HELLO POTENTIAL FUTURE COLLEAGUE MY NAME IS
THOMAS REIFFER
AND I AM AN EXPERIENCED GENERALIST DESIGNER
...and I really do mean generalist. After my Masters degree in Video Game Design and Development from the National Film and Television School, I've picked up any skill (technical or creative) required for a project, and with five breakneck years of experience I've already picked up a good few:
I've planned out branching action scenes with complex camerawork. I've written C# gameplay and animation tools for Unity. I've authored Unreal blueprints to migrate shipping assets to an entirely new IK system. I've designed and implemented puzzles and encounters for a huge RPG and a tiny little puzzle-platformer. I've blocked out more cinematics using sequencer and integrated more mocap data than I can properly remember, and both prototyped and shipped UE blueprint logic. I've worked with a team that really clicked on a project I really loved that was canned out of the blue. I've committed thousands of lines of logic to a live game and I didn't break anyone's save data once. I've untangled complex briefs into concise design documentation. I've written lua and prolog behaviours for the sequel to my Dad's favourite game. I've got published game writing. I've led design teams, mentored junior teammates, reported to both internal stakeholders and external IP-holders and producers, and I've received, prioritised, and actioned QA feedback. I do also think I'm pretty easy to work with - but I'm aware that that's the sort of thing you should prove rather than claim.
But more than all of the above - boy howdy do I love video games and the people that make them.
I can help you make your next one, if you want. Here's my CV.
YOU CAN CONTACT ME HERE
THOMAS.REIFFER@GMAIL.COM
@REIFFER.BSKY.SOCIAL
THE HIGHLIGHTS
CHECK OUT MY GITHUB, TOO
This scene on the bridge of the Ourang Medan needed to accommodate all five characters potentially being dead, and each character presenting the evidence they'd found. I implemented a pseudo-foreach loop in Supermassive's gameflow tool, accounting for who had spoken before, what they'd each found, cameras that were locked for shipping, and utilising existing mocap data to ensure the character and plot beats landed.
MAN OF MEDAN
BALDUR'S GATE 3
The most complex situation I scripted for Larian was a pretty significant one; the buildup to the final act - with two cinematic twists, a combat in camp, and a railroaded experience that ran completely counter to what their world-famous systemics "want" the game to do. Getting this scene to run smoothly was deceptively difficult, and threw me into the deep end of their behemoth codebase. I'm very fond of it.
I quickly became known at Supermassive as a pair of safe hands, so during both the pre-production and push to launch of House of Ashes I was given ownership of the emotional core of the game: Jason returning for Salim. Across is the elevator scene immediately after, which I pitched and designed to tie up a few dangling character arcs. The overwhelming majority of the writing went unchanged, and hearing Salim "oorah!" still makes me smile every time.
HOUSE OF ASHES
After wrapping work on BG3, I wanted to push an early-access version of my ongoing solo project The Markov Eclipse to itch. It's a TTRPG that borrows heavily from character tactics games like Marvel's Midnight Suns and Killteam, while borrowing its narrative design from parlour larps and jubensha. It started out as a throw-away prototype reaction to the outcry over female custodes in Warhammer 40k, but it's since gained a life of its own. It's got an earnest story about losing faith and the cost of ambition, and a John Woo-esque combat system that keeps each encounter both nail-bitingly tense and balletically explosive.
It features some of my best combat and systems design to date, and showcases my graphic design and writing ability - both creative writing and technical writing. Turns out, a TTRPG rulebook has a very similar usecase to design documentation.
YOU CAN CONTACT ME HERE
THOMAS.REIFFER@GMAIL.COM
@REIFFER.BSKY.SOCIAL