Designer

Technical

Alex

Shilts

Game Development Portfolio

Video games have the capability to make us feel both immeasurably powerful and completely helpless. The best ones make us ask difficult questions about why we do what we do when offered freedom from the laws of our world. This is where the deepest strengths of our medium lie, and some of the best creative talent in our industry have slowly been mapping out its depths.

Hideo Kojima, Niel Druckman, Jenova Chen, Steve Gaynor, Davey Wreden, Jonathan Blow, and many more have inspired a generation of gamers to ask their games for more than just polished gameplay. To ask for interactive experiences given weight and meaning by the context of their actions in a greater realized world. A world in which engaging events pull you farther into the experience than previously thought possible. These developers inspire me every day to make my contribution to this amazing journey video games have likely just begun.

But despite an amazing world and story, the root of these new kinds of experiences is the gameplay. Unique and meaningful mechanics that are fluid and intuitive don't so much enhance the experience as they allow it to become what it should be. To remove all obstructions between the player and the adventure created for them. Games like INSIDE allow you to fall so quickly and deeply into their universe simply because nothing stands in your way. This is why fluid and intuitive controls and mechanics are my personal passion in the complex process of game development.

Video games will continue to change the world, and every day I strive to guide their evolution.

Alex Shilts has been a Technical Designer at Studio Wildcard since July 2016. Both playing and wanting to make video games from a very young age, he has made every major decision in his life towards getting a job in this amazing industry. After getting his BS in Computer Science from Southern Methodist University (Class of 2014) and his Masters of Interactive Technology from the  SMU Guildhall (2016, Cohort 23, Design Track), he got his first game development job at Studio Wildcard working on ARK: Survival Evolved. He now pushes himself every day towards making a name for himself in the medium that continues to fill him with passion and purpose.

His favorite games include The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask/Wind Waker, INSIDE, The Last of Us, The Witness, Shadow of the Collossus, and Okami.

Work on ARK: Survival Evolved's new TEK Tier featured in PC Gamer's January 2017 cover story

Selected to attend E3 2016's Student Game Competition with the team that created SMU Guildhall C23 Capstone game Gravitas

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Gold winner in the GDC 2015 Narrative Competition with a paper on Fullbright's Gone Home. Created a custom poster and displayed it at the conference

Feel free to contact me with questions about me or my work.

You can also send an email directly from here:

© Alex Shilts