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After all, I have plenty of hobbies and passions of my own which I’ve been involved in for years: social dance, musicianship, coffee, filmmaking, and classic video games. Why not do something stemming from those?

Also, I’ve defined some of the characteristics that have been laced throughout my past work: an acknowledgement of the context of the work, generally featuring a ragtag team of creative friends who follow their dreams and do it “their way” –– so why doesn’t any of that apply? After all, I’m currently working with Vaguely Spectacular, which is a sort of Bad News Bears organization, but I continue to think of my ant project as separate from that. Have I been drawn in by the desire to make a masterpiece, and therefor cast it as the work of an individual? I should likely focus instead on the orchestration of the organization to create the piece, as Jamie did with Spectre, since that’s a central passion of mine as well, it turns out (the art of producing).

So, next design brainstorm: Themes or subjects from my past which could win out over ants. And after that: Organizational structures which could win out over the lone wolf paradigm.

AntWalk.mov

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Spectre is a 2010 IGF Student Showcase winner!  Great work, everyone!

Players conspire to send henchmen on missions throughout the world, with the ultimate goal of placing a deadly laser on the moon while earning the most kudos points with the Boss. Remember, it doesn’t matter who does the work, as long as you get the credit.

A combination of shared and personal mission goals leads to complex strategies. Will you be a team player or a backstabber?

I worked with Sean to design the game system for Suits. It was a challenging and intriguing problem to design a game which is simultaneously cooperative and competitive, allows for asynchronous play, doesn’t penalize the team for individual inaction, and provides an engaging level of strategy while remaining accessible as a Facebook title.

The world map, and your henchmen.

Send your henchmen on nefarious missions.

Suits
2010 (In Production)
Facebook Game
My Title: Game Designer, Producer
Team:
• Lead Designer: Sean Bouchard
• Game Design: Sean Bouchard, Bill Graner
• Producer: Bill Graner
• Software Development: Joey Kohn, Kevin Lee, Rhett Farney,
Brian Valdillez, Josh Martin, Patrick Monroe, Elliot Lee

Game description and images courtesy of www.spectregame.com.

Spectre is a recombinant narrative platformer, a game that tells the story of an individual’s life. The landscape before you is not a physical world, but 73 years’ worth of Joseph’s memory: moments of joy and fear, light and darkness. As you navigate through his specific recollections, similarly themed events will glow bright. If you succeed in these moments of play and follow a glowing path, you will find a theme uniting his experience, and uncover a little more of his fading memory. If not, your nightly story will end in confusion.

With over a hundred memories linked to fifty-two different ending themes, there are many possible narratives to discover in Spectre. Each session of play represents one fifteen-minute summary of Joseph Wheeler’s past, one piece of a life-long puzzle. Different stories will highlight different facets of his experience and personality, leaving the player with a compelling, if never entirely complete, impression of the man, his place in the world, and what he sees when he stares upwards into the endlessly falling snow.

Encountering the memories of childhood

As the sound designer for Spectre, I created all sound and music for the game, with the notable exception of the theme song/overworld music, which was composed by Jamie Antonisse. I worked closely with Jamie and the artists to develop the unique atmosphere of each minigame vignette. I also directed, recorded, and mixed the voiceover for the game. Spectre was my first sound design project, and I relied on skills I’d acquired as a filmmaker and game designer creating audio for my own projects.

Lost in a book

Spectre
www.spectregame.com
2009
Flash Game
My Title: Sound Designer
Tools Used: Garageband, Pro Tools, Flash, Quicktime Pro
Team: Vaguely Spectacular
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W, A, S, D to move. Q and E to fly up and down. Up and Down arrow keys to deform the landscape near you.

Try making some white peaks and some green grass!

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-Bill

I like to think that my work as audio designer helped to tip us into the “honorable” distinction. ;)

Spectre project page

www.spectregame.com

-Bill