Nick Erbert
Game Designer
Me as a designer
Starting at the age of 13 I was playing FPS games at a competitive level on teams attending nation-wide tournaments. I played Halo, Call of Duty, and SMITE competitively and learned so much about how games work by min maxing builds, setups, and strategies.
I have always looks at games as a science. How do all of these puzzle pieces work together and how can I abuse interactions. This way of thinking and my love of games brought me to get an education in game design. I have now work on Forza Motorsport and Marathon as well as some quality competitive games as a student.
This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.
- Eric Ries
More about me
Outside of my gaming life I enjoy skateboarding, hiking, and watching Esports. Prior to health complications I was an athlete that loved playing basketball, football, and a very successful sprinter. I am a lover of animals and nearly pursued a path of wildlife conservation. I will always have a deep fascination and respect for crocodiles and other large reptiles. Prior to living in Seattle, I was attending Wayne State College in Nebraska with a full tuition scholarship for elementary education before deciding my heart was with games. I enjoy many kinds of music from punk rock to electronic to lyrical rap. If you haven’t listened to Jon Bellion, you should.
As for sports I like the less traditional sport of Formula 1 (GO MCLAREN!). In addition to my love of watching the racing and analyzing driver data, I also like to play the Formula 1 games as well. The best way for me to relax is to use my sim wheel to play a Forza game or some Formula 1 and work on gaining pace.
Marathon
Marathon is Bungie’s upcoming PvPvE extraction first person shooter. While working on this game I have helped flesh out many of the intricate systems that will make this title the new standard for its genre.
Forza Motorsport
Forza Motorsport is Xbox’s newest Forza title that has brought the franchise into the next generation of racing games. I have helped develop multiplayer features, the single player car part economy, and aided in making this game the most immersive and accurate racing simulation to ever be released on console.
Quasar League
Quasar League is a third person networked hero shooter where you play as a ship pilot in a futuristic combat sport. This project is finished and coming to Steam soon (hopefully).
For this project I was the level designer, systems designer, game director, as well as a bit of a sandbox designer. I developed the levels, game mode, and balanced the characters(9) and classes(3). Put simply, I was the gameplay guy. I also oversaw implementation of tech and art as well as managed the builds for testing.
Battle Arena Prototype
Battle Arena Prototype, or BAP, was a prototype for a new genre I was developing at school with the guidance of a professor. I was aiming to create the ultimate competitive experience that blends much of what players and viewers love about multiple competitive genres.
Linked below is my system math and documentation. This documentation is not only for other designers to use, but a reference a theoretical tech team.
Documentation given does not include newer systems (XP and Scaling)
Quasar
Featured at the 2018 DigiPen Arcade @ PAX West, Quasar is a 2D twin-stick multiplayer shooter where players control ships in a futuristic combat sport.
For this project I was the game director, level designer, sound designer, and systems designer. I developed the three playable modes, created and balanced all 9 characters, created and iterated on all 5 maps, crafted nearly all SFX with Foley sound, and oversaw the direction of the game.
Apocalypse Resort
This game is being developed as research material for Dr. Christopher Hawk of DigiPen Institute of Technology for a psychology study. On this project, I prototyped the main level for testing and helped tune the AI for better game feel. The game play loop is a typical zombie survival FPS game similar to the Call of Duty zombies experience, just simpler and more accessible.
Boba Bounce
Boba Bounce is a single player 3-D platformer where the player controls a continuously bouncing tapioca ball. The emphasis of this solo, single semester, senior project is to improve upon my UX and game feel skills, as well as developing systems to improve player retention. This game was developed in the Unity Engine and was fully scripted in C#.
Thank you for visiting my website. If you wish to Collaborate and make great games together, leave your info below.
You may also Email me @ nickerbert@gmail.com