MARLÈNE DELRIVE
Hi! I’m a game designer with a background in art history. I've touched design, code, and art, and I always say that I'll try anything at least once.
I love making players feel something and telling stories through gameplay.
Gameplay designer on a small team touching everything from game mechanics, level design, coding, art, VFX, audio, UI, UX…
I was part of developing live content for 3+ years, from several new campaigns to special events, and I led a complete overhaul of the in-game hub and menu.
I’ve seen the full process of development many times over and understand how to get a release ready, all the way from early prototyping to bug-fixing.
Creative lead and artist on Forgotten, an IGF-nominated game about Alzheimer's that explores feelings of social isolation and confusion.
The prototype was developed at the IT-University, and after 6 million views on Youtube, two nominations and several mentions, the student version showed us that Forgotten moves people in a unique way and makes them open up about their own family stories.
This is why we're still working on it today, and together with my peers we co-founded a company to continue developing the game in our spare time.
WHAT THE CAR?
I was enrolled as a game designer on Triband’s next “WHAT THE…?” adventure for early prototyping as well as developing live content.
WHAT THE CAR? is dynamic, full of breakable physics objects, and bears. Lots of bears.
ENHANCE
Game & Level Designer with a focus on difficulty/progression as well as creating intuitive touch-based mechanics. I also led the development of "Instabot", an in-game social media platform where you can post and react to others' posts.
The game was made during the DADIU programme in Copenhagen where we learned to work 15 people together across disciplines.
UNFOLDING
Unfolding is a procedural toy developed together with Jordy van Opstal as part of our Master thesis project on co-authorship in games at the IT-University of Copenhagen.
It explores how to make expanding grammars into gameplay mechanics, and it mixes authoring the zoomed-out narrative arc of a story with the zoomed-in exploration and unfolding of text.
I designed, researched, and wrote the story. As someone who has always enjoyed writing stories, it was very fulfilling to try it in the realm of games, and I learned a lot as I dove into the very big field of Interactive Fiction and procedural storytelling.
SOLO PROJECTS
POST A MAZE. 2023
A small auto-biographical game about coming home from A MAZE. in Berlin and getting sick.
I came home from the festival inspired and wanting to create a little experiment for myself. But then I started sneezing… everywhere. My proudest moment is trying to trigger a sneeze with a q-tip to record some realistic audio (yes, I go the extra mile).
THE IK3A TEST
One of my very first games. This is a simple sokoban made in Puzzlescript. It explores how a few simple mechanics can convey the dynamics of a dysfunctional relationship.
It takes inspiration from the dreaded and clichéed first trip to IKEA with a significant other. The rules are simple: when she moves right, he moves left, and only he can push objects. Get the item and both of them safely to the checkout area.
