Earlier this week I asked the love of my life to marry me and she said YES! 💍💕 I wanted to do something special so I made a little game for the
#playdate
to help me propose. It's called Love Letter 💌 - her reaction was worth the months of
#gamedev
@playdate
Dear Pirates -
It's with great emotional conflict that I have to announce, I will not be returning to
@RareLtd
in 2021.
It's been an amazing 5+ years with
#SeaOfThieves
, with just the past two years working at the studio 💚
Thank you everyone for joining me on this journey.
**HUGE 2019 NEWS**
Roughly one month from now I'll be moving from my Australian home to the UK to work an internship
@RareLtd
in both Community AND Design! I know!! Crazy! Right? I still can't believe it... <3
Pirates of the
#SeaOfThieves
!
Lend me your terms...
Today I learnt a new sailing term that I thought was simply brilliant.
Courtesy Curl - to raise the Galleons main sail slightly for better visibility.
Let's create a community glossary!
@SeaOfThieves
But the timer and scoreboard were all a distraction... At the end of the game all the collected letters would spell "Will you marry me?" - that was my cue to drop to one knee. Oh and don't worry, if she had selected "no" it would have asked "are you sure" and looped around! haha
Just took members of the team through a future design for
@SeaofThieves
- I've been writing these design docs for the past couple of weeks now, so it's extremely rewarding to see the team equally as excited to build this thing for our players. 💚🎮
A few eagle-eyed people noticed a unique
#SeaOfThieves
controller in the background of my previous post...
It's something we've never shared.
Years before I worked
@RareLtd
- the studio graciously gifted the Deckhands and myself a custom Xbox controller for all our hard work. 💚
Introducing the Poltergust 5000 - Cardboard Edition, powered by
#NintendoLabo
. This is my submission video to the Nintendo Labo Creators Contest. Cardboard Ghosts beware!
#NintendoLaboAUNZ
This was a genuine moment. <3
@SayHeyRocco
found their new and improved Player Immortalisation. I couldn't stop smiling and not going to lie, I cried a little... working in games is so rewarding!
Vaults of the Ancients will be unlocked on September 9th as the latest
@SeaOfThieves
update. It has already received the coveted and unbiased "Aaron Nilesen Seal of Approval" 🌟
#NewProfilePic
The game went through many iterations over the six months. It started as a series of simple platforming levels. But after some playtests I decided to pivot toward a more hi-score-based arcade experience. Here's a snippet of the near-final version.
I love that we get to keep doing this for our players and I equally love the reactions. From the first time a name appeared on the Ferry of the Damned until now, Player Immortalisations are still my favourite way to celebrate the
#SeaofThieves
Community.
MY HAIR IS IN SEA OF THIEVES!!! Thank you so much
@SeaOfThieves
for adding my hair into my favorite game. The absolute coolest thing that's ever happened 💜
Struth! Looks like I found my new
#gamesjob
- excited to announce that today was my first day
@kromestudios
as the newest designer to join their ranks.
Let's do this!
Finally got around to framing my
#SeaOfThieves
Legendary Crew poster and oh my, it looks sooo shiny!! 🥰
This poster made it all the way from the UK with only minimal damage but now that it's framed I've gotta find a wall to proudly hang it on. 💚 u
@RareLtd
#MyFirstGamesJob
is taking place right now. I've only been working
@RareLtd
a few months now but I'm already in love with the work, the passion and the studio culture. Being surrounded by truly talented and creative people makes every day the best it can possibly be. 🎮💚
Today was my first day with the Design team
@RareLtd
- I got to have a really good chat with
@ChappersChapman
and
@keeyaaaa
in the morning (Thanks guys for everything today) Then spent the rest of my day catching up on all the awesome stuff planned for
@SeaOfThieves
this year. ☠️
Celebrating one LEGENDARY year (and a week)
@RareLtd
- it's mind blowing, in such a short amount of time I have achieved so many things and I've had an absolute blast doing it all! Rare encourages me to be the best version of myself. Thank you everyone for your support! 💚🎮📝
For this project, I used the Pulp editor and it was a great experience for a coding novice, such as myself. It was a lot of fun working within tile constraints and thankfully any questions I had the playdate community was prepared to support me on my journey.
Merry Christmas! 🎁🎄
I wasn't able to make it back to Australia to spend Christmas with the family & friends. So I secretly got my brother to make a life-sized cardboard cutout of myself to surprise everyone (especially my mum)
Looks like I made it home for Christmas after all.
Watching a bunch of greedy pirates get trapped inside the vaults reminded me of this official "designer concept art" I drew during the prototyping phase of
#VaultsOfTheAncients
- It has been fun watching players plan their gold looting strategies.
@SeaOfThieves
It's taken 21 days of travel, quarantine and more travel to successfully make it home 🇦🇺 from the UK.
I'd been stressed out, emotional and anxious that entire time.
Though the hardest part was keeping it a secret from my friends and family.
