Murray Thomson

Current

• Lead Designer at Extropia

Past

• Lead Designer at Awesome Cheese Games

Education

• The University of Huddersfield

Connections

16 connections

Industry

Computer Games

Murray Thomson’s Summary

I graduated from the University of Huddersfield in 2009, earning a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Computer Games Design 'BA'. During this time I worked as 3D artist and lead designer for projects including an Xbox Live Arcade demo title. I've a background in freelance graphics and web design.

I'm particularly interested in design documentation for games, and the creation of virtual worlds architecture and communities. I hope to pursue academic interests alongside a career in games design in order to better understand the medium.

Murray Thomson’s Specialties:

I specialise in level and environment design, with research interests in the construction of interactive narratives and tutorials.

Murray Thomson’s Experience

• Lead Designer

  Extropia

  (Internet industry)

  October 2007 — Present (2 years 6 months)

  The City-State of Extropia is an independent community formed in the "Second Life" world, with a history of staging successful online events of varying scales.
  
  I've taken responsibility for designing the region, maintaining community buildings and developing the resources to help residents get started since co-founding this project in 2007. I've also produced Extropia's graphic design work, for marketing and to decorate its web presences.
  
  Extropia is currently being overhauled, with plans to move from a custom building space to somewhere offering more prefab. options and a greater interactivity.

• Lead Designer

  Awesome Cheese Games

  (Computer Games industry)

  October 2008 — April 2009 (7 months)

  ACG, or Awesome Cheese Games, was a small student development team keen to bring their unique imagination and humour to the downloadable console market. The team presented a two-player co-operative game named "Floaters", for submission to a regional games design contest.
  
  Following a series of non-hierarchical brainstorming sessions, I volunteered for lead design in order to manage the game's design document, submit and approve the various gameplay and level design ideas. I also worked on some in-game assets and assisted in visual research.
  
  My challenges included: working with our lead programmer to develop an efficient game engine; extensive writing of my own, and the editing of changes to our development wiki; producing a pitch document from this wiki; arranging for play tests of the game's puzzles; assisting our designers and modellers.

Murray Thomson’s Education

• The University of Huddersfield

  BA (hons) , Computer Games Design , 2005 — 2009

  I took a 3-year sandwich course at the School of Computing & Engineering, with modules teaching games culture, concept design, 3D modelling and animation, basic programming and design documentation.
  
  My final-year projects included developing a playable demo for Xbox Live Arcade, and a dissertation on games as a teaching medium, entitled "Orientation Through Playing".
  
  I graduated '2:2 with honours' in Autumn 2009.

  Activities and Societies:

  Founding member, Huddersfield Animé and Manga Society.

Additional Information

Murray Thomson’s Interests:

game design, science fiction, virtual worlds, travel, tennis, fashion

Murray Thomson’s Groups:

•    World of Warcraft & Warcraft Player Group
•    The University of Huddersfield Alumni Association
•    VirtualWorlds

Murray Thomson’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• new ventures
• job inquiries