Steve Mclaughlin Email & Phone Number

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

Helsinki, Finland

Principal gameplay and systems designer for the official game of the Walking Dead television series. The game features turn-based strategy combat, base-building, randomized rewards structures, and episodic content modeled after the episodes of the TV show.My role is to extend and enrich the gameplay experience for veteran players, while smoothing out the onboarding and difficulty curve for new players. This involves developing game play patterns, bringing focus and highlights to each game mode in turn, and inventing new live events to spice up gameplay and incentivize regular engagement.Working on a live title with a healthy active user base across a variety of account ages is challenging, rewarding, and only slightly exhausting. It is a huge benefit to see your work enjoyed straight away upon release, and to have direct avenues for discussion and feedback with active players.

Hamburg Area, Germany

Developed pre-production work product for several unreleased mobile games. Used original and licensed IPs for game development across a variety of game genres and target demographics. Worked with engineers and artists to create internal prototypes, looking for that moment of magic that would have taken root and spurred the development of a full title for release to players.

Seattle, Wa

• Designed for the multiple-featured Metalstorm: Aces jet-fighting game.• Responsible for every element of design: mission balance and difficulty, all player items and rewards, progression of player power, and pricing of in-game items.• Implemented several complete upgrade systems with variations of complexity, cost, timing, and collectability, making sure we got it right before release• Designed 'gatcha'-style itemization, custom event content, and an unreleased timed event system to keep gameplay and rewards new and exciting for players.• Aces has several times led the genre of air combat games on iOS and receives thousands of unsolicited downloads per day.

Kirkland, Wa

• Designed game modes, controls, character abilities, items, missions, progression and rewards systems for Guardians of Middle Earth for the XBox 360.• Guardians was a first-of-its-kind true "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena" (MOBA) game for the console.• Worked carefully with the rich Tolkien lore to create new mission plotlines as well as showing existing canon in a new light.• Collaborated with a pool of 10 designers to increase the quality of maps, interaction between players, GUI and HUD elements, and game pacing.

• Designed more than 15 shipped products in 3 years.• Led design of the Scene It? Product line, including the Comedy Movies & Disney Magical Moments DVD board games. Developed new game mechanics, game modes, and content adaptations to expand the Scene It? Game experience.• Pioneered new practices for game development and prototyping, leading to the development of several new titles outside the core brand, including the Crayola Color Stories DVD, board, and card games; Dilbert Escape from Cubeville, The South Park DVD game, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer DVD board game.• Assisted in game design for Scene It? Box Office Smash (Xbox 360) in 2008 and led game design for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii versions of Scene It? Bright Lights, Big Screen in 2009.

• Assisted in the design of game titles including Mass Effect, Gears of War PC, Project Gotham Racing 4, and Scene It?.• Designed for balance between game elements, such as car selection in PGR4.• Helped redesign GUI and tutorials in multiple games for accessibility and learning curve.• Provided design feedback to BioWare for Mass Effect, by dissecting and critiquing gameplay mechanics and story structure.

This position was a good 'toes in the water' experience to allow me to reacquaint myself with the development process of video games. I worked on Crackdown and SceneIt? with the Test Org at Microsoft Game Studios.My responsibilities were to review ongoing development of the title at hand and develop a series of test cases that testers would perform to help track bugs and other issues within the game.I was able to develop these test cases with the assistance of the design documents and milestone details for the projects, and paid special attention to rare circumstance cases that could cause problems. When major issues presented themselves late in the development of the process [as they always do], I helped pinpoint the problem, down to dertermining exactly which game routine was causing the error. Late nights were unexpected and frequent, but in a way, they were an odd kind of fun.

I was the Lead Developer for TriKing Games and the Anachronism TCG. This was a gladiatorial combat game that featured historical figures from ancient times and cultures. 7 sets of the game were released in 2005 and 2006.I was also the playtest director for the company, in charge of the selection, hiring, and day-to-day management of a small team of playtesters. We had a very vigorous and extensive plan for every card, and weren't afraid to spend extra time on sticky issues or redesign problem cards late in the process.Convention support, including organization, judging, and execution of all Anachronism Tournaments run at conventions; running demos, and booth planning and execution, were responsibilities I tackled with vigor.In addition, I led the design and playtest of 4 other game projects, any of which would have been TriKing's second game. Unfortunately, licensing agreements are tricky negotiations, and funding was diverted to other projects to support Anachronism.

This was a start-up venture with Dan Tibbles; there was a distinct lack in Seattle after the closing of the Wizards of the Coast Game Center; not only a place to buy games, but also a 'home base' for the local gaming community. We diversified out of the traditional CCG and Game Miniatures products, including board gaming, internet computers for hire, and bending over backwards to become a Games Workshop store.We held a large variety of events - weekly Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic tournaments were intermixed with DJ-hosted parties, tabletop miniature terrain building workshops, and playtest events for games in development. The largest event held at the location was the 250+ player Legend of the Five Rings Kotei in 2005.I acted as clerk, bookkeeper, general contractor, tournament organizer and promoter, head judge and demo staff at various times, and enjoyed every minute of it.

This position was a new one for me; instead of designing a game, I was designing a support structure for the game. The Pokemon TCG relies on semi-professional event organizers to hold the prerelease, local championship, and world championship qualifier events. My job was to design the system fot organizing them; selecting them based on their experience, drawing up plans for the execution of the events, dispersal and payment of product, to oversee the creation and delivery of marketing materials and prize awards, and even to travel to a few of them and make sure they were run properly.I was also a judge and organizer for the 2004 Pokemon TCG World Championships, an event that drew over 500 players.Later in this position, I wrote deck building and play advice columns for the Pokemon USA website, and developed the first Pokemon League system executed by Pokemon USA.

My first gaming job out of college started as a level designer and scripter for the unreleased Magi-Nation: Keeper's Quest Game Boy Color game. Four guys, three months, and a great game for a system that became obselete with the release of the Game Boy Advance.I moved over the the design of the Magi-Nation: Duel Collectible Card Game. I developed new card ideas, wrote storyline fiction, compiled and managed databases, and managed the 50 volunteer playtest groups that assisted us in our quest for game balance.I also ran and judged the tournaments run at gaming conventions, up to and including the 2002 Magi-Nation World Championships. It was my job to 'own' the game on a conceptual, fictional, mechanics, and production level, and I sometimes wish the game had made it big-time; I never grew tired of the mechanics or the game balancing challenges they posed.

2-D And 3-D Real-Time Interactive Simulation

Game Design Intern

Activities and Societies: Assisted in game design and development tasks for Bionic Commando and Crystalis for the Game Boy Color..