My name is Jeremy Hardy and I’m a Game Designer residing in Vancouver, British Columbia.

As an avid Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast in my teen years, I knew from a young age I had to endeavor to make gaming a career in some way. After high school, I studied Game Programming at the Art Institute of Vancouver, followed by Computer Systems, with a focus on technical programming, at BCIT. During this time I also worked as laborer, doing construction for the family business, to support myself.

My childhood dream eventually came true when I started my career at Rockstar Vancouver. Since then I’ve worked on many third, and first, person games, including: Max Payne 3, Sleeping Dogs, Dead Rising 3, Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, FIFA 17 and Mass Effect Andromeda. During the time on these projects I developed a strong sense of game design, and a pliable mindset for software development.

In my most recent role, I was Lead Designer on Hardspace: Shipbreaker, where I designed and prototyped systemic gameplay interactions; created modular level layouts; and helped design the tools that were used to build the game.

The process of designing the levels for Hardspace: Shipbreaker was a paradigm shift from what I was previously used to. I defined the rule sets used to create modular construction assets that, when randomized, created a near infinite variety of levels. I worked closely with software engineers to develop a visual layout tool where were we could create data assets that would ultimately fuel the creation of every spaceship in the game, while maintaining the Blackbird Interactive signature art style.

In addition to modular ship creation, I designed and prototyped elemental systems with the goal of producing exciting and emergent gameplay scenarios. Inspired by Breath of the Wild, and with the help of a talented team, we created believable and dangerous environments, where zen-like work procedures could quickly turn into a cascading array of volatile events for players who weren’t careful.