2013
Bachelor of Science in Game Design
Graduated from Full Sail University, Winter Park, FL as Salutatorian and with a 3.9 GPA.
I'm a design-minded, Game Designer that has been a part
of the Game indsutry for 8+ years. Join me on a journey
through the art I’ve done to the games I’ve created.
I’m Rafi James and I love games, from board games to videogames. Ever since
I was a kid I’ve been into games, most of my childhood memories are of playing games.
Also, I have a passion for tech and my curiosity about how things work got me into
taking everything around me apart. Eventually, I started disassembling the tech that
I used and modifying it to work better for me. My love of games and modifying tech lead
me down the road of customizing and creating my own games.
I pursued my Bachelor’s Degree in Game Design from Full Sail University where I was recognized as one of the top students in my program and salutatorian of my graduating class. Upon graduation, I launched into my career as a game designer starting at Fireshark, an indie game studio based in my hometown. As a primary designer at Fireshark, I gained professional experience in building design docs, prototyping, level design and content development. Through this experience, I’ve successfully shipped 3 video games spanning across multiple genres including, battle arena, racing and fighting.
My game testing experience spans across many facets in the game industry from AAA to indie and volunteering as an alpha/beta tester. In the AAA arena I’ve worked at Nintendo of America as a tester for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Smash Bros DLC. At Microsoft I was involved in game hardware testing such as stress and compatibility testing the Xbox Series X and S.
I’ve taken initiative in learning basics of programming across multiple languages such as C#, JavaScript and Python. I’ve applied the concepts I’ve learned in hobby projects by using such devices as a Raspberry Pi and Arduino. In a professional setting at Fireshark Studios I assisted developers with modifying code within Unity.
As a QA Engineer I’ve worked alongside designers and developers to prototype and test game features before being implemented in-game. Oftentimes my feedback about a feature results in an open conversation with designers and developers about what could be improved or different features that could be added to enhance the players’ experience.
I worked as a system debug tester for the 5th and final downloadable character, Byleth, from the Fighters Pass Vol. 1. For this project we mainly focused on issues that could happen with the character, Byleth, and his/her stage. Also, I was personally in charge of performing a system check for each new build we received, to ensure the system was stable and all character behaved correctly.
A remake of the original gameboy game, released on the Nintendo Switch. I worked as a system debug tester, looking for any kind of issue that could hinder gameplay or cause the system to crash.
The first entry of the Fire Emblem series on the Nintendo Switch. I was a game tester that specialized in text check. This included searching for spelling and grammatical errors, as well as context and story inconsistencies.
Rift Heroes is a fighting game that was released on the Fireshark Theater version 2. I was in charge of finalizing the all the characters, their movesets, and balancing. Once the game was near release, I set up play test sessions, gathered data and made any changes that were needed.
This is second game to be released on the Fireshark Theater. This is a racing game that allowed the players to race on the floor and walls and had multiple game modes. I selected all the vehicles and tuned their stats. I assisted in finalizing the different game modes and stages.
The flagship game that was released on the Fireshark Theater. This is a battle arena game that included 7 different mechs with 3 different game styles. I helped in balancing the mechs and overall quality assurance of the game.
Bachelor of Science in Game Design
Graduated from Full Sail University, Winter Park, FL as Salutatorian and with a 3.9 GPA.
Technical Support @ CRU DataPort
Worked for CRU DataPort in Wichita, KS from November 2011 through April 2015.
Primary Designer @ Fireshark Studios
Worked for Fireshark Studios, Wichita, KS from February 2015 through April 2017.
Technical Specialist @ Smartsheet
Technical Support Specialist at Smartsheet from November 2018 through January 2019.
Game Debug Tester @ Nintendo of America
Worked for Nintendo of America, Redmond, WA from January 2019 to March 2020
Software Test Engineer @ Turn 10 Studios
Software Test Engineer at Turn 10 Studios from July 2021 to present.
Prototype for a shoot’em up type game, where enemies comes from top and bottom while the player stays in the center, only moving left and right and can shoot up or down.
This is the beginning stages of a design document for a game idea I have. Before I start to prototype my game ideas I like to get a brief overview description basic things I would like in the game.
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This race course was created for a game mode in Wreck3d. For this game mode the players would race to a waypoint. The first one there would get a point and a new waypoint would appear. After many iterations the game mode became know as Pizza Delivery, where players would need to go to the center of the map to pick up a pizza and deliver it to whichever house the waypoint was at.
Rock
