PROJECTS | Mario Barone

UNANNOUNCED PROJECT

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With a growing desire to add more depth to the wonderful characters and world, throughout Early Access I passionately pushed for a campaign, which luckily came to fruition when Campaign was greenlit.

I spent months working with my lead developing world lore, history and 'rules' of Erodar. This traction instilled confidence in the stakeholders and allowed us to take the concept further where we began collaborating w/ external writers to define the exact story.

I worked on many systems; from Map Editor tool design, encounter and level designs, to defining how the narrative would be told within the scope of our world and characters, and how gameplay and story would marry.

I developed narrative beat structure for missions, designed the levels and mechanic intents, wrote and edited dialogue, and scripted and tuned missions within our custom editor. I also mentored two designers in creating content for the campaign.

Initially 20+ level were planned, but were reduced to 10 levels. I worked with stakeholders and team to refine the story told without compromising the integrity of the campaign.

Brought to life a detailed and rich world history, characters, motivations, factions, and lore.
Championed Narrative, from beats structure, pacing and flow, to dialogue writing and cutscene design.
Sketched and implemented level designs, and developed all of the mission scenarios and their systems.
Campaign related System Design such as progression, lore, objectives, and encounters.
Ideated and Designed the Map editor.
Owner of 3 of the 10 missions including the complex finale- implemented or supporting 3 other maps.
Scripted many complex encounters and cutscenes.

Largest project to date: Hardcore Tower Defense RTS- and Playside Studios first original I.P: Age of Darkness: Final Stand.

Hands on with almost every facet, from core designs such as Units and Buildings, Hero and Nightmare designs, to content driven designs such as Perks, Hero Skills, Malice & Blessings, and Difficulty options.
Championed core concepts "Horror-Survival Real-Time-Strategy" and "Light against the Dark".
Maintaining a broad and holistic understanding of the game was essential to ensure that a complex product remained bulletproof, proving critical in keeping members of the team aligned, and stakeholders confident in the ambitious project.
Took on community feedback and adjusted live game, whilst deepening the Age of Darkness experience with several content updates.
I had the pleasure to mentor four designers over the projects development. This included onboarding onto the project, aligning with the vision and direction, and then assigning and monitoring aspects of the game the associates would work on, spanning live-ops content updates, design and iteration of new systems, and developing core aspects such as Heroes, Perks, or our rogue-lite elements: Malices & Blessings.

Creating and Championing Playside Studio's first Original I.P and their first PC game.
Defining and Developing core and tertiary systems.
Ideating and Designing 6 Heroes, their playstyles, character profiles and hero identities.
Ideated the core Units, Buildings, and Enemies that make Age of Darkness.
Brought the vision of Light versus the Dark to a holistic experience that resonates through the game.
Designed the Procedural Map Generation, AI and pathing and unit Formations systems.
Worked alongside Voice Actors and Audio team to bring the characters and world to life.
Championed replayability systems like Hardships, Malices and Blessings, and designed fun and interesting content to populate such systems with team of designers.
Engaging with the Community, including direct interactions, Live streams, and Dev-Diaries.
Mentored four associate designers over the project.

I started my game design career working on 5 different Dumb Ways to Die projects.

Sole designer on Dumb Ways to Draw, ideating and implementing all aspects of the game except vision and direction.
I then move to support Dumb Ways to Die 1 and 2, where I designed minigames for both. I then went and added some significant improvements to Dumb Ways to Die progression and F2P monetisation opportunities, leading to increased retention, monetisation and a better sense of up-to-date flow.
I then moved to solo-design another project, Dumb Ways to Dash, and a follow up title Dumb Ways to Die: Superheroes.

Created over 100+ Physics Puzzle levels for Dumb ways to Draw.
Owned and designed all aspects of retention, monetisation, user experience and IAP for DW to Draw.
Designed and implemented new progress map and IAP or retention strategies into Dumb Ways to Die.
Designed and Implemented themed minigames to both Dumb Ways to Die and Dumb Ways to Die 2.
Sole-designed all aspects of Dumb Ways to Dash and Dumb Ways to Die: Superheroes.