Game&Level Designer | Writer
"If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit"
Hi I'm Fabian,
professional Game Designer, Level Designer, and Writer.
Here are the games I worked on in a professional Game Studio.
Platform: PC, Playstation, Xbox
Genre: City Builder, Strategy, Satire
Description: Tropico 6 puts the player in the shoes of El Presidente, a (sometimes) benevolent dictator ruling over his tropical island nation.
Tropico has entered the space race in the "New Frontiers" DLC.
My involvement in this latest DLC was game design, story writing, and localization. I worked as a level designer on the first map but reduced my involvement in later missions due to the larger localization effort required. I also created all the cutscenes in the DLC and oversaw the creation of the English and German voiceover recordings. Lastly, I worked on conceptualizing the sound effects, directing them to a partner sound studio, and finally implementing the sounds.
Players gain a new goal for the Tropico 6 endgame. Reach Mars and create a truly free Tropico, away from all the bickering nations and problems on Earth. New Frontiers features new mechanics that let the player build their own spaceships and take them on offscreen voyages to the red planet. He's been provided with new futuristic buildings intended for usage on Mars but which have been made usable on Tropico. There's the fusion reactor, self-contained habitable domes, and futuristic vertical farms as high as skyscrapers. Efficient, cheap housing is provided by the stackable capsule cluster. The heart of the DLC revolves around the immense Space Port building, where the player plans, constructs, and starts missions to Mars. When the first Mars colony is finally set up, El Presidente still finds a way to make it work for Tropico, with powerful bonuses and perks granted for each new colonist. After all, space is a dangerous mistress. She wants nothing more than to send unforeseen consequences right up every colony ship's exhaust pipe. Every trip to Mars is made unique with interesting, fun, and engaging events that present the player with fun choices over what or who to sacrifice for the greater good. The story starts with El Presidente's dream. The leader of Tropico is yearning for more from life on his tiny Caribbean island nation. That is when a loopy professor enters the picture and promises the exploration of new, untapped land... in SPACE. Tropico first upsets the world by sending the first man to space (but not back down). Then, thanks to the lack of skills in his personnel, El Prez is forced to fake his next big leap in the space race: the first moon landing. With this achievement under its belt, Tropico thinks it's too big to fail, and through a tragic whistleblower incident, its big secret is revealed. But tough times only strengthen Tropico, and they set out for their final goal, Mars! In the end, Tropico is the first to set foot on Mars, finally fulfilling El Presidente's goal...
Platform: PC, Playstation, Xbox
Genre: City Builder, Strategy, Satire
Description: Tropico 6 puts the player in the shoes of El Presidente, a (sometimes) benevolent dictator ruling over his tropical island nation. In Caribbean Skies the player can revolutionize his industry with drones and other flying vehicles.
On Caribbean Skies, I acted as Game Designer and Level Designer. I also took on the task of writing, editing, and implementing the narrative and localization. Smaller tasks involved implementing and overseeing the creation of sound effects and voice lines, as well as conceptualizing and animating all cutscenes across the five campaign maps.
In this DLC, I had the privilege of giving a personal touch to the established world of Tropico. This was the debut project for a newly formed team within Realmforge (creators of the Dungeons series). We took over the torch from the original Tropico 6 developers, Limbic Entertainment. We were tasked with creating new and exciting DLCs for the satirical city builder, and one of them was "Caribbean Skies". With this DLC, we expanded the scope compared to previous DLCs. It featured a campaign spanning five maps. It had a funny and engaging narrative throughout, and challenged the player with unique mechanics on every map. The DLC featured new ways to transport goods and people across Tropico. Autonomous delivery drones have moved the transportation of goods away from the streets and into the skies. Drone taxis made Tropicans' trips to and from work more fun and exciting. The cargo airport provided players with a new connection to the outside world for export and import. The DLC featured a connected story campaign, something that wasn't even present in the base game. It told the story of how El Presidente first survived, and later prevented the impact of a world-ending meteor. Along the way, they have to time travel back to the past, where a new nemesis, Wyndham the Second, schemes to foil their every move. In the finale, El Presidente succeeds in the construction of a massive S.P.E.A.K.E.R. to give a rousing speech that destroys the meteor and saves the world. (Also, they threw Wyndham into a volcano.)
