Consulting

In addition to my current games and streaming project, I am also available for design consulting. Shoot me an email for rates and info – wertle@wertle.com

SPEAKING, PODCASTS, PUBLICATIONS

PROJECTS AND EXPERIENCE

Wertle Says Hello

Streaming Project, Spring 2015 – Current

  • Streams regularly on Twitch, specifically focusing on showing the game development process and discussing specific design topics in a variety of games and engaging stream audience in design discussion as learning points

Imaginal, Designer and Lead, Spring 2015 – Current

  • Designed and implemented from prototype a meditative activity-game about catching lighting bugs
  • Directed an artist and sound designer/composer to create assets for the project
  • Wrote content for story moments in the game

Cat Trick, Designer and Lead, Spring 2015 – Current

  • Designed and prototyped initial prototype of a casual action game for PC, working with an artist/animator
  • Adapted control scheme and game structure for touch interfaces.

Eye Tracker Project, Designer and lead, Spring 2015 – Current

  • Created a prototype for an installation game in Unreal 4 that uses a Tobii EyeX eyetracker as input device

Heart Machine

Hyper Light Drifter, Level Designer, Spring 2015 – Current

  • Designed and built levels for 2D action RPG using custom game engine extension in GameMaker

Insomniac Games

Slow Down, Bull – Designer, Project Lead, Summer 2013 – Spring 2015

  • Conceived, prototyped, and pitched a small action PC game as a process experiment for the company
  • Lead a 4-5 person team to create the game from pre-production through production
  • Hosted regular live development streams of the project and composed regular devlogs.

Sunset Overdrive – Designer, 2011 – Summer 2013

  • Prototyped a variety of mechanics during pre-production using Insomniac’s proprietary tools. Iterated on core mechanics with the pre-production team

  • Created visual design documents to convey feature proposals

  • Prototyped early iterations of Chaos Squad
  • Created levels to figure out early integration of traversal mechanics and combat

Resistance 3 – Designer, 2009-2011

  • Responsible for level design of the boat and train levels, combat implementation in the terraformer level, as well as contribution to design of enemies, weapons, co-op mechanics and other game objects for the single-player campaign

  • Implemented design via Lua scripting and use of Insomniac’s proprietary level editor

  • Organized playtesters for weekly level segment internal playtests

  • Responsible for documentation of design decisions and mechanics for respective levels and co-op mechanics

Resistance 2 – Design Intern, 2008

  • Designed and implemented scenarios and battles in Cocodrie, Louisiana level

  • Scripted in Lua and used Insomniac’s proprietary level editor to implement setups for the single-player campaign

Schell Games

Unannounced Wii Title – Game Design Intern, 2009

  • Designed and implemented gameplay for mini-games on Wii title for target demographic of 6 – 10 year-old girls

  • Scripted in Lua and used the Gamebryo engine and SceneBuilder to create mini-game levels

 Pixie Hollow – Game Design Intern, 2009

  • Designed and tuned baking-themed minigames for Pixie Hollow, Disney Fairies online game for young girls

  • Wrote and implemented Wilderness quests using internal tools

Evil Genius Designs

Get In Line – Game Designer, 2008

  • Incubator research and development in graduate school that led to the spin-off of Evil Genius Designs

  • Designed themed mini-games for an interactive experience for people waiting in line as the initial prototype for Get In Line Entertainment

  • Implemented games using a Flash API for Megaphone, a platform which converts cell phones into game controllers

  • Consulted for future iterations of Get In Line Entertainment

 

EDUCATION

  • Master of Entertainment Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, May 2009
  • Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Studio Art, Centre College, May 2004

SKILLS

Engines and Game-making software: Insomniac Proprietary Engine, Unity, Unreal 4, Construct 2, Gamemaker

Other Software: Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Maya, Sketchup, Premiere, AfterEffects

Scripting and Programming: C#, Lua, Actionscript 3, PHP, Python, Kismet, Blueprints

 

Game Designer