I've worked on a large amount of amaeteur game design projects over the years, some of which have had a significant reach and audience. Here's a sampling of what I'm typically up to in my spare time:
Project Lead, Level Design, Boss Design, Programming, Writing, Testing
The sixth entry (third in the numbering) in the MaGMML series. A true sequel to MaGMML2, this entry is another anything-goes no-holds-barred contest, with the compilation this time being bigger and flashier than ever. MaGMML3 has been what most of the series has revolved around, with our engine packed with pre-made assets, the "Megamix Engine", being specifically developed for it over the course of 2018.
The contest garnered a staggering 178 entries in total, demanding a ton of work to properly judge and represent them ingame on top of adding myraids of quality of life features to the compilation. This game was also notable in the fact that it suffered some self-inflicted development hell; initially, I had handed the project off to some others so I could enter the contest myself, but exceedingly poor management forced a takeover to get the game done. To say that this game was a Herculean task to finish would be an understatement - with over 200 levels and actual hundreds of hours of gameplay, it's been a serious test of my project management skills.
As of the time of this writing, the game is not currently released - however, it is approaching completion and will be available to play within the next month or two.
Additional Development, Testing
God Game, or just "Godgame", is a card game hosted in Tabletop Simulator created by my good friends SocksBX, rox300 and Phoebe. It's been described many times as the "Calvinball" or "Subspace Emissary" of card games, featuring thousands of cards depicting characters from all kinds of media - Mario to Danganronpa to the stupidest things imaginable.
I joined as a developer around the time of the game's seventh expansion, "Calamity Carnival", and have been assisting ever since. I also was the secondary developer for the game's "Campaign Mode", a DND and Inscryption-style game mode tailored for the person it's being hosted for. The game is available publically and has been streamed for thousands of hours on Twitch.tv, with many big names choosing to jump into its chaotic ring.
Level Design
A ROM hack of Super Mario World with a particular focus on challenging platforming with no extra frills. I contributed two levels to this hack as well as some rooms for the game's final collaboration levels. The other contributors' levels have been a massive inspiration and influence on my own design ethos, as many show an excellent understanding of making levels that avoid the pitfalls of stagnating on replays,
Level Design, Conceptualization, Testing
This is a Super Mario World ROM hack made for the site's first "Questionable HackJam", where users teamed up with each other to submit hacks made with particularly unhinged edges. What my team came up with was a hack that took the "endurance" archetype of level and flipped it on its head. Most endurance levels are beatable with enough raw practice and memorization, but in Random Access Memoby, the level layouts and enemy placements change every single death - and worst of all, even Mario's physics are completely inconsistent just to mess with you further. I designed the first two (out of five) levels for the game as well as two-thirds of the rooms for the final castle.
Level Design, Programming, Project Management
The fifth entry in the MaGMML series. This contest brought back a "box" gimmick from an earlier, much smaller game - Make a Good 24 Hour Mega Man Level; said gimmick involved users rolling mystery boxes of three enemies and two level gimmick that they were required to use in their levels. I entered this contest myself and scored 12th place - but I also did a significant amount of work for the main game, including project management and deadline setting, designing the cruise ship-themed hub world, and programming most of the various quirky sidequests that the game contains.
Project Lead, Concepts, Systems Design, Level Design, Boss Design, Programming, Writing, Testing
The fourth entry in the MaGMML series; instead of a contest, this game was instead an outright collaboration with a quality control team that I was a part of. Unusually, the game stars "Zero" - not the typical Mega Man X Zero, but a broken decoy robot resembling him that appeared as a bait-and-switch gag back in the first game. Zero has an entirely unique moveset, featuring a Mega Man Zero-inspired chip augumentation system to boost his weapons and a highly-praised speedrun-focused set of movement abilities. We received a ton of high-quality levels - 64 in total - and wrapped it up in a compilation with the series' first foray into a deeper story. The final result is something I'm extremely proud of, and it received a ton of glowing praise.
Level Design, Testing
An absurdist experimental game made in the fan-made Mario level creator, Super Mario Bros. X. The Betterified games parody classic SMBX episodes by taking existing levels and giving them new, ridiculous gimmicks and level design to drastically alter the experience. This installment in particular also includes many original high-concept levels and elaborate bosses. My biggest contribution to this game was testing the entire thing in pre-release, though I also contributed some ridiculous overtuned levels of my own.
Level Design, Concepts, Programming
A Mega Man fangame focused on providing a challenging and eccentric experience distinct from both the official series and fan content alike. It is currently being worked on, having been in development since 2021. I was in charge of developing several major levels, including at least one collaboration for a friend, as well as designing the assets for one of the Robot Master stages.
Level Design, Testing
An absurdist ROM hach of Super Mario World with an "anything goes" mentality. In contrast to the first YUMP, which was a tribute to rage-bait early 2010s hacks, this game is focused more on ridiculous level concepts that would not typically be seen or accepted in a normal hack. I made six levels in total and tested the majority of the game on a real SNES console.
Level Design, Testing
An original game made in the Super Mario Bros. X engine, Subzero Heroes is the final entry in a very old and insular series of episodes with an extremely "early internet webcomic" feel. This finale is the most polished and accessible yet - I designed six levels for the game and provided a ton of feedback as my friends were doing their parts.
Level Design, Testing
A massive, extremely popular Super Mario World ROM hack with nearly a hundred levels. Made as the sequel to the hack "JUMP", the hack quickly spiralled out of control and required a ton of revision and project management to get it into its final state. The hack has a heavy focus on linear level design with creative gimmicks and abstract level concepts. I made eleven levels in total throughout the game, from introductory stages to lategame puzzles.
Project Lead, Level Design, Boss Design, Programming, Writing, Testing
The entry that defined the MaGMML series - a sequel to the original and now much grander than before. This contest was the first to accrue a large number of entries - 81 in total - and codified and expanded upon the compilation formula, adding features such as weapons based on the entrants' submitted Robot Masters and post-game bonus levels. This was my first foray into managing a team, and it of course was far from perfect - I was still a teenager, after all - but it was a valuable experience and the game has aged gracefully.
Project Lead, Porting, Level Design, Boss Design, Programming, Writing Testing
A full rebuild of the original MaGMML game, intent on preserving the initial round of submissions in the very first contest by porting them to a stabler engine and correcting mistakes caused by inexperience. The entries were faithfully ported with the help of a tool we made to convert between Game Maker 8.0 and Studio, while the compilation aspect was completely revamped with new graphics, writing, and level design for the game's Wily Castle.
Testing, Programming
A fangame that allows users to create their own levels in an editor inspired by Super Mario Maker and Mega Man Powered Up. The game has had thousands upon thousands of levels made with it, had consistent content updates for years and reached a wide audience. I've been a part of the beta testing team from the beginning and have also dabbled in programming a few extraneous assets, as well as compiling tilesets and in-game flavor text for the various assets.
