JACK BRASESCO
Projects
Realm Rivals
2022-Present
I joined Flagon Entertainment as the third Co-Founder, Head of Design, and Executive Producer to help to secure funding for Realm Rivals, a real-time multiplayer, geo-location-based, capture the flag inspired, mobile game. From concept to vertical slice, I designed all mechanics and systems and facilitated AGILE sprints for a team of 5, including 2 hired engineers. I bootstrapped art pipelines and designed and implemented UI. 200+ playtesters rated the resulting vertical slice an average of 7.7/10.
Blindsight
2023
From alpha to Steam release, I specialized in combat and level design for an action game about Iggy, a blind martial artist with echolocation abilities. My main focus was environmental illumination through combat and props as well as environmental storytelling. Blindsight has a 78% positive rating on Steam from 52 reviewers.
Barge
2022
For a two person team, I managed design and production from concept to beta while focusing on systems and economy design. Barge is a resource management roguelike where players juggle supplies, crew labor, and crew happiness in order to survive nuclear seas. On itch.io, Barge remains the #1 most popular game with the combined tags ‘difficult’ and ‘ocean.’
Love at First Draw
2021
As a member of a four person team, I took a social tabletop game from concept to Steam Release (Tabletop Simulator), where it gained 172 subscribers. My focus was on simple rule design, player interaction and emotion, as well as theming. We brought the game to Kickstarter, where we raised $2,500 of our $3,500 goal. Featured on IndieCade’s Get Latest.
Courses
Special Topics – Systems Design
CTIN 499
A key course for me and my thinking. After reading Donella Meadow’s “Thinking in Systems” on my own, I was thrilled to take this course based on applying the same book to game design and it was everything I hoped it would be. I learned systems diagraming as well as the applications of systems thinking related to gameplay design, economy design, emergent gameplay and more.
Producing Interactive Projects
CTIN 409 |Contact for production documents
This course opened my eyes to the beautiful world of production (and spreadsheets!). I learned core concepts in SCRUM and AGILE, task breakdowns, and developing roadmaps based on scope, schedule, and budget. This course has reshaped the way I think about every project by integrating feasibility with the creative in every decision.
Business and Management of Games; Advanced Business and Management of Games
CTIN 458 & 499 | Contact for pitch decks
A survey of topics bridging the creative and business aspects of the industry. From branding/marketing to greenlight pitches to KPIs, I built a business toolkit which propelled Flagon Entertainment to its first round of funding. Advanced course taught by Ed Zobrist.
Advanced Game Development (Unreal)
CTIN 485
With permission from the department, I took the advanced game development course before intermediate because I was excited to learn about Unreal Engine. I learned Unreal’s interface, blueprints, and, in order to understand the rationale behind the engine’s design, I learned how it synergizes with specific design goals to streamline the development process for aligned games. After this course, I began learning UEFN on my own.
Game Design Workshop
CTIN 488
In this fast-paced workshop, I worked on 3 team projects and a solo project developing tabletop games. Across all of the projects, we focused on simplicity in rules and theming to elicit the desired emotional response from players. For my solo project, I was tasked with eliciting the emotion “hope.” I was thrilled to see that every player, after playing my mountain climbing game “All’Ombra Della Montagna,” reported feeling hopeful.
Introduction to 3D Modeling, Animation, and Visual Effects; Character Rigging for Games
ITP 215 & 361
To learn more about the discipline of 3D art, I took two courses in Maya. I learned about the program, professional art pipelines and methodologies, and practiced modeling, animating, and rigging my own creations. This course was very helpful for working with 3D artists in future projects.