I graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts, located in the Netherlands, with a Bachelor degree in Game Design & Development. I have studied at the Rhode Island School of Design (USA) for one Semester, where I was majoring in Film, Animation and Video during an International transfer program. Subsequently I studied the Japanese language at Kanagawa Institute of Technology (Japan) for one semester followed by one semester at the Kyushu University Graduate School of Design (Fukuoka, Japan) as a Research Student in Game Design.
Professional experience I gained at Dutch Serious Game Developer VSTEP, Europe’s leading developer of serious games and simulations, where I fulfilled the role of Game Designer. Over the course of my two and a half years at VSTEP I have worked on 3 commercial game titles. ! Please note though, that this was contract work, these games I did professionally are not quite my piece of cake. They were extremely valuable experience-wise though, but they are not the direction I want games to be heading.
3D game technology is my medium of choice. I believe in using the underestimated, astronomic potential of games to create meaningful experiences that make a lasting impression in the mind of the player. In my future game work I search for depth of content, originality in design and above all, intellectually challenging thought provoking experiences.
At the moment I prefer to work with UDK
A quick summary of my talk. I'm not directly presenting a game concept, but rather a starting point and a way of thinking; an igniter that might spark your imagination, an ideology. Some important keywords would be; realtime 3d, interactive storytelling, artistry, meaning, elevate the human spirit, depth, beauty, high quality, art game. No focus on rule based systems, no focus on competitive elements; it stands in the way of expressiveness and playfulness. In a multi sensory medium, realism is a multi sensory experience. I propose a romantic realistic game. Romanticism (in Art) is the conceptual school of art. It deals, not with the random trivia of the day, but with the timeless, fundamental, universal problems and values of human existence. It is concerned with - in the words of Aristotle - not with things as they are, but with things as they might be and ought to be.
This ideology is heavily inspired by - and literally cites from - the Realtime Art Manifesto by Michaël Samyn and Auriea Harvey (Tale of Tales) and the Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand.
So far our team consists of 4: Allan, he is skilled in the fields of music, sound, web development and graphic design. Astrid, she is skilled in the fields of user experience, testing, story writing. Emil, he is skilled in the fields of analysis, writing and organization. Thomas, he is skilled in overall game design and game production.