Hi, I make Video Games

I'm Coby West and I've been helping make cool games since 2015. I am currently looking for work. Let me help you make cool games too!I have worked professionally as a Designer, Technical Designer, Engineer, and Producer, among other roles.I am the current chair for Games Y'all, an Austin-based monthly meet-up dedicated to uplifting the underrepresented in games.If you would like to see all my work in chronological order, check out my LinkedIn projects. I've worked on a lot of different things.

Designer

I started working professionally as a Game Designer in 2018. I have experience with most design disciplines including Technical, Content, Quest, and Level Design, with more listed below. I have professional experience working in Unity and proprietary engines, as well as personal experience working with Unreal.In addition to direct design work, I have also provided playtesting and detailed design feedback for high-caliber games including Tunic and Bugsnax.

Technical Design

The Glory Society (Revenant Hill)
2021-2023

As a Technical Designer on Revenant Hill, I worked as lead implementer and as a bridge between our technical and non-technical members. While implementing new content, I surfaced and documented missing gameplay systems. During my time at The Glory Society, I developed and refined a design document template that designers and engineers utilized to communicate more effectively. I collaborated closely with our Creative and Narrative Director to translate ideas into usable design documents based on this template. I then worked with our engineers to ensure their understanding.I also worked closely with Secret Lab to help develop our narrative and quest toolsets, to ensure their usability for myself and other designers.

Content, Quest, and Narrative Design

The Glory Society (Revenant Hill)
2020-2023

I collaborated with our Narrative and Creative Director to implement content and quests based on narrative outlines. This included surfacing and filling in gaps, as well as ensuring the team had the information they needed to create any missing assets.

gamigo US
(Trove)
2018-2020

I acted as the lead designer on all of Trove's monthly in-game events from December 2018 to September 2020. This included everything from conceptualization to shipping the event. I wrote detailed design documents and collaborated with Artists, Engineers, Producers, and QA to ensure everyone had what they needed to create the assets, tech, tasks, schedule, and test plan for each event. I reviewed player logs after events to see what stage of each event quest players got to and used this data to inform future quest design. Through these events, I also expanded Trove's lore, while remaining true to what existed before I joined the project.In addition to creating the monthly events, I also worked as a general designer on Trove and created a tutorial for the gem system, as well as reworked the entire quest flow to allow players to better understand the quest progression.Of all the content I created, my favorite was an elaborate series of riddles that players could solve to unlock a special costume for Pride. This was intended to be solved via community effort and took the community about 7 hours to complete. This is pretty impressive for an MMO!

System Design

The Glory Society (Revenant Hill)
2020-2023

I developed and fleshed out our farming system. This system encompassed the number of days per season, the number of days to grow each plant, and the yield from each harvest. I worked with our Creative and Narrative Director to ensure these numbers worked within the narrative.

gamigo US
(Trove)
2018-2020

I also worked on farming for Trove, determining what items could be composted, what type of compost each item gave, and how much compost was used to craft new plants.

Encounter Design

gamigo US
(Trove)
2018-2020

I designed the moveset for “Ifera, Underlord of The Deep” who was the most powerful new boss introduced in the "Into The Depths" patch. As Trove is a game targeted for younger players, the mechanics had to remain simple. In general, Ifera attacks the player with the highest aggro, occasionally she will spin, and then pull random players into her. After a few seconds she spins again, which kills any players still in melee range. This leads to an engaging encounter where players have to pay attention but that isn't overly punishing or confusing.

Level Design

The Glory Society (Revenant Hill)
2020-2023

I collaborated with our Creative Designer to create and iterate on our 3D world so that it worked within the required narrative. It was noted that I had a particular knack for designing compact areas and vignettes.

gamigo US
(Trove)
2019-2020

I designed a new hub world for Trove that added in physical representations of the UI that had previously only been available via menus. This change also made the hub more modular, allowing for easier extension by future content and level designers.I also added onto existing levels when creating the Prismatic Questline.

Monetization Design

gamigo US
(Trove)
2018-2020

I developed the Sweet Sixteen Pack, The Level 25 Boost Pack, as well as created the events that made space for the monthly event packs.

Design Feedback

Tunic Team (TUNIC)
2021
I provided playtesting and design feedback directly to Andrew Shouldice on TUNIC, prior to its 2022 launch.

Young Horses (Bugsnax)
2020
I provided playtesting and design feedback directly to Kevin Zuhn and Philip Tibitoski on Bugsnax, prior to its 2020 launch.

Engineer

I started working on solo projects in C# using Unity in 2019 and began coding professionally in 2020. I have professional experience with both C# and C++.

Tools Engineer

Job Tracker
2024

I created Job Tracker as an opportunity to develop my WPF skills. It is being used as a resource for students at UT Health Austin's Amplify Center. Job Tracker's source code and a detailed explanation of my creation process are both available on my Github.

