Warframe - Kullervo boss fight

Role - Boss design and implementation
Release - The Seven Crimes of Kullervo
Kullervo is a tragic character, stabbed in the back by those he trusted, and imprisoned across seven timelines by a mysterious warden. The design reflects his tortured character:

• Daggers, betrayal, self-inflicted wounds, and the number seven are used throughout
• Kullervo relives his betrayal during the fight, causing his wounds to erupt with energy
• The player must defeat Kullervo from several timelines to prevail
• His aggressive blade mastery serves as the final test for Duviri's melee combat

Warframe - Dax Equitem boss fight

Role - Boss design and implementation
Release - The Duviri Paradox
The Dax Equitem is an otherworldly mounted knight assassination target encountered in Duviri. The Dax Equitem was a bottom up design, focused on mounted combat, and "emotion" derived elemental attack variants:

• Mounted horseback combat, and once dismounted, combat on foot
• Elemental attacks with mechanical variants based on Duviri's current emotion. These are not just elemental variants, they are mechanically distinct!
• An elusive movement style which forces the player to anticipate and react to telegraphed attacks
• An ability interruption system, triggered by the player shooting enemies with their side-arm at the right moment during attacks

Warframe - Technocyte Coda boss fight

Role - Boss design and implementation
Release - Warframe: 1999
The Technocyte Coda are an infested version of the boy band On-lyne, from the year 1999. Drawing upon this, boss fight consists of a novel laser light-show concert which contains:

• A full-on concert, with stage and boss performers playing On-lyne's hit single "Party of a Lifetime"
• Deadly laser-lights which are synchronized with the song
• A multi-phase fight which matches the structure of the song
• An evolution of Warframe's nemesis-like "Lich" system. It's complicated, read about it here

Possessor(s)

Developed by Heart Machine, Published by Devolver Digital, Release in 2025 on Steam
Roles - Boss design, enemy design, combat design, technical implementation
Description - Escape a sprawling, flooded city overrun with surreal interdimensional horror in this fast-paced action side scroller from Heart Machine and Devolver Digital.

I designed and implemented 20 boss fights for Possessor(s)

Possessor(s) - Berserk Executive boss fight

Role - Boss design and implementation
The Berserk Executive is the first boss fight in Possessor(s) and serves as an introduction to the boss mechanics that will be featured an expanded upon in the game, including:

• Telegraphed attacks which force dodging and evasion
• Melee and projectile parrying
• A poise system and poise breaking
• An enemy juggling system for the player to prolong boss poise breaks

Recursive Ruin

Developed by BIT ROT, Published by Iceberg Interactive, Released May, 2022 on Steam, EGS, and GOG.
Roles - Studio lead, game design, programming, art, sound/music, almost everything.
Team - Chad McKinney (Star Citizen), Micah Holland (Sable), Corey Johnson (Star Citizen), and Stacy Chan.
Description - A kaleidoscopic narrative puzzle game in which an artist comes to terms with their grief. Explore an infinitely recursive world of strange fractal beauty and solve mind-bending puzzles. Created with Unreal Engine 4 and C++. Currently rated Very Positive on Steam.

Recursive Ruin - Game Design Overview

Recursive Ruin's gameplay is founded upon a core concept: An infinitely repeating fractal world.
Every facet of the game is designed to work with this core aspect of the game. This proved to be a significant challenge which required:

• Building specialized technology capable of infinitely cycling through nested worlds.
• Forming a strong intuition for fractal geometry and movement.
• Designing levels capable of recursively looping back on themselves at different scales.
• Creating gameplay mechanics that operate recursively and teach the player an intuition for recursion.

Design Spotlight - Fractal Cubes

    Physical objects were initially added simply because they were fun to throw around in the infinite space, but they eventually became one of the cornerstones of the game's puzzle design. Moving recursive objects in a fractal world proved fertile ground for puzzles, and gave players an intuitive way to learn to think recursively.

Design Spotlight - Recursive Lasers and Launchers

    One simple but effective mechanic that worked well in recursive worlds was lasers. Lasers can easily travel across the recursive world and power something in a different "iteration". They could also be redirected any number of times (like classic mirror puzzles). Most interestingly, they could be manipulated recursively, such that a laser you were aiming far away could in fact be pointing that laser recursively right next to you.
To take the concept further, there are "launcher" objects which launch the player themselves across the infinite world.