Grimoire: Manastorm

Grimoire is a free-to-play, class-based MOBA-style shooter, developed around the same time as games like Overwatch. It started as a hobby project and turned into a commercial venture after its first alpha test was met with overwhelming positivity. Built by a small team on a limited budget, it has been well reviewed by its dedicated community.

As a co-founder on a tiny indie team I was part of nearly every piece of the game's development, but my main job was level and game design.

Level design

• Built 10 multiplayer and 2 singleplayer maps, from blockout to final release.
• Designed and built the whole in-game tutorial with Kismet visual scripting.
• Kept a consistent art style across every level on a limited budget, mostly with marketplace assets plus some custom art.
• Wrote level design guidelines around the game's unique combat and player movement.
• Selected, prepared, and imported hundreds of environment models to create the game's four settings.
• Created two singleplayer wave survival levels with different difficulty-based scenarios using Kismet and game mode tools.
• Profiled and optimized maps to meet the minimum spec.
• Iterated layouts with A/B testing and player feedback.

Game design

• Came up with the original concept of a multiplayer wizard shooter, which evolved into the final design with my co-founder.
• Designed and playtested six game mode prototypes before settling on the final three: Conquest, FFA, and Survival.
• Co-designed five of the six classes, plus their starting spells and roles.
• Worked with the other designers on an archetype for each of the five spell slots per class.
• Designed the F2P progression and class customization update, which added 8 new spells per class and thousands of possible loadouts.
• Built a system for estimating a spell's power, then balanced against time-to-kill targets with internal testing and community feedback.

Production

• Set and hit milestones for Early Access, 2 Steam Free Weekends, 4 major patches, 30+ minor patches, and the final release.
• Stayed within a limited budget by focusing on efficiency and each team member's strengths.
• Managed a team of 3 to 6 plus more than a dozen independent contractors.
• Designed the switch from paid to free-to-play to fit the schedule and budget.
• Recruited and hired a new lead programmer after we lost our co-founder and original lead programmer.
• Negotiated, modified, and signed dozens of contracts using lawyer-provided templates.
• Set up project management tools such as Trello and Slack.

Community management

• Wrote or edited every dev blog, newsletter, and announcement.
• Grew and informed the community on Discord, Twitter, and Facebook.
• Ran bi-weekly “Play with the Devs” playtests for feedback and bug reports.
• Managed the Steam community and forums: bug reports, sticky topics, tech support, and moderation.
• Wrote a detailed game guide, plus all patch notes, compiled from the team's changes and SVN logs.

Everything else

• Restored and hardened the dev server after a hard drive failure: recovered files from local backups and set up a new server with automated backups on AWS.
• Wrote QA guidelines for bug reports, player feedback, and finalizing public builds.
• Created, tested, and released every build after Feb 2015.
• Ran the Steam store page and worked with the lead artist on branding, updating everything for the paid to F2P switch.
• Handled marketing: six class showcase trailers, the game website, contact lists, and social media, and collaborated on the Kickstarter campaign, email campaigns, and copywriting.
• Set up primary and backup game servers in multiple regions on AWS.
• Outlined the game's world, then refined its conflict and backstory with the team and a writer.