Sophia Westmacott
Game Designer and Quality Assurance Tester based in New South Wales, Australia.
Incredibly passionate in improving how and why we design games. I have been utterly committed to curating and overseeing player experiences for PC, mobile and VR.
Commercial Portfolio
CRAB GOD
Genre: Roguelike Strategy
Crab God is an immersive, strategy-driven adventure set in the mysterious depths of the ocean. Lead your Crabling colony through perilous underwater environments, defending the sacred egg of the next Crab God. Explore vibrant, diverse coral reefs, and engage in eco-conscious gameplay by restoring and safeguarding marine ecosystems.
Responsibilities:
Designed and curated game modes outside of the standard mode
Functionality test development features
Communicate risk assessments and liabilities with production
Achievements:
Showcased at SXSW 2024
Winner for Excellence in Social Impact at the AGDAs
Won the company internal speed running tournament based on pure skill and investment of 300+ hours played
AETHER AND IRON
Genre: Narrative RPG
Aether and Iron, where every great story begins with betrayal, and this one is no different. In a city rife with corrupt politicians, ruthless law enforcement, and power-hungry criminals, a lone smuggler is thrust into a dark world of shadowy factions, political scheming, and deadly rivalries.
Responsibilities:
Designed narrative systems to restructure branching choices, key story beats, and pushed forward an upheaval of the story level and the action level
Prototyped and designed utility items, contributed to economy and combat balancing, and reviewed narrative content
Consistently smoke and functionality test development features, reporting on tone and pacing to the narrative and development teams
Achievements:
Spearheaded and created new game narrative concepts to align psychological studies with game design
Pitched and communicated pipeline changes to overseas clients
Created item concepts that enhanced existing systems in the project
BEYOND BLUE: AFTER THE STORM
Genre: First Person Adventure Narrative
Beyond Blue is a captivating single-player adventure that invites you to dive into the depths of Earth's vast and awe-inspiring oceans. Embark on an immersive journey in VR to uncover the hidden beauty and profound mysteries of the underwater world.
Responsibilities:
Create client-facing documentation to convey performance metrics and assessments
Work with external sound teams to pre-test implementation
Convey project risk matrixes and liabilities to production, development and art
Achievements:
My first commercial game for VR
Supports ocean conversation efforts
Nominated for Excellence in Social Impact at the AGDAs
ENERGY TRANSFORMERS
Genre: Educational Puzzle Game
Energy Transformers challenges players to solve 34 thought-provoking puzzles that foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Set within an expansive Australian-themed world, these challenges are discovered through exploration, with some requiring the collection of hidden items to unlock additional tasks.
Responsibilities:
Ensure developed features are performing to an acceptance criteria set out by production
Exploratory test for any game breaking bugs
Achievements:
Now available on the app store
Available for younger students across Australia to engage with climate topics in a gamified way!
WHICH WAY UP
Genre: 4-Player Local
In Which Way Up, perform graceful gravity gymnastics, outrun the relentless pull of a black hole and launch your friends into space as you compete across multiple events in the Galaxy Games!
Responsibilities:
Manual testing of gameplay, for singleplayer, multiplayer, and online local
Reporting issues and communicating them with developers to ensure a smooth demo and full release
Achievements:
First Switch game I have worked on
First fully remote role
Game Jams and Other Work!
ORACULUS: A MUSICAL VISUAL NOVEL
ORACULUS is an interactive murder mystery novel that allows the player to craft their own musical numbers based on the actions they take.
Oraculus features whimisical and frabjous set pieces, music, characters and more. As a small project with less than 5 people, our MVP seeks to provide a slice of what this world could be, and how players can engage with the story.
Responsibilities:
Game Designer and Creative Director
Sound Designer and Composer
Narrative Designer
This is currently a personal project that is in progress.
TAMA GO FAST!
Tamaごfast is a first-person rhythm game where the player takes on the role of a new chef in the big city! Play through various levels while experiencing the hustle and bustle of a musical rush hour.
Responsibilities:
Game Designer
Sound Design and Composer
Beat Map Designer
Achievements:
2nd Place at Pixel Jam 2024
1st Place in the Music production category
OF FLESH AND BLOOD
Of Flesh and Blood is an interactive horror visual novel where you play as a Maia, a girl looking for her father on an abandoned island. Speak, fight and sneak your way through the Isle of the Cursed Dead to find friends, foes, and your father… whichever of the aforementioned role he may be.
Responsibilities:
Game and Level Designer
Narrative Designer
2D Pixel Artist
Sound Design and Composer
I’d wear a clown suit but my life is already a circus.
Hello! My name is Sophia. If you couldn’t tell by this insane tagline for a portfolio and the colours on the browser, I’m a pretty lively and enthusiastic individual that’s into gaming and creating that sweet company culture.
I take a very multiskilled approach to my job, having a history of studying multiple disciplines across games development, communications and marketing. I have a B in Comms (UTS) and a double diploma in Games Design and Production (AIE), graduating as an exemplar from the former.
In the last three years, I have been working, studying earning in the games industry, and have grown my professional and individual persona a lot over the years. I like to think of myself as someone fun to work with, but can get serious when the time needs!
If you don’t believe me, read my LinkedIn endorsements. :)
Or look at these photos! Or check out my character sheet (lol).
