SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 1 & 2 / Lead Designer

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo (Zipper Interactive/Sony Computer Entertainment) was a fully-fledged SOCOM title on the PlayStation Portable. Created in just 9 months, our small team of mostly new hires created a first for the PSP; a portable title capable of supporting 16 player multiplayer matches, including in-game VOIP chat, a full single player campaign and a section of replayable, randomised one-off missions. While graphically we had to sacrifice some fidelity, part of my job was to ensure that the feel of the gameplay remained the same. To this I designed a targeting system that would work well with the PSP's single analog stick but allow a wide range of dynamic tactical control in a firefight (see the design doc further down).

SOCOM: FTB was a big hit with the players of Sony's first handheld game system, and we followed up with Fireteam Bravo 2 a year later. In the sequel, we included upgraded graphics, non-lethal weapons and two new systems of Command Equity and Local Influence that gave player's access to extra equipment and Intel the more they prevented civilian deaths and damage. It was a big win for me, both in terms of deepening the gameplay as well as allowing for players to not always have to shoot everything that moved into order to move the story forward.

My role as design lead was to work closely with our production, art and engineering leads in order to keep to our tight schedule, determine cuts and design scaling when necessary, run the design team as well as help design levels and oversee the story and cinematic scripts/production. For Fireteam Bravo I designed many of the gameplay systems, including the revised control scheme for the PSP (which used a variable target-lock system to compliment the device's single analog stick).