Position
Game Designer
Description
I-GAME 2.0 is a counter IED training simulation used by various departments of the U.S. Military and is focused on training warfighters to prepare them for real, life-and-death scenarios that they may encounter in the field. Unlike my previous Designer positions which focused on providing entertaining and fun experiences for players, my role as a Game Designer at IPKeys focused more on making I-GAME as user friendly as possible while providing as much useful information as possible for trainers and trainees. With training simulations, the goal is more to provide useful tools for Trainers to create scenarios on the fly as opposed to crafting a specific experience. With that being the case, I spent more time working on User Interfaces and planning and review systems.
For I-GAME 2.0, I spent much of my time focused on the After Action Review system, a sort of interactive replay of a completed scenario, which allows trainers and trainees to step through a scenario and review a wide variety of information at key events throughout the training session. This allows trainers to highlight areas where trainees need improvement. I also worked heavily on the Operation Orders (OPORD) and Threat Map systems, which allows Trainers to create unique static maps for use during a scenario. These maps can be dynamically updated by Trainers with markings indicating where enemies or IEDs had previously been encountered and can be accessed by Trainees during gameplay.
Roles
- Project-wide
- Used Unreal Motion Graphics and Blueprint to create User Interfaces and all associated scripting for Operations Orders (OPORD), Threat Map, and After Action Review (AAR) systems.
- Maintained numerous other User Interface systems including game menus and player heads up display (HUD).
- Worked with other Game Designers to fix design-related bugs pertaining to all systems and features, simulation-wide.