About me 
Welcome! My name is Sam Kaplan. I am a game designer and systems analyst with a bachelor's degree in Electronic Game and Interactive Development. As a game designer, I have studied the theories and philosophies behind game design and experienced the physical dedication and teamwork needed to develop a game.
My skills and experience have led me to work in a variety of creative environments in and outside of the video game industry; including Muse Games, frog desing inc., Kaos Studios, and CBS Radio.
As an aspiring game designer, my goal is to be part of a strong and creative team of game developers. One that values their reputation, community, and fanbase over net profits.
Feel free to look at my portfolio work and contact me with any questions or comments you may have about them. Thank you for your time and your visit!
Portfolio 
Index Click on of the buttons on the left to see my portfolio work.
Homefront - Homefront E3 2010 Backstory Trailer [HD]
Homefront
Homefront is developed by Kaos Studios in the heart of New York City and is published by THQ. This is their 2nd game to be released and is expected to hit store shelves on March 8, 2011 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.
Usability
As part of the Homefront development team at Kaos, my primary role was being in charge of usability testing. I recruited public testers in the New York City area to visit the studio and play portions of our game and give feedback of their experience. Basd on the feedback, I wrote reports highlighting the positives and negatives of the tester's experience. My reports also included suggestions for the lead and level designers on how they can improve the faults within each level.
Battle Chatter
A secondary part of my role at Kaos was being in charge of the game's dynamic combat dialog, "Battle Chatter." This system randomly generated sound cues during intense firefights such as "Enemies spotted!" and "Reloading, give me some covering fire!" Working with the audio team, I was in charge of editing and fine-tuning this system to deliver a dramatic audio experience to the player.
White Rooms
While at Kaos, I also leared how to use their in-house editing tools (a custom version of the UDK). When level designers, programmers, or artists needed a white-room level to test out bugs and design solutions, I would volunteer to create it for them.
Guns of Icarus - Guns of Icarus | Play it Oct '09 at MuseGames.com
Guns of Icarus
Guns of Icarus is a game produced by Muse Games, a leading independent online brower game studio that creates games using the Unity 3D engine. The game was released in October of 2009 for online web browsers and PC/MAC download through Steam digital distribution.
Quality Assurance
At Muse Games, I was an unpaid intern performing QA testing on Guns of Icarus during its production. I would test the game for bugs as well as overall gameplay quality. I would often provide critique of the game's difficulty balancing and other gameplay elements.
Aurora Aurora
Aurora is my an independent project I created in the fall of 2009. The goal of the project was to create a capture-the-flag map using the Unreal Tournament Level Editor.
This CTF map is different than most in that each team starts with the opposing team's flag. This creates a new, "double offense" strategy where half of the team pushes into the opposing team base to capture their flag while the other half advances forward to cut-off the opposing team's flag runner from reaching their base.
In addition, the map features a central stage that teams can "capture" by standing on the platform. Capturing the platform opens alteres the secondary paths in the level by locking certain doors while opening up others.
Titan Fight Titan Fight
Titan Fight is a capture the flag map I created as part of my senior portfolio at Champlain College.
The goal of this level was to create a simple CTF map, but within a fantasy, almost surreal-like environment.
- Titan Fight - Unreal Tournament 3 Level Design
Deceptive Platformer Deceptive Platformer
Deceptive Platformer is a collaborative project I worked on as part of the 2010 Global Game Jam a New York University. It is a 3-minute platformer that tests the limits of the player's reflexes and platform-jumping skill. I was part of the game's development team as a designer. I helped create the game's overall design, mechanics, and level designs.
The Global Game Jam is a world-wide event where small groups of people with wide ranges of game design talent come together to create an entirely playable game within 3 days.
At the of the game jam, Deceptive Platformer was voted "Best Overall Game" and was even feautured as one of the 1st exhibits in the Babycastles, an independent video game art gallery.
Deceptive Platformer Credits:
Stefan Woskowiak - Programming
David Turchin - Programming
John Richard Dayao - Art
Peter Blanco - Art
Paul Quinones - Art/Programming
Michasel Bartnett - Music
Click here to download the Deceptive Platformer .SWF
Click here to download the Deceptive Platformer .EXE
Mana Wars Mana Wars
Mana Wars is an original game design document that I wrote for my Advanced Game Design Seminar class at Champlain College.
The game is fantasy FPS that uses swords and magic instead of guns. Players fight in team-based objective missions against an opposing team. The game features a unique reward system that lets player customize their avatars with unique armor, weapons, clothing, and spells to fit any play style.
The story behind the game puts players in a fantasy realm in the midst of civil conflict. The source of all magic, mana, is a physical material that is becoming a scarce resource throughout the world. People have divided into warring factions, each struggling to take control of the last wells of magical power.
Click here to visit the Mana Wars online wiki.
Resume Work Experience
CBS Radio. New York, NY. Apr 2011 - Present
Writing, executing, and creating Quality Assurance test cases for the CBS Local Digital Media Group.
Write detailed bug reports based on results from test cases.
Kaos Studios. New York, NY. September 2010 - January 2011
Associate Game Designer
Write, run, and create reports for public usability testing for Homefront.
Work with audio team to edit and manage dynamic combat audio system,
"Battle Chatter."
Use in-house editing tools (UDK) to create "white-room" prototype levels for
testing and bug fixing.
frog design inc. New York, NY. January 2010 - April 2010
Quality Assurance Technician
Writing, updating, and running test cases for client-based projects.
Writing/assigning bug report tickets.
Working with development team to coordinate testing sessions and resolve
bug tickets.
Muse Games. New York, NY September 2009 - January 2010
Intern
Volunteer internship.
QA testing, level design, and learning the Unity game engine.
Sam Kaplan - Resume.pdf
Skills and Competencies
- Conceptual design - Collaborative group work
- Design documentation - Working within deadlines and schedules
- Level design - Personal time management
- Concept Prototyping - Conflict management
- Quality Assurance
Testing/Management
Education
Champlain College. Burlington, VT. Graduated May 2009.
Bachelor's Degree in Electronic Game and Interactive Development.
GPA: 3.4
Deans List Spring 2007 Fall 2008.
Software and Technology Competencies
- UDK - Illustrator
- Unreal Tournament 3 Level Editor - Microsoft Office
- Kismit scripting - Virtools
- Game Maker 7.0 - Version control software
- Photoshop - QA Tools (JIRA, GitHub, Unfuddle)
Credited Works/Accomplishments
Homefront - Xbox, PS3, PC
Usability
Guns of Icarus - Web browser, PC/Mac download
Quality Assurance
Halo: Reach Emblem Design Contest, February - March 2010
1st Place Winner
