Hi, I'm Katy - a passionate and experienced senior games designer who specializes in cinematics with 5+ years of experience in the Games Industry.
Industry Experience
Supermassive Games
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Shipped Titles:
-The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (2019) -The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (2020) -The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (2021) -Dark Pictures: Switchback VR (2023) |
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Work in Progress Titles:
-The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 (TBD)
-The Dark Pictures Anthology: Unannounced (TBD)
-The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 (TBD)
-The Dark Pictures Anthology: Unannounced (TBD)
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The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 (TBD)
Senior Designer - 2023 to present
During pre-production an unannounced project, my team were moved off project to assist the design team in full production of Directive 8020, progressing from Alpha through Beta onwards. Since jumping on board, production increased substantially. I led and mentored my team and was ultimately trusted to work on the more complicated parts of the game, working closely with the Creative Director to bring these elements to life. This included cinematics in the vertical slice as well as the final level of the game, expanding on already existing content and adding the needed gameplay segments to improve the quality of the level. this work also involved taking in to account all narrative branching and conditional factors leading up to this point in the game, and consequentially was accounted for in the construction of the level. the content for the level was constructed using existing animations from previous dark picture titles. while the work consisted of mostly action scenes and was initially challenging, it was ultimately rewarding and improved my skills in action cinematography performance direction, and event scripting. Due to the expanded level, I had to oversee and direct a motion capture performance shoot. I imported and integrated them all into the game. You can see me in action with the amazing Aletta Collins (Performance Director) to the right. I had the privilege to help put together and work on the upcoming trailers for the game, which I will add here as they're released to the public. Throughout the project I stayed in constant communication with all departments. This was I could ensure that everything would not only be done quickly but also at good quality. |
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The Dark Pictures Anthology: Unannounced (TBD)
Lead Designer - 2022 to present
After the success of House of Ashes and my lead role on the upgrades to Man of Medan and Little Hope, I started on this project at pre-production. I was trusted with putting together and managing a team of designers to support the Game Director and narrative team. Together we assembled the flow of events, creating and rapidly iterating on storyboards and scene sheets. From past experience on other projects, we knew the importance of prototyping our new mechanics early on and improving on core features of the franchise. Alongside this, we put together paper maps and blocked out these levels in UE5, actively play testing and improving our base design.
Lead Designer - 2022 to present
- Leading and mentoring a team at Pre-Production
- Supported Game Director and narrative team's vision
- Assembled flow of the game
- Prototyped mechanics early
- Improved core features
- Paper mapping and level design in UE5
After the success of House of Ashes and my lead role on the upgrades to Man of Medan and Little Hope, I started on this project at pre-production. I was trusted with putting together and managing a team of designers to support the Game Director and narrative team. Together we assembled the flow of events, creating and rapidly iterating on storyboards and scene sheets. From past experience on other projects, we knew the importance of prototyping our new mechanics early on and improving on core features of the franchise. Alongside this, we put together paper maps and blocked out these levels in UE5, actively play testing and improving our base design.
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The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan and Little Hope NEXT GEN UPDATE (2022) Lead Designer - 2021 to 2022
After House of Ashes finished, I moved on to lead and mentor a small team to upgrade Man of Medan and Little Hope to next generation consoles (PS5/XSX/XSS). Man of Medan and Little Hope both had small updates done to the post-processing and volumetric lighting. The Quick Time Events (QTEs) had to be changed to add in difficulty and to match the Season One aesthetic. This consisted of changing some camera shots to try and make these more readable. Objectives and morale compass updates had to change to fit in with the rest of Season One moving forward. The update for Man of Medan also consisted of adding in a cut end level. Working with the Creative Director and Executive Producer, I put together the cinematics, cameras and animations to the finishing touches that were required. I communicated with all other disciplines effectively to get it to an excellent quality. |
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Dark Pictures: Switchback VR (2023) Senior Designer - 2022 to 2023
I helped to migrate and integrate the assets the Switchback team needed into their project. This was because I was in the middle of the Man of Medan and Little Hope upgrades at the time and could easily help them out with this. I play tested heavily and gave feedback. |
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The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (2021)
Advanced Designer - Strike Team Lead - 2019 to 2021
House of Ashes was the first game I worked on professionally in the industry. I could not have asked for more. I really gelled with the aesthetic and found the storyline and characters very engaging. I joined at the time the motion capture shoots had just concluded for the Reunion scene where the main playable characters were all introduced at the beginning of the game. I had the privilege of getting the first motion capture data into the game and created a level from start to finish very quickly with free preview (cloud) data (little did I know this was a new process). Within a few days the level was playable quicker than any previous projects had been in the past. I received special thanks for this, not realizing the significance at the time. I soon understood and quickly became an expert on the data and implementation pipeline. This helped the entire game come together quickly. I was even trusted with getting the end penultimate level together, through all cinematics and conditional logic variables. I was honored to also help create the teaser trailer you now see at the end of Little Hope. Proving I could organize myself and reach out to relevant departments without much prompting, I was made a Strike Team Lead for a handful of designers on specific levels, delegating, managing and mentoring where appropriate. My Lead Designer at the time taught me all other aspects of cinematics that have helped me to achieve my own lead design position on upcoming Dark Picture projects. Between the both of us, we were left on the game until release to get it to the quality it is today, whilst the core team moved onto the next game in the series. This game will always have a special place in my heart. |
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