BIOGRAPHY

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My name is Louis Manning.  I'm a British expat games designer resident in South America, Chile.  I have a Bachelor of Arts in games design. 

 

As a games designer my job is to document the core play loop and supporting mechanics so that the code team can implement the features and the art and audio teams make the content to display it.  As the game takes shape, I act as (one of) the owners of the vision - what are the goals for this game and how should it be created.

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I've worked in the video games industry for over 15 years and have worked on at least 20 professional, launched games.  I have experience on many game platforms - consoles (XBox, Playstation, Nintendo), PC, handhelds, web (HTML5, Flash), board games, casino and mobile (FTP and other business models).

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SYSTEMS DESIGN

I specialise in games system design.  This is a front-loaded ideal whereby all features exist within a larger design system structure.  During development, there should be no surprises or new features that require changing this system design.  This is a more challenging way of developing games, but has several advantages.

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When developing games within a system driven design, the game gets easier to produce the closer you are to the deadline, rather than the opposite being true for the standard 'let's implement one thing after another' approach.  The project also becomes more predictable to staff since the largest features must be made at the start, not the end.  It's also much easier to add content since the system as written encompases the creative vision as originally intended.

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COMPETENCIES

I speak both Spanish and English fluently, although my Spanish has a strange accent to many native speakers who hear it.  My native English has a mild Yorkshire accent, although that's faded over the years.  

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I have an expert level of competency with various applications needed in order to create games.  Creative Cloud (most apps), 3ds Max, Blender, Unity, Goldwave and others.  Typically I can pick up and learn most software and usually will, just to expand my knowledge base.

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While I'm not a programmer, I am an accomplished scripter in various languages (C#, QC, Lua, Javascript) depending on the game engine requirements.  When I'm unfamiliar with the language, it doesn't take me long to pick it up.

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DIRECTION

I've become adept at being the balance point for the development team.  This means the link between the various areas and able to weigh each ones needs as they arise.  Here, having a hand-on knowledge of what each development area does is very useful.

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I've built and managed development teams as a creative director and been in various levels of lead design role over the years.  I've also pitched, planned and executed projects in response to market, client and owner requirements.

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I've organised teams in various types of development internationally and put on trade shows; planning, design, purchasing and logistics.

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GROWTH MINDSET

I'm always learning, usually by making a personal project.  These are very varied in nature since the best way to learn new things is by doing what you don't (yet) know.  Due to this, I'm able to produce most of the assets required to make a game by myself, which is useful for showing investors and the team prototypes and providing development support when necessary.

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I've been in the driving seat for several mod projects, ranging from me being the sole developer up to teams of 20+ concurrent contributors.  

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I've also experimented with hardware development in various material types and printing for various uses - business cards, board games, signage and game show booths.