to my team. I was the primary point of contact for design to Rare. You can read more about Season 18 here.
Season 14
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Season 14 - Pirates of Mischief
Sneak through the Sea of Thieves and cause mischief wherever you go with new stealth-focused tools and mechanics! For this season I was a senior designer, acting as the driving force behind several of the season's mechanics. As part of this work I designed and implemented a stealth system for the game, powered by crouching, as well as adding darts and other new tools to help players sneak around. You can read more about Season 14 here.
If you would like to know more, you can read in more detail about my work on Sea of thieves on this page: TKewell Design - Sea of Thieves
Elite Dangerous & Elite Dangerous Odyssey
Role - Full then Senior Designer Platforms - PC, Xbox Series X/S/One, Playstation 4/5 Official Website - https://www.elitedangerous.com/
Elite Dangerous is a galaxy sized sandbox that allows players to explore a 1:1 scale simulation of the milky way galaxy, set in the 33rd century. Players are given a starter ship and some credits to spend, and are set loose in a waiting galaxy. They are encouraged to do combat, trading and exploration, and can follow a number of different career paths in this living, breathing galaxy simulation. Soon they will be upgrading to bigger and better ships, and climbing the ranks of the Elite Pilot's Federation.
I worked on multiple eras of Elite Dangerous' development at various times, from early development to expansions. You can read about those different stages of development and release by clicking the tiles below.
Early Development and Launch
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Elite Dangerous - Early Development and Launch
Elite Dangerous is the fourth game in the Siminal Elite series. After a successful kickstarter campaign we began development of the game based on some early galaxy generation experiments.
I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to work on a game like Elite Dangerous from such an early stage, and got to play a key role in the design of many features, including the ship's radar, the galaxy simulation and the exploration mechanics. I designed and implemented the system for players discovering and scanning stellar bodies in undiscovered star systems, as well as the progression and payout formulas for those discoveries. Alongside this I worked on the games background simulation, economy, weapons, ship layouts, and much more.
Some years after the initial launch, Frontier released a series of updates for the game titled the Beyond updates.
In these updates substantial new mechanics and pieces of content were added to the game, as well as re-working existing systems with quality of life improvements. I worked on Beyond - Chapter 4, primarily on the new exploration mechanic improvements. Chapter 4 saw the introduction of the galaxy codex, allowing players to track their discoveries around the various sectors of the Milky Way, as well as introducing numerous discoverable space phenomena, including Lagrange clouds, crystal formations and space bound lifeforms!
As well as working on this chapter I began work on early prototyping for Elite Dangerous' upcoming on foot expansion, called Elite Dangerous Odyssey. I helped design and prototype systems and player tools that would allow on foot players to scan discoveries, power their suit, and explore while on foot. You can read more about Elite Dangerous - Beyond here.
Elite Dangerous - Odyssey
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Elite Dangerous - Odyssey
I returned to Elite, and Frontier having been on a career break as a stay at home parent. It was incredible to return to the project having worked on at the early and prototyping stage and see the journey that those early experiments had taken to become the final game.
My primary focus for Odyssey's launch was to design and create the tutorial level for the game. This included scouting appropriate locations and designing and setting up the relevant settlements, as well as building the tutorial's logic through a state machine and a comprehensive lua script.
I'm particularly proud of how well received the tutorial was by players. It helped with world building, introducing characters and locations in the game, but also provided a robust mini-sandbox where players could explore multiple different approaches to tackling on foot challenges and the mission flow adapts to their approach. This helped take some of the edge of the game's famously steep difficulty curve! You can read more about Elite Dangerous - Odyssey here.
Elite Dangerous - Odyssey Post Release
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Elite Dangerous - Odyssey Post Release
Odyssey had something of a difficult release due to some technical issues. Frontier were really good about deploying resources to getting the release back on track, and alongside some initial patches around technical improvements, we were also able to focus on some gameplay improvements and bringing in some content that missed the launch. During this period we touched on lots of areas of the game, including adding new missions and bringing gameplay tools online.
One piece I'd like to draw particular attention to from this period is the Scorpion SRV, a new surface vehicle that helped bridge the gap between on foot, surface vehicle and space ship combat. Featuring multiple seats for crew members, a solid but powerful driving model, and weapons that are cleverly balanced for both ship and ground combat, I'm really proud of how the Scorpion turned out, and how well it solved the design problem it was addressing. You can read more about The Scorpion SRV here.
Elite Dangerous - The Thargoid War
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Elite Dangerous - The Thargoid War
With Odyssey an established expansion of the game, Elite Dangerous entered it's new era. The Thargoids are a mysterious and hostile insectoid alien race that, up until now made sporadic appearances in game, ambushing players or destroying settlements. Deployed as a multi stage, player discovery driven ongoing narrative event, the Thargoid war began with the deployment of unusual energy signals hurtling through intergalactic space towards humanity's "Bubble" in the milky way. The arrival of the Thargoid Titans in human space resuted in cataclismic changes to the game, as Thargoids took control of vast areas of human space, killing or more often abducting the humans who lived there. Although initially overwhelmed, players would have the opportunity to study the Thargoid forces and participate in developing the weapons that would help destroy the Titans and free humanity from their invasion.
The Thargoid War was an incredible series of updates to work on, where the player's discoveries and collective actions really did set the pace and direction of the narrative progress. I worked on a number of elements across the update, creating encounters and NPC scenarios that players could interact with to progress war goals, new weapon systems to deploy against the Thargoids, and even the combat and exploration scenario around the Titan's themselves, including their incredible "meltdown" flow before destruction. You can read more about the Thargoid Wars here.
