Freelance
Video Games
Mark began his career in video games in 2003, where he was hired by Climax Entertainment as a quest designer to work as part of a joint venture with Games Workshop on a Warhammer MMORPG. The game ultimately was cancelled and never released, setting somewhat of a template for the rest of Mark's video game career. There's been a lot of vaporware, and very few shipped titles to show for years of work on concept design, narrative, systems design, project management and full GDDs. Below are some examples of projects he's worked on.
He's been a freelancer since 2013, and is available for contract and consulting work. The examples below are merely the tip of the iceberg, in terms of the amount of projects and work Mark has done in the industry over the years. Each example is accompanied by a couple of downloadable key documents, though far from the full project documentation.
A Quiet Place: Survival of the Silent
This was a short freelance contract in which a third party developer, Austella, hired Mark to do concept and design work on a short demo. The demo was for a client who wanted to pitch for a license to make a VR stealth and crafting survival game based on the "A Quiet Place" IP. Mark worked closely with level designers and environment artists on the demo design, and travelled to the client to present Austella's plans for the demo and discuss their requirements.
Survival of the Silent Narrative Design
Survival of the Silent Level Planner
The Persistence: Exile
The Persistence: Exile was a sequel to sci-horror VR title The Persistence, by Fabrik Games. Mark was contracted to write the script for the game in 2020. While writing the game script, he worked closely with the level design team to ensure the narrative integrated with environmental puzzles and encounters. The completed script, which dealt with dark and mature themes, including suicide and grief, was approved by psychology lecturers from the University of Bolton and praised for it's accuracy and sensitivity in tackling such matters. Mark was also involved in casting voice talent for the game, and attended all VO recording sessions, assisting the Audio Director with the direction.
Although the game had passed alpha, with a full vertical slice completed, and all VO recorded, it was shelved in 2021 when Sony acquired the studio.
Persistence Exile Core Script
Persistence Exile Station Map
Mega City Justice
Mega City Justice was an unreleased browser based MMORPG that Mark was lead designer for at Jolt Online. Mark had one day to prepare a concept for this project for his interview, and on the strength of his pitch, landed the job. He wrote full documentation for the project, including concept docs, HLGD and GDD, as well as creating a tabletop prototype to demonstrate gameplay, and extensive Excel test beds for game mechanics.
Mega City Justice HLGD
Mega City Justice Missions
