After graduating from USC’s Interactive Media program, Teddy Dief and I started an independent game studio. Over the course of two years, we published three mobile action games and made an award-winning narrative game demo.
The Moonlighters
My Role: Designer, Writer, Developer
Full Credits: Teddy Dief (Design/Writer/Coder), Irene Koh (Art), Mari Arakaki (Art), Alexa Rockman (Art), Kenny Wood (Composer), Kahle McCann (Lyricist), Emmett Lee Stang (Voiceover)
Reception
- Official Selection – IndieCade @ E3 2012
- Honorable Mention – Independent Games Festival 2012
“What I got to play at E3 was an absolute delight.”
– Patrick Hancock, Destructoid
“Moonlighters pays convincing homage to classic heist films of the past as well as capturing the gaudy, boozy glitz of 1950s Tinseltown.”
– Evan Narcisse, Kotaku
“If you’re not intrigued yet, I’m not sure we can be friends… I’m pleased to report that the heists are challenging to complete and the writing is remarkably witty.”
– Alex Wawro, PCWorld
“This is so awesome! …It was fresh and original, but it wasn’t so arty that you had to be in an art space to enjoy an indie game.”
– David Jaffe, Giant Bombcast
Shove Pro
My Role: Designer, Writer, Developer
Full Credits: Teddy Dief (Designer, Writer, Developer), Wesley Martin (Artist), John Carey, Harrison Lee, and Dustin Painter (Sound Designers and Composers), Psychic Bunny (Trailer Production)
Reception
“Shove Pro is perhaps actually engineering a new genre… and the fact that it also has an airtight plot makes it all the more amazing.”
– David Wolinsky, TouchArcade
“Shove Pro is a very funny, cheeky game, but much more importantly, it’s a fun one. It’s a punchy, satisfying game to play, and it allows a lot of room for skill.”
– Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku
Alphabeats
My Role: Designer, Developer, Publisher
Full Credits: Teddy Dief (Design Support), Irene Koh (Art), Dustin Painter (Sound), and many musicians
Reception
“It’s one of the most exciting and fun word games I’ve played so far. It looks amazing, the music is catchy, and the gameplay is unique, challenging, and incredibly addictive.”
– Christine Chan, AppAdvice
“This is a lot of fun for fans of word games. It combines the action of arcade games, the atmosphere of music-based games, and the education of spelling.”
– Lory Gil, iDownloadBlog
Safari Rescue
My Role: Designer, Writer, Developer, iOS Port
Full Credits: Samantha Vick (Artist/Designer), Kyla Furey (Designer), Teddy Dief (iOS port)
Reception
One of “ten essential indie games” for iOS… “ten quirky beauts”
– Pete Dreyer, T3
“Safari Rescue is the best game I’ve ever played, in the same sense that Dragon Wars is the best film I’ve ever seen.”
– Owen Faraday, iDownloadBlog
Jumpkick Justice
My Role: Designer, Writer, Developer
Full Credits: Teddy Dief (Designer/Developer)
Before Rad Dragon, Teddy and I made Jumpkick Justice for a game jam, challenging ourselves to represent all the parts of a trial using only jumpkicks. On the narrative design side, I made a silly random case generator to establish stakes for every case.
Reception
- USC MEGA Game Jam Champion, 2011
“[E]ntertaining stupid gringo vision of the legal system, as it always should be.”
– SingeVolant.com, per Google Translate