The Glory Society (Revenant Hill)
2022-2023

I shadowed the artists and designers on Revenant Hill to locate, document, and resolve tools needs. During my time on Revenant Hill, I developed tools that procedurally created 2D vines, tinted the currently selected game object and all of its children specifically or randomly within a gradient, tilted sprites to the desired angle, randomly generated NPCs from pieces, generated a 3d mesh from a 2d spline, among others. For each of these tools, I created and maintained documentation on how to use them in both text and video formats.I also documented and communicated with other engineers and Secret Lab to improve our dialogue, quest, decal, and camera setup tools.

Gameplay Engineer

The Glory Society (Revenant Hill)
2022-2023

I prototyped and developed our farming, requirements, and loot systems. I created and maintained documentation for implementing those gameplay systems in both text and video formats. In addition, to ensure these systems were kept in good shape, I implemented and maintained automated test suites for each system I owned. I also kept up with the codebase by performing code reviews on pull requests, as requested and as time permitted.

gamigo US
(Trove)
2019-2020

I assisted with code reviews for the engineering team to get familiar with the C++ codebase. From there, I began performing small bug fixes and feature additions. I added the functionality for items to be consumed to set a player's class to a specific level. I used this new functionality to create the Level 25 Boost Pack. I also worked to revamp the new player login system, making it clearer when players had received their rewards and when they would next receive rewards.

Jack of All Trades

Throughout my 8-year career, I have held huge variety of roles. I love to fill gaps in teams and am always eager to help out.This list is LONG. In summary, I have (professionally!) been a producer, product manager, character designer, discord moderator, show representative, presenter, live stream producer, and web developer. I have less professionally been the chair of a committee, solo developer, and game jammer.

Committee Chair

Fantastic Arcade (Games Y'all)
2020 - present
I am the chair of Games Y'all and a former Fantastic Arcade board member.

Production & Product Management

The Glory Society (Revenant Hill)
2021-2022
.

As the first producer at The Glory Society, I created our initial milestone schedule, budget, and sprints. To track our progress towards these goals, I created and set up a Glory Society JIRA . I instructed co-op members on how to use JIRA, as well as set up automations to make it faster and easier for everyone. To smooth out our production, I established and improved our design, art, and technical pipelines.

gamigo US
(Trove)
2018

I worked as a product manager on Trove in 2018 creating PlayStation and Xbox products. I documented this creation process internally to help product managers on other teams understand the pipelines and timetables required to ensure products went live at the appropriate time.

Character Design

gamigo US
(Trove)
2018

I designed a developer ally on Stream with fan input that I later added into the game. When I left the Trove team, the fans held an art contest and provided me with a plushie of my pet.

Discord Moderator

Fantastic Arcade (Games Y'all)
2020 - present
I serve as the Lead Moderator and Discord Manager for the Fantastic Arcade/Games Y'all discord.

Young Horses (Multiple Titles)
2020 - present
I am a volunteer moderator in the Young Horses discord.

Finji (Multiple Titles)
2018 - present
I am a moderator in the Finji discord.

The Game Band (Blaseball)
2020-2021
I was a keeper (volunteer moderator) for the Blaseball discord starting shortly after its 2020 launch and into its rise as an award-winning server. I worked with the other keepers to develop the original server rules.

Show Representative & Presenter

GDC
2024
I worked as a Conference Associate and was part of a panel at GDC 2024.

Fantastic Arcade (Games Y'all)
2020 - present
I have presented many streamed and offline events including Chess but Better, The Game Show Game Jam Showcase, and at most Games Y'alls from 2023 on.

Finji (Multiple Titles)
2018 - present
I have represented Finji to fans at DreamHack, PAX, and RTX, including all conventions since 2021.

Trion Worlds (Defiance 2050)
2017-2018
I represented Defiance 2050 to press at Gamescom, E3, and GDC.

Livestream Producer

Fantastic Arcade (Games Y'all)
2020
I created an AV diagram and OBS set up for the initial Games Y'all live stream.

Trion Worlds (Defiance 2050)
2017-2018
I worked as the Austin Livestream Producer for Defiance 2050 up to and including its launch.

Web Developer

Fantastic Arcade (Games Y'all)
2024
🤫Something new coming soon!

The Glory Society (Revenant Hill)
2023
I created the Revenant Hill Website.

Solo Developer

Hatamari
2023
I created Hatamari in Unity after being inspired by a Twitter post and a National Geographic article.

TumbleDucks
2023
I created TumbleDucks in Unity after being inspired by a video of ducks. I used it as an opportunity to learn the Unity terrain system.

Air And Space
2021
I created Air and Space in Unity after visiting the National Air and Space Museum and being inspired by a game from the How Things Fly exhibit.

Sorcerer's Stronghold
2019
I created Sorcerer's Stronghold while initially learning Unity. It was the first Unity solo project I published.

Game Jammer

Stabilized
2021
I contributed to Project Management, art, and coding on Stabilized for Ludum Dare 49.

Candle and Jack
2020
I contributed to Project Management, coding, and concept art on Candle and Jack for the Shock and Aww Game Jam.

Solario
2020
I contributed to the design, UI, and 2D visuals of Solario for an internal gamigo game jam.