Platform: PC, Playstation, Xbox
Genre: City Builder, Strategy, Satire
Description: Tropico 6 puts the player in the shoes of El Presidente, a (sometimes) benevolent dictator ruling over his tropical island nation.
With the Festival DLC we expanded the world and gameplay of Tropico 6 with exciting festivals.
In the Festival DLC, my responsibilities revolved around game design and writing. In a collaborative effort, I came up with the gameplay loops and mechanics. I created the story and wrote all 30K words of text in the DLC. I took charge of the first of the five maps with blocking, testing, creating realistic landscapes with World Creator, and finally adding texture and foliage. Apart from that, I was acting as a director for the voice over recordings in English and German. I designed, oversaw, and implemented the sound effects and created all cutscenes for the five maps.
In the second DLC created by Realmforge, an unknown presence emerges from the bowels of the earth to spread boredom wherever it goes. With the use of festivals, the player is given new tools to combat boredom. These festivals are held in four major buildings, one for each era the game takes place in. In the Colonial era, the player can use the Festival Grounds, a simple, large building where people can gather for the festivals. In the World Wars era, the player gains access to the Party Blimps. These disco balloons can be sent to any park on the island, where the influence of the festival can be spread more strategically. For the Cold War era, the player can use the Concert Stage, a massive building that can project its festivals not only to its immediate surroundings but also to connected parks around Tropico. Lastly, the player gains access to the Broadcasting Tower in the Modern Times era. With this building, all of Tropico becomes one big party to which everyone is invited. Festivals in general provide the player with interesting buffs he can apply to his citizens; be it increased motivation to work or lower crime, there's a festival for it. The story revolves around two new characters. Firstly, there is the enigmatic Funhouser, the saint of all things partying. Boris, a manifestation of boredom with ancient origins, stands in opposition to him and Tropico. Over the course of the story, El Presidente discovers the power of festivals. And how to improve or exploit their citizens with them. But due to some heavy partying, an ancient creature is released: Boris. His boredom subsequently spreads over Tropico and, later, the world. Only El Presidente, with the power of festivals (and a little time travel), can solve this problem and rid the world of Boredom with one massive planet wide party!
No longer available in appstore
Platform: Mobile
Genre: 2D Poop'em'Up
Description: In Poopocalypse the player takes on the role of a fat pigeon seeking revenge on the human race by shitting all over their possessions. Shit your way through several nations and fight mighty bossbattles against monuments come to life!
This game was very dear to me because it was the first game I worked on in my time at Wolpertinger. I continued to work on it all throughout my time there. It was my initial challenge to port the already-existing XBox Live game to the mobile platform. The game had a charm that we wanted to carry over to the new version but also spice up with new features and gameplay. The first challenge was making the controls work on a mobile device when the game was first envisioned with an Xbox controller. We ended up with two sliders that the player uses to control the bird's pitch and its pooping angle, which turned out to be quite intuitive to play. The game also now features special pickups and free-to-play monetization. The whole experience was changed to fit with a fast paced, fun game that is played in short sessions, often while doing the same as the bird. The level design also changed drastically. It now had more difficult but rewarding side routes and animated level changes that the player had to react to. All in all, Poopocalypse was a great game to begin my professional career with. I got the chance to make an already fun game into a great mobile title, and I’m happy with the results.
Platform: Mobile
Genre: 2D Puzzle
Description: Take it Easy is a fun little puzzle game based on the board game by the same name from Ravensburger. Play against your friends or the computer and connect the lines for the most points.
Take it Easy was a very interesting project since it involved mostly puzzle design on my part. The game rules already existed, and our publisher wanted to keep them as they were. Having to come up with nearly 100 puzzles was a great challenge for me. I had to think around the mechanics of the game and create interesting puzzles that were also increasing in difficulty. The challenge with all puzzle games is, of course, that not everyone is challenged in the same way by puzzles. The game was a great experience to learn from and grow my skills on, and I’m happy it still persists to this day.