I'm really proud of the legacy of work I've left behind with Elite Dangerous, and how much genuinely groundbreaking gameplay we created for this game. If you want to read more about Elite Dangerous in general, you can do so on this page: TKewell Design - Elite Dangerous
Star Citizen is an ambitious and groundbreaking space game set in the distance future. As with Elite Dangerous, the primary gameplay in Star Citizen is based around piloting your space ship around a simulated galaxy, but Star Citizen's aim has always been to simulate the smaller details as well, including on foot exploration and FPS combat, as well as physically loading cargo into your ships, and exploring ship interiors.
Star Citizen - Squadron 42
envisioned as a singleplayer/coop module for the game, taking place in the setting's recent past, and serving as part traditional campaign mode and part tutorial for the complex mechanics of the wider Star Citizen universe. From a development standpoint, Squadron 42 created an environment where mechanics could be visualised and prototyped in controlled
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Star Citizen - Squadron 42
Squadron 42 wassituations on their journey to working universaly in the open universe mode.
I worked as a level designer for Squadron 42, bringing my experience of space combat scenarios from Elite Dangerous to several of the games spaceflight levels, but also gaining a footing in FPS level design. Missions in squadron 42 regularly require the player to use combined arms tactics, switching from their ship to on foot, or even ground vehicles as the scenario and the player's prefernce dictates. I really enjoyed designing in this non linear fashion, working to create opportunities for players to complete their objectives, rather than dictating one specific approach.
Kinect Disneyland Adventures is a virtual reproduction of California's Disneyland Park. Players create their avatar then, using the kinect, explore the park. They can search for collectibles, meet their favouritet characters, and buy cosmetics and souvenirs for their character. They can also jump on the various rides, where they will be transported off on a fantastical adventure, themed on their selected ride. Highlights included the Winnie ther Pooh adventure, complete with hand drawn art style; flying through the clouds above London and Neverland with Peter Pan, and swashing some buckles on the Pirates of the Carribean ride.
Kinect Disneyland Adventures - The Rides
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Kinect Disneyland Adventures
Kinect Disneyland Adventures is a kinect powered recreation of Disneyland that allows the player to freely explore a highly accurate and detailed version of Anaheim's famous theme park. Using the kinect, the player is free to explore the park and discover the various attractions and hidden secrets with their avatar character. Disneylands theme park has been created to an exacting degree of detail, complete with famous disney characters and many attractions and events for the player to interact with.
I worked on several ride themed mini adventures including the Jungle Cruise, where players have to protect their tour boat from rampaging animals; the Matterhorn, where players get into a snowball fight with yetis, and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad's runaway train.
Kinect Disneyland Adventures was a really fun game to work on, and did an amazing job of meeting it's brief. Players talked about the accuracy of the park recreation and the fun adventures while on rides. Reviewers noted that it was one of the most natural implementations of kinect controls, with the kinect providing fun ways to interact, rather than getting in the way of the fun. If you want to read more about Kinect Disneyland Adventures you can do so on this page: Kinect Disneyland Adventures here
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Role - Integrator Platforms - PC, Xbox360, PLaystation 3, Nintendo Wii Official Website - http://www.harrypotter.ea.com/
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2, the video game are two games in the Harry Potter series that follow the events of the final two Harry Potter films. Players take control of Harry, Ron, Hermione and others to destroy the evil Voldermort once and for all.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Parts 1 and 2
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 and 2
Each Harry Potter film has had an accompanying video game, and the two Deathly Hallows films followed in that pattern. Taking the form of a Gear's of War style over the shoulder 3rd person cover shooter, players control Harry, Ron, Hermione and others are they battle the death eaters.
I worked on several levels for the ultimately unreleased Wii version of the game. When this release was cancelled we transferred to the HD consoles project and I worked on technical setup of assets and animations, integrating my creations into the appropriate levels and cutscenes of the game. I was really greatful for the opportunity to work on such a big and well known IP!
Role - Junior Designer Platforms - PC, Xbox360, PLaystation 3, Nintendo Wii Wikipedia Entry (official site no longer available) - http://www.harrypotter.ea.com/
Create is part puzzle game, part creativity suite. Players are called on to decorate and buid scenes using themed sets of props, textures and visual effects actross multiple levels. Once decorated, players can solve a number of rube goldberg machine style physics based puzzles within that level, using placed elements to achieve goals like kicking a ball into a goal, or guiding a car to the finish line. Each of creates 15 levels is based on a different theme, with themed decorative and gameplay objects waiting to be unlocked in each, such as a circus/funfair theme, outer space theme and medieval castle theme. I worked on the level layout and puzzles for the Theme park level and the pirate level, coming up with the puzzle pieces and designing the challenges for each level. I also created the game's hub level, conceiving a prototyping the stage at the heart of the hub, and the CREATE letter game objects that players can then play around with in this safe practice level.
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Create
Create was a very early game in my career, but a rare opportunity for us as a very junior team to participate in the early development of a game. We were able to explore multiple core designs that fit within the direction of a family themed creativity game, and designed and prototyped several of these before settling on the final approach.
We were given a fantastic amount of ownership over our assigned levels, getting to author the basic shape of the level's arena, design the themed gameplay objects that would be introduced in our level and author the puzzles and difficulty curve for our level. It didn't exactly set the world on fire, but I'm very proud of the work we did to create Create.
In addition to the games listed above, I've also done some work as a 3D artist in my very early career. These included games like Lego Indiana Jones 2, the adventure continues (3DS), and Guinness World Records, the Videogame (Wii, 3DS, iOS). You can see a fun representation of every game I've worked on in my Virtual Portfolio: TKewell Design - Interactive Portfolio
