My Responsibilities
- Game Design
- Level Design
- Powerup Design
- Project Management
- Playtesting and QA
Description
You’re the head coach of the Eugene Melonballers, an up-and-coming team in the International Smorball Federation. Can you coach your team to victory, helping them win the coveted Dalahäst Trophy and bring glory home to Eugene?
Awards and Recognition
Smorball was released in 2014 and won the “Best Serious Game” award at the Boston Festival of Indie Games in 2015. It can be played at https://tiltfactor.org/smorball/
Design Story
Smorball is a browser-based typing game that asks players to type words and phrases to survive each wave of opposing players—but behind the scenes, the words are drawn from the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s collections. As you type the words, your transcriptions are sent back to the library to help them digitize historical books to increase searchability.
I led game design and directly oversaw a team of students designers, artists, and programmers to create Smorball for Tiltfactor’s clients at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. In addition to conducting level design for each of the stages, I designed and balanced the powerups that players can unlock between levels. I analyzed data to evaluate Smorball players’ accuracy at transcribing words for the library. I also communicated with an external development and art team to prepare the game for release.
