Terry Spier, Game Designer - 05/31/06
Hello! My name is Terry Spier and I am a designer here at High Moon Studios. Like my esteemed colleagues Brian Robertson and Adam Poulos have said before me, the designer is responsible for a great many things. We do everything from exploring the intricacies of simple game mechanics, like jumping, to shooting for the moon with amazing ideas that take place in amazing worlds, then forging these worlds in 3D applications like Maya.
My day to day right now is spent doing a couple of things. First, I am working alongside several other designers on building a prototype for a game mechanic we are testing. We take a simple scenario, use existing art assets, and try to squeeze the most fun game experience we can out of it. At the end, we all sit down and play each others level and take the best ideas from all of them, more or less.
My other task is to create level geometry in Maya so I can test out game play. Once I have the basic layout and path design done, I will run around and test my mechanic. When I am happy with it, the space gets built out as a prototype level with medium resolution geometry and art. I then go back in to make sure it still feels good, and then hand it back to the artists for even better art. Rinse and repeat until the level is complete!
That's about it for now. E3, which is happening as I type this, always brings a calm to the studio as we gear up for the next big push. Thanks for reading!
Terry Spier
Game Designer
High Moon Studios
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