I’m a veteran designer and project leader based in the Boston, MA area. In my over 25 years of experience I’ve:
- Shipped multiple AAA titles as creative lead and designer.
- Hired and mentored large design teams.
- Designed and programmed for console, mobile, PC, and VR.
- Built game prototypes single-handedly.
- Taught game design at Northeastern University.
- Started building games with my kids.
My specialties are: rapid prototyping, Unity development, real-time “playful” simulations, and facilitating and mentoring creative teams. Thanks for stopping by!
Links: Resume | LinkedIn | E-mail
Hidden Door
I joined Hidden Door at the end of 2020 as its first Game Director, helping to bring to life their vision of using machine learning to give kids creative superpowers. Cool stuff is underway…
Fire Hose Games
I joined Fire Hose in 2017; after a long stretch of doing management, prototyping and “batting cleanup” on projects at my last job, I relished the opportunity dive back full-time into designing games from start to finish. In my time there I did a mix of systems design, programming, and narrative design, on a mix…
Harmonix
I joined Harmonix in 2006; I was there before its purchase to MTV/Viacom, through its Rock Band heyday, and finally to its return to being an independent studio. In addition to running the design department for several years, I contributed to a number of projects as a designer, programmer, and creative lead. Here’s a brief overview…
Turbine
I spent nine years at Turbine, helping to design its first MMO game, and owning content design for its last one. Learning to build games of this magnitude was one of the greatest challenges of my career. The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Who I Was: Lead Content Designer What I Did:…
Foster and Family Games
In 2014 I wanted to test myself by starting a project on my own. My then 5-year old son was inspired by my early experiments in Unity, and brought me a drawing of a helicopter to animate. This led to his idea for a rocket game, which we now are slowly developing for release on…
Teaching
Since 2015, I’ve taught the Game Design and Analysis course at Northeastern University, as part of the masters-level Game Science and Design program. As a fairly intuitive designer, it’s been invaluable to have this opportunity to formalize my design thinking through a self-built curriculum. I also love mentoring students. Learn more about the Game Science…
Game Jams
I’ve participated in the Global Game Jam from 2014 to 2017; it’s strengthened my skills as a collaborator and team leader, and it’s been critical to realizing my capabilities as a maker of rapid prototypes. Each project has taught me something new. Rubber Duck Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Kp9wGmgag Who I Was: Designer/Programmer What It Is: A simple game of…
Impressions Games
I was one of two people hired to join the president of this UK-based games studio as he opened its US office. I took on nearly every role outside of taking tech support calls, including public relations, marketing and sales support, documentation writing and editing, office management, and quality assurance. Through my QA work I…
Contract Work
Between contract work at Fire Hose and my own initiative, I’ve helped teams develop some cool, interesting projects. For ToneStone, I designed a gamification/social layer for their music creation app. I then programmed the goals framework and “mission” content in Javascript, to create working proof-of-concept for investor demos and initial playtest release. For Liteboxer, I…
Other Interests
Volunteering I provide occasional technical support for the Belmont Farmers Market and Belmont Food Collaborative. For more information on these organizations, visit https://belmontfood.org. Music After joining Harmonix I formed a band with fellow designer Dan Teasdale, and we recorded an album in a month as part of the RPM Challenge. We were honored to have two…
Chris Foster: Game Designer, Project Lead 