The surprise was worth it. 💚
Tonight's
@SeaOfThieves
stream has now made my top gaming moments and I think it highlights what makes
#SeaOfThieves
so special to me.
The seas are at their strongest when every piece of content comes out to say "hello".
Also. THAT ATHENA ROWBOAT CLUTCH THO! *heart racing*
Some words from the 'new guy' - This is what
@SeaOfThieves
means to me.
What an unbelievable journey, from a humble Pirate enthusiast; turned Deckhand and now... Community and Design intern
@RareLtd
! This game will always hold a special place in my heart.
#SoTAndMe
#BeMorePirate
Today was incredible!
Day 1
@RareLtd
complete and what a day it was!!
After my induction and (another) studio tour we got stuck in with getting me set up and I even attended some meetings!
I'm really going to like it here.
Bring on tomorrow.
Literal chills! 💚
Congratulations to all my friends over
@RareLtd
- A Pirate's Life is looking mint and I'm extremely keen to play this on June 22nd... relatively spoiler free. 😅
(So glad it didn't leak early! 🤐)
Just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the names shown. These passionate people, over the past few years, have made me feel so welcome, helped me grow, made me laugh, played games alongside me and most importantly... became good friends. Much love 💚🎮💀🍌
#SeaOfThieves
Remember that
@SeaOfThieves
"future design" I mentioned some months back? Well, we've begun testing it with our Insiders. There's still some work remaining but it's coming together great. Super proud of our team for all their hard work, as always. 💙💛
#gamedev
#seaofthieves
Just took members of the team through a future design for
@SeaofThieves
- I've been writing these design docs for the past couple of weeks now, so it's extremely rewarding to see the team equally as excited to build this thing for our players. 💚🎮
This is a personal favourite of mine.
@ISjoen
did an amazing job with the sketches of the faces.
@Carl_Packer
did some great work on the mesh layout.
I work alongside some truly talented people who help me create 'awesome' on a daily basis for the best Community of pirates. 💚
Heading home to Australia today! 🐨🇦🇺
...and by "today" I really mean my first flight takes off today. By the time I actually arrive in Australia it will be Tuesday morning haha 😅
Looking forward to seeing my family & friends 💚
... and on the other hand Im saddened that I will no longer be having fun making the pirate game with my fellow Devs. I'll miss all my new friends and life in the UK.
I know most of you follow me for "hot pirate goss" but I hope you stick around for my next adventure...
Design Postmortem - A few weeks after arriving
@RareLtd
I was moved into the Tall Tales team for
#SeaofThieves
. My first deliverable was to prepare and hide the many Lore Books across the seas - This campsite was the first location I picked for one of the Wild Rose books.
I know this will come as a surprise to many, but don't worry! It's all on good terms, there is no drama or scandal here!!
My plan was to return to Australia and prepare myself for another year of skullduggery - though those plans have fallen through and so here we are.
An interesting little tidbit for you, turns out the two
#SeaOfThieves
updates where I've contributed directly to the design both had "of the" in the title.
Legends of the Sea
&
Vaults of the Ancients
What do you think my next update will be called? 🤔
_____ of the _____
Ahoy Australian developers - my job hunt is well underway, if you have any Game Design roles open at your studio/team, let me know so I can apply! My DMs are open! Currently situated in Tasmania but willing to relocate if needed
#AustralianGameDev
#OzGameDev
#gamedev
#gamedesign
One year ago today I let the world know I was moving to the UK to start my new adventure as a Game Developer.
I did write a Twitter thread about the things I've achieved since then and the personal growth and skills I've gained along the way. But I'll leave that for another day.
Just rediscovered the map I made some years back for the
#SeaOfThieves
"Chicken Run" back when chickens, pigs and snakes were first introduced.
#SoThrowback
Crews from across the seas getting together to tackle a fort at
#EGX2019
Best Crew-munity of Pirates - was great meeting so many
#SeaOfThieves
community members today. Putting many faces to the pirate names. 💚☠️
I'm "the talent" now...
While we are in
#RareFromHome
mode - a huge source of entertainment for me is seeing all the crazy backgrounds my team can come up with in our daily
@MicrosoftTeams
catch-ups.
The player (my now fiance!) would need to try and deliver the correct 'letters' to their desired letterbox before time ran out. Each correct letter delivered would increase the score multipliers and additional time bonuses etc.
Today marks the two year anniversary of my first voyage into
@RareLtd
. Bringing with me a hoard of Rare Doubloons to share with the developers as a ~bribe~ err.. 'Thank you' for making a game that helped me rediscover my sense of adventure and creativity. 1/3
Starting my internship on Monday!
Over the past few weeks, I've had friends, family and pirates from the community congratulate me. Saying words like 'passionate', 'success', 'inspiring' and 'how?' - To these people I wrote this analogy during my jet-lagged state. I hope it helps
Oops...
@keeyaaaa
- Just know that I do this out of mutual respect.
#sorryNOTsorry
This clip of tonight's
#SeaOfThieves
Anniversary Stream: The Arena made me legitimately laugh out loud.
