Taylor Morris

game designer & programmer

Portfolio and blog of Taylor Morris, game designer and programmer

Resume

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Professional Shipped Titles

Judas (202X) - developed by Ghost Story Games & published by Take2 Interactive
Worked on the Cinematics team to develop complex, sometimes interactive cut-scenes throughout the game’s story quests. Connective and gameplay and mission scripting provided as required, including character upgrade schematics. Led a team of up to 3 scripters and multiple other artists to provide full-spec interactive cinematic content in a fast-paced, iterative environment

Returnal (2021) - developed by Housmarque & published by Sony Interactive
Worked on the Cinematics team on in-engine cut-scenes as well as a fully interactive first-person “House” flashback sequence with multiple interactions that provide a narrative framework for the longer term gameplay. Worked with a wide range of team members to provide an engaging horror environment “quiet moment” to complement the intense action gameplay of the main game

Virtual Virtual Reality (2019) - developed & published by Tender Claws
Worked on porting this VR game to PlayStation 4. Tasks included: redesigning the controls for PS Move controllers, profiling the game for performance, modifying the game for console brand guidelines, implementing some console-specific content, guiding the team through console certification and responding directly to certification change requests.

Crisis on the Planet of the Apes (2018) - developed by Imaginati Studios, published by 21st Century Fox
Worked as a consultant for the publisher on level design, combat design, general programming assistance & bug fixing, and porting to the PlayStation VR platform

RealFlight-X (2016) - developed by Knife Edge Software, published by HobbiCo
Worked on UI programming, gameplay programming, prototypes, plugin/API's, engine source code modification, user experience design, spec documentation, race course design

Skills

Proficient

Game Engines - Unreal Engine 4&5
Design - User Experience, Cinematics & Interactive Cutscene Construction, Mission and Quest Scripting
Languages - C++, UE4 Blueprints
Supplemental - Perforce/Git/SourceTree, Visual Studio, Game Production Software, Office Software (Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Slideshows/Decks)

Familiar

Game Engines - Unity, Unigine, Unreal Engine 3, Source/Hammer, NetRadiant, DoomBuilder
Design - 3D Level Design, Rapid Prototyping, Pre-Production & Documentation, 2D Level Design, Combat Design & Balancing, Race Course Design
Languages - C#, Python, C, UDK/Kismet, HTML/JavaScript, CSS, PHP, XML
Supplemental -Blender/Maya/3D modelling & texturing, Photoshop/GIMP, ProTools/Audition/Audacity, PSVR/Vive/Oculus VR development, Linux/Terminal, Premiere, PyCharm/Eclipse,

Specialty Areas

  • Video Game Cinematics, Cut-scenes and interactive storytelling

  • Game Design & Content Implementation

  • Gameplay/Prototype Programming

  • Team Leadership & Project Management (Agile with Scrum, Waterfall)

  • Creative Writing & Editing

  • UI Programming

Employment History

Freelance Programmer & Designer

Collapsing Space, Los Angeles, CA 90013

March 2018 – Current

Topline: working as an independent contractor, usually as a Technical Designer but also in a variety of programming and game/level design-related tasks - mostly continuing to work withom VR but also maintaining side projects for PC & console

Past Clients: Frame Machine, Ghost Story Games, Housemarque, Tender Claws, Wevr, Inc.

Technical Designer

 FoxNext VR Studio, 2021 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067

 September 2017 – March 2018

Shipped: Crisis on the Planet of the Apes (2018, published by FoxNext [launch date April 3, 2018])

Topline: variety of design & programming work for a simultaneous PS VR/Steam/Oculus launch in North America, Europe, and East Asia on a first-person shooter VR game working remotely with a team in England

Responsibilities: tasks included: level design, gameplay programming, systems design consulting, tutorial design & programming, performance improvement for console certification process, build engineering

UI & Gameplay Programmer

 Knife Edge Software, 885 NW Grant Ave # A, Corvallis, OR 97330

 March 2015 – May 2017

Shipped: RealFlight-X (2016, published by HobbiCo)

Topline: worked with a small team doing C++ development and UI scripting on a flight simulator for RC aircraft

Responsibilities: early gameplay & character controller prototyping, user interface programming via the CoherentUI middleware including plugin/API implementation,on-screen overlay instruments created via low-level engine graphics library, tutorial & replay system; general user experience design with spec documents & flow-charts

Education

Diploma - Game Design Intensive
Vancouver Film School, Vancouver, British Columbia
Award - Excellence in Coding, GD36

Bachelor of the Arts - Political Studies
Pitzer College, Claremont, California


Based in LA, happy to work worldwide.

Contact
taylor (at) collapsingspace (dot) com
for references & work samples


copyright 2024 taylor morris
collapsingspace@protonmail.com