Jake Cuddihy
Game Designer
jakecuddihy@gmail.com • (425) 351-1570
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Senior Game Designer • Midwinter Entertainment a BHVR Interactive Company Dec 2023 - Sep 2024
Project T (PC Alpha Playtests)
• Led character strike team responsible for development of core gameplay content including weapons, abilities, health systems, interactions, character movement, default controls, and more
• Drove vision with design and animation leads to establish character abilities: dodge, sprint, clamber, kick, shoot
• Created magic system with 8+ unique abilities and +3 major behavior changing mods each
• Established workflows with engineers using the Gameplay Ability System
• Contributed to external playtest build for Project T receiving over 90% fun score with 0 gameplay crashes
• Provided training, documentation, and guidance to other designers to solve implementation challenges
• Improved team workflows using Unreal Engine 5 by sharing documentation, leading demos
• Collaborated with VFX, audio, animation, and UI teams on all combat and ability related messaging
• Refined design hiring process by implementing technical design test and scripting best practices guide
• Prototyped early concepts for interactions with vehicles, game mode and mission systems
UI & Game Designer • Midwinter Entertainment Jul 2021 - Dec 2023
Scavengers (PC, Xbox, PS4)
• Designed and implemented user interface widgets to display in-game HUD information including reload indicators, an XP feed, mission notifications, and a quest log
• Developed game mode and mission content for an open world dynamic quest system using Blueprint and EQS
• Fixed a range of gameplay, UI, and localization bugs for live service updates
• Solved technical UI design challenges with gameplay engineers, identified script to nativize in C++
• Assessed stability of new interface elements by running console performance captures
Game Designer • Final Strike Games Mar 2019 - Feb 2021
Rocket Arena (PC, Xbox, PS4)
• Fixed a variety of gameplay and UI bugs to support 12+ playable characters
• Tuned balance values informed by backend data and design leadership during 3 seasons of live service support on a competitive PvP shooter
• Implemented new character weapons, abilities, and items using the Gameplay Ability System
• Helped switch the camera perspective from 1st to 3rd person, focusing on camera and controls systems
• Authored camera animations and logic controlling character animations for melee and projectile attacks
• Created basic design tools and helper functions to speed up level markup and gameplay debugging
• Contributed and collected feedback in regular internal playtests
Teaching Assistant • DigiPen Institute of Technology Jan 2018 - Sep 2018
• Assisted faculty conducting user interface design and user experience design lab activities
• Graded and provided feedback on information architecture, colors, wireframe layouts, interactive mockups
EDUCATION
DigiPen Institute of Technology • Bachelor of Arts in Game Design Sep 2015 - Apr 2019
Honors: Valedictorian, Magna Cum Laude
SKILLS
Design: Game Design, Character/Camera/Controls Design, Scripting, Documentation, UI Design
Tools: Unreal Engine 5, Visual Studio, Unity, Photoshop, Blender/Maya, Perforce/Git, Excel
Languages: Blueprint, C#, C++