It's been one whole year since I was adventuring through
@RareLtd
and sharing all me plunder with the talented folk that live there. It's been one helluva voyage.
@SeaOfThieves
#BeMorePirate
This post is a few days late...
I know Christmas is old news now but I wanted to share a little Christmas tradition I have with a mate back in Oz.
Each year my best mate Cam and I would take a festive photo together.
We almost broke the tradition this year.
So we got creative.
I'm emotionally conflicted because on one hand I'm proud of my achievements and so happy I was given an opportunity to show the world what I can do for a game I love with my everything.
Though I now look forward to applying that knowledge to games in Australia.
Not sure if I've ever shared this publically, but here's some snippets of a game I made in Unity back in 2017. It was intended to accompany my design portfolio as I applied for a job/internship
@RareLtd
. Though it never made it into my intern application, I'm pretty sure. (1/4)
You look like a pirate with a tale to tell...
... eventually.
Truth be told I have a handful of pending Easter Eggs - just waiting for our art teams to free up and the right time to add them to the game.
But, we as a team never stop looking for the next pirates to immortalise.
Safe to say that the
@SeaOfThieves
Community is bursting with creativity and talent! A BIG thank you goes out to
@LatchedGlue
for sending me this AMAZING mini Pirate Portrait of Pikaaroon! (Rare Coin for scale) Side note; the packaging was equally as cool!
#BeMorePirate
💚☠️
Completed another lap around the sun, making that a total of 31 laps. 🎁🎂
Before going to Hobart for the weeked, my mum left me treasure hunt clues to locate my presents as she wasn't there to give them in person. (I laid them out in order for the photo)
Was ~this close~ to spending Christmas alone at home. Until Dempsey (
@ExitWithCode0
) extended an invitation for my housemate and I to come join in with his family. Honestly dude, you didn't have to do that - but I'm rather glad you did. Thank you for the hospitality. 💚😘👍
I'm currently planning to travel back to Australia so that I can renew my visa. This will allow me to continue working for the wonderful
@RareLtd
💙💛 - but boy o' boy can I tell you that I'm not looking forward to international travel during a pandemic.
Too many unknowns...
To my Rare family:
I was too busy drinking, eating and being a judge in "Kangaroo Court" to take photos of last night's proceedings.
If you have any funny/festive pictures from last night, please share them here so I can steal them...
Pretty wild seeing my little Love Letter 💌 game on the
#Playdate
catalog.
Honestly it doesn't even have to sell a single copy. I'm just so happy and proud 💚
@essaredoubleyou
@RareLtd
You found it! Another Legendary Pirate to be immortalised upon the Sea of Thieves! Be sure to tell your son that we loved his map and that he will make a very good cartographer one day.
Watching the talented design team
@RareLtd
flesh out this game is the sole reason I picked myself up, pushed my creativity forward and convinced me that I wanted to be a designer.
Now I'm fortunate enough to contribute toward and learn from that wealth of designer knowledge. 💚
*Jiggy Fanfare*
Spent a few hours today stabbing wool to shape myself a jiggy piece. Not a perfect build but I learned some valuable lessons about the craft.
Lesson No.1 - don't use a sharpie to mark a cut. It darkens the wool and is hard to cover up.
Because I was trying to keep my Aussie trip a secret from those at home, I held off making any posts that would blow my cover.
Here's a recap.
After 14 days quarantine, this was my home for 2 days.
This is what freedom looks like.
The Sea of Thieves servers are now offline so that the Vaults of the Ancients can be sealed, the good doggos let loose and the island banners shrunk (if you want). Enjoy a grog or two, we'll let you know once the seas are safe to sail once more!
We've got our planks ready for
@BIGsheep
's return to the Weekly Stream! Join him,
@mrjordanap
and
@GullibleGambit
now for two hours of mischievous marauding and careful chatter:
📺
📺
📺
Hunter's Call is a family business on the
#SeaOfThieves
- Only makes sense that Derrick (
@Plecotuz
) would help out. Love seeing our community shaping the seas. Check out the stream on the Hunters Call
For obvious reasons I can't actually go into the design itself. But it's a significant milestone in my career because outside of my work on Legends of the Sea, this will be my first "owned" design and it's substantial in the type of player stories it will generate.
This Aussie isn't really sure how to feel about having a winter Christmas after 29 years of sun, shorts and barbies.
But I'll tell you this for free,
@RareLtd
know how to spread the Christmas cheer.
We've gone and changed the game!
Was crazy to hear the amount of hype and excitement from our streamers over on Twitch tonight.
Well done to the team for delivering this kraken-sized update on time AND while working remotely from home.
Absolute legends. 💚
Ships of Fortune is live!
🎏 New Emissary System
💀 PvP Company: The Reaper's Bones
😺 Cats!
⚔️ The Next Chapter of The Arena
👻 Crew Reviving
💰 Fresh Pirate Emporium & Black Market stock
☠️ And more!
Learn about everything stowing away in this update: