Matthew McCord
GAME DESIGN
Video games are the reason I started building computers at a very young age. I was blown away by the fact that some people have the ability to create visceral universes for others to explore. I was inspired by the creative genius of the teams that made games like Doom, Half-Life, and System Shock 2 and I wanted to experience maximum immersion which could only be achieved by building computers with the most advanced processors and cooling systems. Nowadays, high performance computers are a commodity, but I’m still fascinated by the creative potential of virtual worlds.
Unreal Engine 5
Game Designer Books
In my quest to learn the stories of some of the world’s most prolific and influential game designers, I read books about Cliff Bleszinski, Roberta Williams, Sid Meier, Ken Levine, John Romero, and more.
Game Designer Timeline
I created a timeline of games designed by Roberta Williams, Sid Meier, John Romero, Cliff Bleszinski, and Ken Levinie
HUD UI Design
Old Sketches
I drew many game design sketches like this one in the 90’s and 2000’s. While playing games like Counter-Strike, I imagined features like ADS, weapon progression, attachments, mods, communication systems, tactical commands, gestures, pings, etc. These features did not exist at the time but many of them were explored by various developers and have become standard in AAA titles 10 to 20 years later.
Level Design
I made dozens of creative levels for Half-Life and Counter-Strike using Worldcraft. Before that, I made custom levels in Starcraft and Warcraft.
The thing I like about comedians is that they are actually very analytical. To dig down and figure out what’s funny about a particular phrase or story is not so different from isolating what makes a gameplay experience compelling. Both are trying to engage the audience with a sharpened version of reality, and both require an appreciation for humanity’s flaws in order to know where the hook fits best. Humor also has the counter intuitive ability to make serious moments more potent, which is why most of Shakespeare’s tragedies are peppered with comedic interludes. Especially when your materials are limited, humor can acknowledge the lack of grit in a way that ends up drawing the audience further into the fantasy, where the grit can be supplied by their imagination instead.Sid Meier
Multiplayer FPS Playerbase
I put together some stats on what games people are playing in the multiplayer FPS space.
FPS Lineage
I created this info-graphic to show how today’s most popular FPS games originated and evolved over the last 20 years.
Memorable Games
Here are just a few awesome older games that had a major impact on me growing up.
