WRITING
From long, ponderous prose set in far away fantasy lands to compelling literary reportage to sardonic media reviews to technical writing to straight journalism, I continue to write for purpose and pleasure. Here are a few examples.
Joe Granato IV
Game Designers need to not only have the vision, but be able to express it. To motivate a team of creatives to help see it realized. To be able to speak the language of a varied pool of creatives. As the director for a small studio, I have had to do exactly this. In this portfolio, I will show some examples of work in varied creative roles, and also demonstrate a bit of my Game Design process.
Mystic Searches
Designing the Entire Engine, and all of its Systems
For a NES game, this game requires fairly complex systems, all of which have to be created from scratch, some at the byte level. The game exists in 2.5d space with a legitimate z coordinate, has an achievement system, multiple endings, and exists as open world, but with paths suggested in-game by mechanics and narrative. The game reuses a basic crafting system to level-up the melee weapon, train avatar monsters for tournament fighting, and alchemy of potions. It has a day night system, and event trigger system, and an avatar recognition system that impact NPC dialog. These things all seem fairly conventional in a contemporary sense, but squeezing that level of functionality into a legitimate NES cartridge involves exponentially complex development; things like memory bank management or careful re-use of memory allocation that serve different functions in respective finite state machines. But beyond that, even the simple things had to be built - the music playback system, the animation system, the object system. Unlike working in a modern tool, none of these things pre-exist. All were built very specifically in service of the game and its mechanics.
Mystic Searches
Under the Hood, Process Design and Development
This serves two functions - it demonstrates a bit of the process explained above in illustrative detail, but also demonstrates my ability to summarize and communicate complex concepts in tangible means. Here, I demonstrate how I use clever tricks to create dramatic, narrative effects, diving into a step by step recreation and explanation of the the logic and code behind them.
Mystic Echoes
Directing a small team, Unity based prototype
Here is a look at our studio, developing a prototype in Unity for a supplemental game set in the same world as its NES counterpart. Here, we're experimenting with mechanics informed by the lore, striving for the right tone, and considering intuitive functionality for both mobile and controller based input.
Touring in the Time of the Zombie Apocalypse
Directing a transmedia project centered around a film and Unity game
Touring in the Time of the Zombie Apocalypse was a game that was part of a larger multimedia campaign meant to bring awareness to the Baltimore music scene as well as build a greater sense of community among its constituent members. The intended project consisted of a feature film, which was completely funded, cast and crewed by people within the community, the companion game thats process work is featured in this video, and a series of recording sessions where musicians from various local acts were recombined to form unique and frankensteinian musical amalgams to serve as the soundtrack. I directed this project and cooridinated all of it's intertwined moving pieces, built the simple 2d prototypes, the 3d mechanics prototype, and then eventually served as lead programmer for the beta seen here. Unrelated, I also organized and served as event planner for the beta release shown in this video.
Mystic Searches
A Holistic Approach to Narrative
This link shows a small cross section of the fairly comprehensive approach to world building and narrative development for a transmedia project centered around a fantasy game. For Mystic Searches, we use agile management systems with rich media support to keep consistency while the expanding the lore into novelizations, musical orchestrations, comics, scripts for animations, and more. These various mediums feedback on each other and continue to drive an adventure of epic scale. While I know the position at AdHoc is not a narrative position, I think it's important to see how I organize elements in coordination with narrative.
Mystic Searches OST
Theme Composition
I approached the soundtrack for the Mystic Searches OST like a piece of program music. Each biome was connected to a Mystic, each Mystic, a particular aura. From the spritely bounce of movement inspired by spirited celtic rhythms, to a march of exigence, to a somber, vulnerable passage invoking loss and death, to the fugue-like recursion to represent meddling with time and space, this mosaic arrangement guides the listener through the fantastic world of Myrinda in a sonic portrayal of the hero's journey. For this project, musical themes often informed design choices and mechanics. They were not disconnected elements. I wanted to show this because beyond showing my tangential ability as a composer, it demonstrates my perception on the importance of design elements working congruently, to inform and work lockstep with each other.
NESmaker
Director, ASM Programmer
NESmaker is a software for gui based development of cartridge playable NES games. From a seedling of an idea, the software has grown into an international lightning rod for retro game development. As director, I managed a quarter million-dollar crowdfunding campaign, successfully courted investors, created and presented pitch decks to major retail outlets such as GameStop, and handled all update roll outs based on consumer feedback. I have managed the busines, the brand, media relations, email campaigns, social media, complex tangential projects, and a diverse team of creatives and programmers.
As lead programmer for the NES Assembly, I developed malleable, manageable libraries of 6502 ASM that can be recombined and repurposed to create various modules of games. I have created extensive design documents to illustrate the complicated series of hooks to tie ASM to front end controls, and I have developed learning resources to help users understand both the tool and low level programming.
Game Jams
Site Coordinator, Game Designer, Programmer
I've been an active part of the Global Game Jame for a decade now. I love the challenge of creating something cool within the constraints. After a few years as a participant, I ran a site at Ringling College of Art and Design. Because creative thinking and prototyping is so integral to this position, I thought it fitting to include a few examples of projects created with impromptu teams in those fun sprints. NOTE: These were often filmed at events after 48 sleepless hours, so they are sometimes incoherent and can be vulgar!
For the Creator Good
THEME: Ritual
STROKE OF GENIUS
THEME: Sound of a Beating Heart
Because there aren't enough comical, cartoonish games about ritual human sacrifice, defend your village from the angry volcano god. Appease his anger by offering up more villagers than your opponent.
Concept, Game Design, Programming
In this fun mouse button mashing strategic puzzle game, the goal is to keep the blood flowing through the brain around the forming blood clots. To control the flow, use the left button to add an artery section and the right to remove one. The longer you play, the faster the heart will beat.
Concept, Game Design, Programming, Music, SFX (all foley SFX)
PLASTSPLITCITY
THEME: We Don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.
A mind scrambling action action game to make you cross-eyed. This is the epic, nonsensical showdown between the creative and the logical sides of one's brain.
Concept, Game Design, Programming, Music