Hello & Welcome

 Hi, I’m Chad Bordwell. I've been working in the game industry since 1997 and I specifically started my design career in 2000. As a designer I've shipped over 10 AAA titles, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake4, and most recently Farcry 5.

Primarily my roles have been in game design, level design, and mission scripting. Most of my work has been for single player titles that also support cooperative game play. The majority of titles have released for Playstation, Xbox, and PC.
 
In 2020 I started my own company Dark Arts Development primarily to work with game developers as a contract game/level designer.  Currently I work remotely as a Senior Level Designer for Squanch games while living in Toronto Canada.

LinkedIn

Thanks

Chad

Making the Jump to Lead Designer

 

I have always steered clear of lead roles and after 25 years in the industry people start to look at you funny.  But to me a lead role is a different job, a people managing job.  I got into the game industry to make games, not manage people.  Most of the leads I knew barely knew how to open the editor the team used.  I didn't want to be that person.

However when I started at Lost Boys as a Senior Designer they immediately approached me about being the Design Lead of the project.  At first I was pretty reluctant but they said give it a try.  If it works out great, if not I'm still a Senior Designer.  So I thought what the hell, the industry expects this move out of people after a number of years and this was a great way to see if it would work for me.

After 5 months in the role I'm shocked to say I really enjoy it!  I'm in fact kicking myself that I didn't make the move sooner.  I've been a senior designer so long I didn't even realize I was in a rut.  Now with the new role and responsibilities work seems fresh and exciting again!  

I can't wait to share what I'm working on, but for now I'd really love to thank Chase at Lost Boys for offering this opportunity to me.  And for doing it in such a way that didn't intimidate me from taking it.  

- Chad

New Contract Signed

 Just signed a new contract with Lost Boys Interactive. As usual I can't talk about what we'll be working on but really looking forward to the project.  

Lost Boys is an independent developer with two locations, Austin Texas and my old Raven stomping grounds Madison Wisconsin. But I'll still be working remotely here in Toronto under my company Dark Arts Development.

Goodbye to Squanch Games

As we approach March my one year contract with Squanch Games comes to an end.  It's been a pleasure working with the team there.  As you'd expect from a company created by Justin Roiland it was a lot of laughs.  Squanch has such a unique team whom certainly work by the beat of their own drum.

Squanch was my first excursion into the indie game dev space after 20+ years of AAA which was quite an experience.  My contract was a remote one that began before COVID even hit, so I was working remote before it was cool.  There was plans to go to LA and meet the team, which unfortunately was not able to happen.  It would have been nice to see everyone face to face.

So goodbye Squanch, I wish them great luck with their title and look forward to its release.  

LinkedIn Company Page - CHECK

 Finally put together a company page for Dark Arts Development Inc over on LinkedIn.  After a year of contracting it looks like I'm going to continue so might as well make it official.  

https://www.linkedin.com/company/dark-arts-development/

And to go with this I began the creation of an official Dark Arts Development web page.  It's currently under construction but it's a start.

Dark Arts Development Inc.

My Current Contract Information

 Hi! 

With the start of the new year I've been contacted by many companies asking if I'm interested in new roles.  My current situation is I'm under contract with Squanch Games until March 16th.  So far they have not expressed whether they are interested in renewing the contract or not.

Although my current contract does allow me to work with other companies I've found most prefer that I work exclusively with them so until March that would not be possible.

That being said feel free to contact me if your company is interested in working with me before my contract ends or if you'd like to talk about roles starting after March 16th.  

Thanks for your interest and have a great new year!

Chad

Squanch Games WON'T Be doing VR in the Next Game

Since I started working at Squanch I've been asked this question a lot.  Will the next game be VR.  Of course I wasn't allowed to talk about the project, but Squanch CEO Tanya Watson publicly gave the answer.  Nope.

There's no need for me to regurgitate the article so go read it for yourself.

Squanch Games Shelves VR