In Psychonauts 2, Raz realizes his dream and visits Psychonauts Headquarters. However, when he gets there, he finds it's not the perfect place he expected and quickly realizes that the Psychonauts need him more than he needs them.
As the first level designer to join the Psychonauts 2 team, I worked with the design lead to pioneer our level design process. I was the lead designer on Lucrecia’s Lament, and I was a co-designer on Compton’s Cookoff, Hollis’ Hotstreak, Psi-King’s Sensorium, and Bob’s Bottles. Each level was iterated on multiple times, but the white-boxing process of each finished level took about three weeks, and bringing each level to alpha took approximately six months, non-consecutively.
In addition to designing player paths and prototyping many of Psychonauts 2’s new mechanics and interactive elements, I was also lucky enough to help shape the story of the game’s two gay characters, Bob Zanotto and Helmut Fullbear, and was an early part of the creative process when crafting the game’s early “spy mission” to the ocean-bound Luctopus Casino.
Peter Panic is the world's first mobile mini-game musical, bringing all the magic of Big Broadway to your smart devices! Peter is an aspiring young director who wants to bring theater back to his hometown. As he travels from one strange location to the next, he must perform dozens of challenging, weird mini games to convince as many people as he can to help him. Boasting a full slate of original songs performed by an amazing cast of Broadway talent (including Tony nominees) and a full score by award-winning composer Benjamin Bonnema, this mobile musical experience by James Marion will have you begging for an encore. Peter Panic was published by Adult Swim Games and released in March 2016. It has been played by hundreds of thousands of players!
Press for Peter Panic:
Don't 'Panic!' There's a Musical on Your Phone - Variety
Move Over, Hamilton: Peter Panic is a Movile Game... Musical - Wired
iOS App of the Week: Peter Panic - iPhoneFAQ
Peter Panic Throws Fans Into the World of Broadway - Broadway World
Live the Broadway Dream With Peter Panic and Mini-games - AppAdvice
Broadway Stars and Gamers Unite in Peter Panic, a Video Game Mega-Musical - Theater Mania
Live at Five with Gideon Glick - Broadway.com
Interview Series: Peter Panic - New York Critics Circle
Peter Panic - Singing Along To Greatness on iOS - AppleNApps
SITCH is a fake Twitch client in which you can watch a handful of streamers as they deal with interpersonal drama, plushie obsession, and the end of the world. It features and interactive and reactive, procedural stream chat and excellent guest performances.
Available for Windows and Mac.
_RUZ is a Ted Cruz-based investigation game in a twist on Her Story. Prior to the 2016 election, unedited interview footage of Ted Cruz was released publicly and I thought it would be fun to use it to make a weird game in which you discovered about the trials and tribulations of a company endeavoring to create the perfect presidential candidate.
Available for Windows and Mac on itch.io.
Backer Reward was the winner of the 2015 Global Game Jam at NYU in Brooklyn - Best Use of Theme and Best Overall Game.
Thanks so much for contributing to our Kickstarter! We're extremely excited to get working on our latest project, and it's important to us that our backers remain involved every step of the way!
SITCH was programmed by me and designed by me, Asif Siddiky, and Michael Tucker. Featured performers are myself, Michael Tucker, Asif Siddiky, Darren Korb, Tim Turi, and others.
_RUZ and Backer Reward were designed by Sigursteinn Gunnarsson, Shepard Ramsay, Geoffrey Suthers, and Jonathan Zungre. Special thanks to Vinny Bee for contributing a music track.
Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
(For Mac, option-click the file and choose "Open," then "Open" again.)
Oh is a fast-paced, stress-inducing action game in the same vein as Super Hexagon. Come dance.
"Crazy, sexy, fun."
- Eric Zimmerman (Diner Dash, Quantum, Sissyfight)
"James Marion asked me to play this game and I was all like "Oh.""
- Bennett Foddy (QWOP, Sportsfriends)
"I don't have time for this."
- Terry Cavanagh (Super Hexagon)
"James Marion, when are you going to grow up?"
- Barbara Marion (James)
Currently available on the App Store.
Die, Robot is a collaboration between Nolan Filter, Geoffrey Owen, and myself in which players play a small robot aboard a spaceship who must fulfill the one duty he was created to perform: changing a space lightbulb.
Collaborators: Nolan Filter, Geoffrey Owens
RMS Rumble is a fighting game all about rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic in which players must scoop and throw chairs onto their side of the ship to win.
Collaborators: AP Thomson, Leandro Ribeiro, Elyse Lemoine
I Quit is an endless runner that takes place in an office building featuring a press-your-luck mechanic in which players may choose at the end of every 'floor' of the building whether they choose freedom or to go to the next, faster floor.
Super Apartment Cleaner DX++ Turbo: Reckoning HD is a game in which you play a lazy young person whose mother has decided she's going to visit you because you won't return her calls. You have a very short amount of time in which you must clean your apartment, and you must do this before mother arrives.
The models were created as part of my application to NYU Game Center, part of Tisch School of the Arts. The focus of the project was to model and texture each object as accurately as possible, while maintaining a balance between detail and a low number of polygons. Each model represents a game or series that I have a particular fondness for.
