Krome Studios
Krome Studios was the start of my career in the games industry. I started in the Quality Assurance department working on a game called Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius Jet Fusion. Due to the Nickelodeon licensing terms, Jimmy Neutron was not allowed to jump unrealistically, and still to this day I find it peculiar how we succeeded in making a 3D platformer. After Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius Jet Fusion was firmly on store shelves, I was promoted to game designer and began working on the sequel to Ty the Tasmanian Tiger.
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue was a fantastic project. It started as a traditional 3D platformer similar to the first game, but during development Grand Theft Auto 3 was released. Suddenly our game was turning into an open world game. This was a first for the studio, and a first for me. Adapting quickly to retrofit levels into an open world created a vast amount of production and design challenges which were overcome through sheer perseverance.
The extra production time allowed us to create a GameBoy Advance version in conjunction with HalfBrick Studios, which we housed with us in the studio. HalfBrick developed their own tool chains to convert our 3D levels and characters into sprites and tiles. I was able to work on all versions of the game trying to achieve as much symmetry as possible in game play and level design. I organized the play testing with adults and children of all ages, and designed solutions to problems the players encountered.
We began capitalizing on our open world streaming technology and immediately started on another sequel, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan. The production was smaller, and I was able to accomplish more thanks to the firmly established assets and technology. The game was fuller, richer, and offered more gameplay and fun things to do.
After Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan was released, we began a spinoff based solely on one of the gameplay modes involving the legendary Gunyip. Gunyips are jet fighters based off the mechanical Bunyip suits featured in the series. During development, we got an opportunity from LucasArts to work on a Star Wars game. We dropped everything and scrambled to put together a playable demo featuring two levels, a third person Jedi level, and an X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter action level. I worked hard to ensure the demo was excellent, and I personally put together the X-Wing mission.
Star Wars The Force Unleashed was one of my favorite projects to work on. I filled out characters, designed combat, grounded enemies in Star Wars lore, and created quick time events for the boss fights. I got to add to Star Wars cannon! It was a mammoth undertaking for the studio. We were developing the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo Wii versions. LucasArts were handling the PlayStation 3, PC, and Xbox 360 versions. We were able to rely on our technology and move very fast, we had bloom shading and rigid body physics on PlayStation 2 at reasonable frame rates. We moved so fast that for a time we were quite ahead of the LucasArts games and heavily influenced and helped them during the creation of their versions. It was the coup de grace of the studio before we moved firmly into the next generation of consoles.
Blade Kitten was my last project for Krome Studios as the studio suffered financially due to the global financial recession in 2009. I remember my time on Blade Kitten because we argued and one for increased prototyping tools. For the first time in the studios history levels were able to be made quickly, tested, verified before sent into production. It sped up our iteration process to levels never achieved before, and we were able to block out the entire game in a matter of weeks.
I left Krome Studios in November 2009 due to studio wide redundancy. It was an amazing place with amazing people and it laid the foundation for what I took forward into the games industry.
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue was a fantastic project. It started as a traditional 3D platformer similar to the first game, but during development Grand Theft Auto 3 was released. Suddenly our game was turning into an open world game. This was a first for the studio, and a first for me. Adapting quickly to retrofit levels into an open world created a vast amount of production and design challenges which were overcome through sheer perseverance.
The extra production time allowed us to create a GameBoy Advance version in conjunction with HalfBrick Studios, which we housed with us in the studio. HalfBrick developed their own tool chains to convert our 3D levels and characters into sprites and tiles. I was able to work on all versions of the game trying to achieve as much symmetry as possible in game play and level design. I organized the play testing with adults and children of all ages, and designed solutions to problems the players encountered.
We began capitalizing on our open world streaming technology and immediately started on another sequel, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan. The production was smaller, and I was able to accomplish more thanks to the firmly established assets and technology. The game was fuller, richer, and offered more gameplay and fun things to do.
After Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan was released, we began a spinoff based solely on one of the gameplay modes involving the legendary Gunyip. Gunyips are jet fighters based off the mechanical Bunyip suits featured in the series. During development, we got an opportunity from LucasArts to work on a Star Wars game. We dropped everything and scrambled to put together a playable demo featuring two levels, a third person Jedi level, and an X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter action level. I worked hard to ensure the demo was excellent, and I personally put together the X-Wing mission.
Star Wars The Force Unleashed was one of my favorite projects to work on. I filled out characters, designed combat, grounded enemies in Star Wars lore, and created quick time events for the boss fights. I got to add to Star Wars cannon! It was a mammoth undertaking for the studio. We were developing the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo Wii versions. LucasArts were handling the PlayStation 3, PC, and Xbox 360 versions. We were able to rely on our technology and move very fast, we had bloom shading and rigid body physics on PlayStation 2 at reasonable frame rates. We moved so fast that for a time we were quite ahead of the LucasArts games and heavily influenced and helped them during the creation of their versions. It was the coup de grace of the studio before we moved firmly into the next generation of consoles.
Blade Kitten was my last project for Krome Studios as the studio suffered financially due to the global financial recession in 2009. I remember my time on Blade Kitten because we argued and one for increased prototyping tools. For the first time in the studios history levels were able to be made quickly, tested, verified before sent into production. It sped up our iteration process to levels never achieved before, and we were able to block out the entire game in a matter of weeks.
I left Krome Studios in November 2009 due to studio wide redundancy. It was an amazing place with amazing people and it laid the foundation for what I took forward into the games industry.