ABOUT ME
5+ years of professional experience
Lead Designer of a shipped game
M.F.A. in Game Development
Welcome to my portfolio! My name is Mark Telfer. Not only am I a passionate game designer, but I have a passion for the process of game development. I thrive in collaborative environments and love working with multidisciplinary teams to bring a shared vision to life.
ResumÉ
(813) 394-5437 cell
Skills
Game Design
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Systems, Level, and Economy Design
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PC & Console Design Experience
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Product Ownership
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Design Documentation
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UX Flows / Wireframes
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Focus Group Testing
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Metrics Analysis
Engines
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Unreal 4 & 5
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Unity
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UDK
Experience
Programming / Scripting
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C#
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Blueprint
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Kismet
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Excel VBA
Software
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Adobe Photoshop
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Adobe XD, Figma
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Excel
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Tortoise SVN
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Jira, Clickup
Shadow Health Elsevier
Simulation Lead Designer: (April 2022 - Present)
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Lead a team of 7 skilled and accomplished designers
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Provide guidance and direction on 6 different products in concurrent development that are aimed at educating nursing students
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Established the simulation design review process and successfully integrated it into the product development pipeline
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Created an onboarding process that has successfully trained many new designers and enabled them to quickly become confident contributors
Technical Game Designer: (January 2021 - April 2022)
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Designed UIs and user flows for simulations for the nursing educational space
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Spearheaded the design, programming, and implementation of a development tool that dramatically reduced the effort required for the most common implementation tasks
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Contributed to every phase of development, taking designs from concept to completion with direct involvement in ideation, designing, implementing, and testing new features
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Awarded the Elsevier Bronze Coin for “always putting myself in the customer’s shoes”
Chromatic Games (formerly Trendy Entertainment)
Lead Designer: (December 2018 - July 2020)
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Lead Designer on the full development cycle of a shipped and positively received game, Dungeon Defenders Awakened (DDA)
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Led the design of the deep and rewarding RPG mechanics of DDA, including procedural loot, player stat progression, difficulty scaling, and currency systems
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Solely championed the creative direction of acclaimed content updates for Dungeon Defenders II (DD2), which maintains the highest user review scores in DD2’s history
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Created comprehensive design documents for pivotal features and provided direction for systems, UX, level design, and balance. Broad experience across design subdisciplines.
Technical Designer: (May, 2017 - December 2018)
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Led the the creation and design of a well-received gear crafting system whose release resulted in significant increases to average play-session duration
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Designed, balanced, and implemented DD2’s player-driven trading economy
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Designed and balanced a monetarily successful “loot box” feature
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Defined key-performance indicators for designed features and analyzed metric data
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Utilized metagame design to create a new game mode for DD2 (Mastery Mode)
Education
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
Master of Fine Arts - Interactive Design and Game Development (March, 2017)
University of Central Florida
Bachelor of Arts - Digital Media/Game Design (2014)
My Design Process
Clarify the Problem
Take the problem users are reporting and break the problem down to its specific root causes. Users usually report symptoms of the problem; not its root cause. The designer must diligently listen to users to not just understand what users want, but why users want it.
The designer must find the most comprehensive and cost-effective solution to the problem. Creating specific, measurable, and attainable goals allows you to maintain focus by defining what design success and design failure looks like. Use goals as a razor. If any proposed solution doesn't fulfill a goal, then cut it.
Build a Prototype
Work to rapidly build a prototype as quickly as possible. This prototype should contain only the essentials of your design, but should be enough to measure every design goal.
Iterate Based on Feedback
Listen to user feedback and look for opportunities. Ensure that any changes you make to your design serves your audience and your design goals.
Identify Target Audience
A player-base is comprised of different subcategories of users that possess unique motivations and playing habits.
The designer must understand and empathize with the specific group(s) he/she is targeting and gather as much data on the group(s) as possible. This data can come from player metrics, community polls, your team, and direct fan communication.
Gain Team Alignment & Draft the Design Doc
Present your research to your team. Ensure there is mutual agreement among the team with your findings and goals. Draft a clear and concise design doc that outlines your creative solution. Have your team approve your design document.
Playtest & Gather Feedback
Playtest your work on the target audience early and often. Create a formalized survey whose questions gauge how closely you are achieving your goals and overall user satisfaction.
Launch the Design
Release the team's work into the wild! Gauge the public's reaction and your team's reaction. Reflect on any opportunities that would allow you to grow as a designer and as a team member.