Liam Conroy’s Portfolio

I recently put together a quick document describing the core gameplay system for a cooking game for GameCareerGuide.com’s Game Design Challenge. There were a few requirements on this doc:

• Short
• Text only
• Must describe difficulty variation over anything else
• Done quickly (actually this one was my fault, I read about the competition late)

My submission was given an honourable mention and included in the article. Not bad work considering the text there represents an hours work!

I may very well expand this to a full design doc at some point to include in the design section of this site, but for now, the mention in the article will have to do!

I’ve added a CV to this site, available here.

Additionally, I’ve made an attempt at translating my CV into a 履歴書, and the result is available here.

Welcome to the Portfolio site of Technical Designer Liam Conroy.

This is a new project which attempts to document my personal, professional and academic experience to date. Currently I work for Zoe Mode as a Designer/Music Specialist, creating DLC content for an unnannounced title. Previously I have worked for Black Rock Studio, Uzushio Denki, NCR, as well as having earned an honours degree in Computer Games Technology from Abertay University.

As previously mentioned, I refer to myself as a technical designer. That is, my main interests are the areas of game development where code meets design. I am interested in scripting, in data driven development and in how game engines can be exposed to non-programmers. I am interested in gameplay system design and balance; How should a game system be parameterised? What parameters give a good feeling to the player? What are the implications to the player of a system being balanced the way it is?

I am interested in cross-disciplinary communication. While not specifically a programmer, I do have a general academic interest in Software Engineering and Computer Science, I yearn to understand as much about these subjects as my busy life allows. I am interested in parity between teams, with neither designers left underpowered in maintaining a creative vision, nor programmers being left out of the creative process.

Outside of work I enjoy learning Japanese. I lived there for a year and have a level of ability between JLPT 2 and 3, as well as a good conversational ability. I am working towards fluency over the next few years, and hope to return to work there some time. I also enjoy cooking, socialising, and have been known to occasionally play drums and snowboard.

Titles and disciplines are rarely easy and clean concepts to categorise, especially in an industry where designer can mean anything from a usability expert to a marketer. I have categorised this portofolio into the following sections to try and cover a range of my background and experience:

Code

Art

Design

Research

Audio

Other

This site is new, and very much an ongoing piece of work. I will update the portofolios contents at the links above, as well as writing occasional updates in blog format on this page.

Do not hesistate to contact me if you have any further questions or enquiries!