Game Urbanism & Consulting

From fixing common problems and enhancing the atmosphere of your game's cities, to guiding you through the urban planning process that fits your design needs, and detailing the geographies of your interactive world, urban consulting and the planning of virtual cities is as demanding as it is varied in its scope. 

Architecture, city design, regional planning, streets and infrastructure, history, game, narrative and level design, research, topography, art direction, world building, tool development, procedural analysis, map making, spatial puzzle design, and even the creation of specific places for specific characters can (and have been) part of my urban consulting work.  

I consult on video games, board games, tabletop and computer RPGs, and of course for authors and other creative people or teams that need my services.

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Fictional Cities Design

Designing living, breathing cities from the ground up, complete with their histories, plans, fertile narrative spaces, geographical layers, topographies, districts, hinterlands and environs, transportation systems, populations, economies, and functioning societies. Also abstracting and modifying existing cities to fit your game's, world's or level's needs.

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I have worked and love working on projects involving ancient towns, groups of fantasy villages, horror neighborhoods, the contemporary metropolis, cyberpunk dystopias, eco-utopias, and everything in between. 

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I can provide you with deliverables ranging from a few simple sketches and some descriptive paragraphs, to detailed maps and bibles covering every aspect of your city. 

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World Building

Need somewhere to place your towns and villages? A sensible forest around your metropolis, and a natural harbor for your occultist fishermen? Do you need help creating and fleshing out your world, support in constructing a sci-fi universe, or information regarding the organization of medieval networks? Do you even require a custom-built world ready to serve as your setting? As both a game designer and a geographer, I believe I can help. I can also tackle the topography, shape, and natural geography of your setting.

 
Keep in mind that detailed imaginary worlds, interactive urban environments, and virtual geographies can also deeply influence and further inspire your game, level, and narrative design.

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Simulations, Serious Games, Urbanism
My work covers the creation of urban simulation rules, analysis for city-building games, guidelines for the procedural generation of video game or other virtual settlements, and of course models for the behavior of residents, and the realistic simulation of urban systems and civic life.

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Game Design, Level Design

Urbanism aside, I am also experienced when it comes to writing, narrative design, quest design, game design, puzzle design, level design, and acting as a project lead for smaller teams. I am always interested in working on worthwhile projects wearing a variety of hats, and often work on board-games and pen & paper RPGs too.

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Writing & Lecturing

I have maintained columns for Wireframe magazine, on Rock Paper Shotgun and on Indiegames.com. I am the author of Virtual Cities, and have been teaching students and professionals since 2003. I can thus provide with articles and chapters on the fields of my expertise for your publication, as well as educate teams and students on game urbanism, urbanism, geography, game design, narrative design, and level design. 

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