His credits include the 2008 IGF Design Innovation Nominee “Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island”, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox360, PS3), “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” (Facebook), and the critically acclaimed Guitar Hero iPhone, amongst others.

As a passionate and respected member of the game development community, Brandon actively seeks ways to contribute to the larger industry as a whole. Some of his advocacy efforts include spearheading the official online New York City game development resource nycgameindustry.com, frequently volunteering at various industry events and conferences, and penning informational articles for industry resources such as GameCareerGuide.com and Game Developer Magazine.

Brandon studied game art and design at the Art Institute of Vancouver-Burnaby and was a member of the first graduating class of game design students at Vancouver Film School. His other hobbies include web design and development, attending industry related events, trying new foods, exploring megacities, and hanging out with his dog Jelly (pictured).

Test your knowledge of geography and world cultures as you use your deductive reasoning skills to track down the ever elusive Carmen Sandiego in “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” for Facebook!

This project was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. Like many in my generation, I had grown up playing the original incarnations of Carmen Sandiego. The nostalgia I carried for the series was enormous. It was one of the games that my late grandfather and I bonded over. So when the chance to help design a brand new incarnation of the game for Facebook presented itself I jumped at the opportunity.

I joined the team at Blue Fang as they were nearing the end of pre-production. At this stage the general idea for Carmen had been determined, and it was my responsibility to take those ideas, expand upon them, and write up an assortment of highly detailed design specs that the rest of the team would then base their work from. In total, I wrote about 10 – 12 different specs that ranged from the player leveling system, to specifics regarding how the case status screen would function.

In addition to authoring design specs, I was also responsible for working with engineering to integrate the proprietary design tool used to edit game data and track in-game content and case clues. As the tool was iterated on, I used it to begin populating the game with the vast amounts of data the game required. I also spent a lot of time researching various city locations, and helped to edit text that was submitted by the contract writers.

All in all, this project was one of the highlights of my career so far and I really enjoyed the time I spent working on it.

To check out the game for yourself visit: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Guitar Hero iPhone and iPod Touch is the ultimate mobile music-rhythm game; featuring all-new innovative gameplay that succeeds in delivering a robust experience for gamers who want to rock out on the go.

During the production of Guitar Hero iPhone I was responsible for designing and implementing the game’s various macro game elements. This included the challenge system and overall reward structure, level scaling and progression, and planning out the larger in-game community features.

In addition, I was also in charge of optimizing Guitar Hero iPhone’s gameplay on a touchscreen device. A lot of quality time was spent fine-tuning different gameplay elements like strumming responsiveness, size of the note-catcher window, tap gem forgiveness, and balancing the star power energy meter.

Much of this work was done using the company’s proprietary development tools on a PC in conjunction with builds and tests performed on the Mac.

The game was announced on June 7th, 2010 during Steve Jobs’s keynote presentation at the 2010 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Embedded below is a short video review of the game:

Check out the game for yourself by visiting the App Store: Guitar Hero iPhone/iPod Touch

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is an action role-playing game for the Xbox360 and Playstation 3 that features characters from the Marvel Comics universe and follows elements of the Secret War and Civil War story arcs.

I served as the Combat and Powers designer on the project and was tasked with leading a team of animators and engineers to develop the look and feel of all core actions that can be performed in-game. This included items such as general traversal, grabs/throws, melee combat, individual hero powers, etc. Below are links to a few interviews I did regarding some of the characters in the game:

- Ms. Marvel
- Gambit
- Iceman

And here is a cool fan made video that actually showcases some of the work I did on the title:

MUA2 was released on September 15, 2009 to favorable reviews. Many critics sited improved gameplay, the new fusion abilities, and a more engaging and thought provoking narrative as reasons for the game’s success.

Fashion Solitaire is a unique fusion of an age-old classic with today’s hottest fashions! Use your style and taste to match garments with models, put together trendy outfits, and create signature collections in eight fabulous looks.

During the development of Fashion Solitaire I performed the role of both designer and producer. I was responsible for developing and iterating on the game’s unique play mechanics, categorizing and providing feedback on avatar and outfit styles, performing general research on the fashion industry, and successfully implementing SCRUM into the project’s development pipeline.

This was the last game I worked on with the fine folks over at Large Animal Games. Fashion Solitaire was released in 2008 and published by Lifetime Television.

Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island is a bird photography game in which the player travels the country, unraveling the mystery of their grandfather’s disappearance and collecting photos of both real and fantastical birds.

This has got to be one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve worked on. The concept was unique and interesting, and the game had the ability to appeal to both core and casual gamers alike. For my part, throughout production I was responsible for the level design, macro-game balancing, bird-to-level allocation, as well as various other design decisions related to gameplay.

I used Torque 3D to create trees and place in-game objects (rocks, logs, bushes) to construct interesting levels for players to photograph in. Afterwards, based on information gathered from New York State’s Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I was then tasked with populating those levels with accurate bird types.

I really learned a lot from this project. Not only about game development, but also about how important research is to the design process and success of a project like Snapshot Adventures.

Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island was released in early 2007 and was met with critical acclaim by members of the casual game community. It was the recipient of Game Tunnel’s 2007 Casual Game of the Year Award, and had the honor of being nominated for “Design Innovation” at the prestigious Independent Games Festival (IGF) in 2008.