It’s all about feeling

Nathaniel (Nat) Smith

I’ve been a devoted storyteller, experience creator, and gamer for over ten years using a wide array of practical experience across different industries to inform creative and strategic choices. To me, there is no greater privilege and pursuit than building worlds where technology and soul come together.

I have worked primarily in VR and AR, focusing on user experience, mechanics, and storytelling. My career in games began where many do, in the QA department, learning the dos and don’ts of design decisions as well as the perils of big ideas and the dreaded scope creep (a monster worthy of its own franchise). Prior to working in games, I had a strong narrative background, and my transition out of QA brought me more into the narrative design, cinematic design, and technical design world. It was through this exposure that I found my passion in all things design-related and the real beauty of interlinking systems that create magical experiences for players.

While working at a start-up, I was tasked with “making our mocap stage work” which I took as a fresh new challenge to create something interesting. A year later, we became one of the fastest and most economical motion capture solutions in town by designing a complete animation pipeline around Unreal Engine’s sequencer. This pipeline design brought me closer to the design process of other projects, where I was able to utilize my systemic way of thinking to design unique VR experiences that challenged the foundations of the medium and its relationship with motion capture.

Today I focus primarily on designing games that can expand across multiple mediums and can take advantage of core player mechanics that are both fun to play and fun to watch!

Please reach out even if just to connect, I love making new friends all across the games industry!