| Michael Todd's Resume | ||
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To whom it may concern, I have experience in designing puzzle games, racing games, FPS games, RTS & RTT games, and have designed several small action/arcade games. I understand the concepts of content and gameplay, realism and believability, humor and drama, narrative and world, dynamic and linear gameplay, and most of all, Fun. I understand the need for writing skills and being able to clearly translate an idea into a document, outlining what is needed without overdoing it. I understand the plotting of objectives, the flow of levels, the use of characters, the feel of worlds and the need to be very clear about gameplay. I can sell my ideas, being familer with the concept of an elevator presentation. I can debate and can describe my ideas well, so that the listeners get caught up in the story. I can speak clearly in front of a group, and communitate my ideas effectively. I think that one of my chief skills is the ability to create unique designs and contribute to existing ones. I know and understand many basic types of gameplay, and I like using these to complement both new and existing gameplay. I adapt quickly to change and can multi-task well. I have shipped two PC games. One is called 'Engine of War' and the other is a free real-time puzzle game, called 'Puzzle Wizard'. During the production of 'Enginer of War' I headed a small team, as its lead designer, developed the original idea, created the game documents, hired and worked with the team members. I have been through all the stages from prototyping to debugging and testing. I have worked with artists to guide the art so that it does not negatively affect the gameplay, while still listening to the artist's opinions and working to allow the art to really shine. I work hard and realize how important work ethic is. I can keep clear debug lists, work lists, game documents, and generally manage and sort a workload. During the production of 'Engine of War' I learned much about working with play testers, both online and in person. I hold up well under stress, and know what to cut from a game, and when. I became skilled in the art of jury rigging, became close friends with the concept of 'Crunch time' work, combined with caffine drinks, and learned the hard way when getting sleep would increase rather than decrease my amount & quality of work. I have been designing board games since I was 10, and switched over to computer games when I became hooked on Civ2 at 12 years old and started making mods. I have made mods and maps using starcraft, and Hammer, and learned to use several Indie game design engines, including Genesis, Torque, and Gamestudio. A6 Gamestudio Professional from Conitec has been the main engine I focused on to express my ideas and show my skills with, over the past 4 years. I have made several projects with it, including dynamic pathfinding systems, AI for a FPS and AI for a RTS, a multiplayer FPS, and a large real-time puzzle game. My most recent project was a design based on combining the gameplay of creative building and fast action. I would have loved to use the gameplay in a larger type of game, a FPS for example, but decided that the resources at hand only warranted smaller action/arcade style of game. I know my limits and how to work within limits given to me. In order to cover my living expenses, I have been working part-time at a center which works with drug dealers, addicts, the homeless and other people who live in the city's downtown core. This high-risk job, because of its danger pay, meant that I could be at my job two days a week, allowing me to use the other five days of the week for working on game design. I am skilled with photoshop, Flash, MS word and Dreamweaver, use firefox, and have used many smaller programs in my work. I can learn how to use most programs very quickly and am adept at teaching myself what I do not already know. I am a huge video game player, I am a skilled helicopter pilot in all the BattleField series, spent months of my life in counter-strike, and favor the terrains in starcraft. I have played civ2, civ3, civ4, warcraft1/2/3 and starcraft, every AOE, CS & CS:S, HL 1&2, many mods, and most of the Sim games (SimCity, SimAnt, SimWorld, The Sims). I have played WoW for a few months, but became bored with it, preferring singleplayer games such as Mount&Blade, Gish and GTA. I love the quality of multiplayer game play in Company of Heroes, and was awestruck at the simple yet strong content of Portal. I have a long background in D&D and many other paper and pencil RPGs, as well as board games such as Civilization, Diplomacy and Line in the Sand. There are many more games that I have played, but I hope this shows that I am an avid gamer. I have not done any real amount of C++, C and Java for years now, and don't want to list them as skills on my resume. However, I want to mention them, in order to show that I am familer with programming, and the various programs, tools and concepts used in programming. I have also been using a C-script for the past four years to prototype my game designs, as seen in 'Engine of War' and 'Puzzle Wizard'. Because of this, I am experienced at AI and event scripting. I also have experience in WDL, Flash, FBML and PHP programming. I have skills in Judo, Jujitsu, Juggling, riding a 6-ft unicycle, juggling flaming torches, clowning, fencing and electronics. I have travelled to Africa twice now, the second time, alone. I am an avid reader, and some of my favorites are Lord of the Rings (and just about all Tolkien's work), Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, Ringworld, the work of Terry Pratchett, the Eye of the world series, lots of Lloyd Alexander, War of the Worlds (my all time favorite) and many old tales of pirates and high adventure (Kidnapped, the Black Arrow). And of course, I have read every single Calvin and Hobbes. I am a huge fan of Jim Henson, have seen every star trek TOS & TNG episode ever made. I can quote Star Wars 4, 5 and 6 line by line, read many webcomics and have a comic collection. I also love John Cleese and the work of Monty Python. When I was 13, I wanted to be a clown, and went traveling with fairs, juggling and riding my unicycle. I was privileged to learn from world-class performers, including Michael Hirschbach of Cirque du Soleil, and Jeff Collins. This means that I have experience working long hours, working with a team, pitching in where needed to get the job done, and have spent many hours dealing with people in general. The one major area that I have not mentioned so far is my formal education -- the reason being I am self-educated and home-educated since first grade. My family lived and worked in a small hamlet in the far north, where school was lacking. My mother is a teacher and so she decided to teach me herself. We found that the process of teaching yourself, with the proper resources, was a wonderful system, allowing me to progress at the exact rate that best suited me. I have read thousands of books on all kinds of subjects, wonderful people have been my mentors, and I got out into real society much earlier in life, resulting in a stronger interaction with the community. I have learned things in the real world. I loved the study of electronics, general science and math, as these things are centered around understanding and creating, two of my favorite things. I enjoyed making small games, with a small team,
they allowed me to learn the art of game design, but now I want
to work with a full team, to build larger games. Thank you, |
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