Hi! My name is Griffin Thenell and I’m a game designer and programmer. Check out my work below.
Madden NFL
At EA, I worked as a content programmer developing in-game messaging with customized JSON navigation for Madden Ultimate Team on Madden NFL 23, Madden NFL 24, Madden NFL 25 and College Football 25. I also created new development processes and criteria requirements for all messaging destinations to help mitigate technical issues within messaging; as well as, processes to customize messaging for different user bases with custom segmentation based on player data and technical A/B Experimentation. Additionally, I worked with Frostbite Engine and PlayStation UDS to develop PlayStation 5 activity cards. In my time at EA, bugs from the messaging team were reduced by 55%, all programming processes were documented in Confluence and I received the maximum amount of allowed contract extensions.
Paletteer
Originally starting as a 48-hour project for Global Game Jam 2021, Paletteer has become a sandbox project for me to work on. Whenever I have an idea for something, I build it here. The base mechanic of the game is that colors and platforms shift every time the character jumps. I have been the sole programmer and game designer on the project. Currently, I’ve implemented a full 2d character controller with wall jumping, wall holds and dashing. I’ve also added keys and doors that block your path, 4-directional gravity triggers, pressure plates, skateboarding, moving platforms and a custom color shader that allows me to change the colors of the level to any 2 colors I want. The Global Game Jam version of Paletteer is currently available on itch.io.
Caffeine Dreams
For my NMC 487 class, I created a few blocks of a small town centered around a coffee shop called Caffeine Dreams. For this project, I created a custom First Person controller as well as some basic audio cue locations and a boundary that turns the player around rather than just an invisible wall. Design wise, I created a full backstory for the world and while most of that story is not visible within this version, it affected how I built the world and much of the dialogue I added. You can play it for yourself here.
OSU Senior Software Engineering Project
My partner and I created a virtual reality program that teaches new construction workers how to build a basic wooden wall. The player is taught how to build through animations and is given a sandbox to test their skills. Personally, I built the player controller, animations, UI and tutorial scenes. I also assisted my partner with the tools and took care of documentation for the project as it was academic based.
The Net VR Theater
At The Net VR, I worked on The Net VR Theater, a virtual community theater that shows streams either from YouTube, Twitch or direct streams. I was brought into the project to create character controllers for the project. While their I created a first-person/third-person character controllers that can seamlessly be interchanged. I also helped update their previously existing SteamVR controller.
General Prototypes and Unfinished Projects
A lot of the projects I’ve built or either on going projects or prototypes I decided not to move forward with. I will often prototype out an idea in a weekend or so and determine from there if I want to keep working on the project in a hobbyist fashion. Other projects are ones that I’m actively working on but won’t be finished for some time. There’s still merit in these projects and I like to show my entire process of creating games so that is why I included these.
Harold’s Ghastly Adventure
For PIGSquad’s Music First Summer Slow Jam, I put together a small team to make a 2D platformer. I took on most of the project leaving the enemy AI, prop and tilemap design and music to the rest of my team. I programmed the player controller, menus and all of the various level mechanics, created each level layout and the progression system, designed and implemented the UI and generally managed the team. I’m particularly proud of the different level systems I implemented including camera locks for arenas, teleport spots, switches, moving platforms and more. You can see more of the game and play for yourself here.