In November of 2019, I was hired by Akupara Games to be the Art Director for a rhythm action puzzle game titled The Choreographist. In the world of the game, You play as the tough as nails hero Crim, who has been cursed to see the world as a bizarre nightmare dance party that she is forced to partake in. The game heavily inspired by DDR and fighting games.

My responsibility as art director was to create a cohesive visual style that was eye catching, told a story, and was mechanically clear.

It was a ton of fun, and at the beginning of 2020 we had a vertical slice made. Sadly, with COVID, funding fell through. However the vertical slice was made available to play on itch.io. If you’d like to try out this crazy musical experiment, you can find it here: https://akuparagames.itch.io/the-choreographist

Cards and Castles 2 is a sequel to the card collecting tactics game Cards and Castles. Developed by Red Team Games, I was hired on in 2022 to create card Illustrations, UI, and some vfx. You can find Cards and Castles 2 here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1719390/Cards_and_Castles_2/

Queer Quest launched on June 3rd 2024 and is a point and click adventure with a vibe like: "Gay Monkey's Island meets feminist Leisure Suit Larry." The game was in development for over seven years and I joined Queermo Games in March of 2021. I made the logo, UI elements, animations, backgrounds, and a bunch more. The visual look of the game was established by Hagen Deloss and I came in after he left the team. It was my job to keep the style consistent. It was a wonderful project to work on with a very supportive team and a powerful queer message.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1296300/Queer_Quest_All_in_a_Gays_Work/
itch.io: https://queermogames.itch.io/queer-quest

Demon's Mirror is a Deck Builder Rogue-Like in the vein of Slay the Spire with the addition of a matching puzzle game. I was brought onto the development team at Be-Rad Entertainment in October of 2023 as a UI designer/artist. I made the HUD elements in game as well buttons, sliders, 9-slices, and decorative menus. The team was a joy to work with, and the highly rendered organic stone work and metal style was a lot of fun. You can play Demon's Mirror right now at this link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1600910/Demons_Mirror/

Ra Ra Boom! Is a 90's inspired beat 'em up made by Gylee Games. I was hired on as a UI/UX designer in February of 2021. The team was lovely to work with and I had a great time capturing that mall punk, Saved By The Bell meets Lisa Frank paper craft energy. I worked on icons, HUD elements, buttons, and menus. Feel free to check out Gylee at their website: https://gyleegames.com/

The Indie Houses is an international collective of 7 publishers helping change the face of indie games. Those publishers include: Raw Fury, Neon Doctrine, Fellow Traveller, Akupara Games, Toge Productions, Those Awesome Guys, and Whitethorn Games. I was approached by the collective in late June of 2021, to make this promotional illustration to announce their entering into the world. It was a genuine pleasure to make this image and to be a part of such a positive force in the gaming world.

You can find out more about The Indie Houses at their website: https://theindiehouses.org/

I was asked in late 2022 to create the main promotional illustration for New Beings’s game Order Automatica. A 3x3 autochess style game with occult vibes. You can check out the game on their itch page:

https://newbeings.itch.io/order-automatica

BUMPY JUMPY is a simplistic, bouncy platformer, focused around time trials and speed runs. Developed by Salman Shurie (@Salman_Shh on Twitter) and his independent studio Gesinimo Games, I was kindly approached to do the key art for this delightful game. A free demo can be found here: https://poki.com/en/g/bumpy-jumpy

Grid Rangers is a Tactical Puzzle Game inspired by Vapor Wave. It was made for the 2020 Summer Slow Jam held by PIG squad in Portland OR. The technical theme was “Turn Based” and the creative theme was “Alternate Timeline”.

Play as the titular Grid Rangers and take down the corrupt S.W.I.N.E. Mainframe from the inside. Collect CDs in order to purchase upgrades from K33p3r, an anonymous hacker accomplice.

All art was done by me. Coding was done by Josh Schonstal and music/sfx were made by Zack Pierson. You can check the game out at: https://schonstal.itch.io/grid-rangers

Parasomnia is a top-down twin-stick survival horror game all about exploration and resource scarcity. It is inspired by classic horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. It was made in June of 2021 for the Summer Slow Jam held by PIGSquad in Portland OR. The technical theme was “Exploration” and the creative theme was “Forgotten Place”.

Explore a non-Euclidean medical labyrinth. Scrounge for bullets, syringes, and every scrap of money you can get your hands on. Who knows! If you save up enough, you just might pay off your debts before becoming another one of the hospitals shadowy residents.

All art was done by me. Coding was done by Josh Schonstal and music/sfx were done by Zack Pierson. You can check the game out at: https://smhancher.itch.io/parasomnia

Profane Salvation is a TouHou inspired bullet hell game made for the 2019 Summer Slow Jam in Portland Oregon. The event is put on by the Portland Indie Game Squad or PIGSquad. The technical theme was 'Arcade Game' and the Creative theme was 'Occult Classic'.

You play as an Angel who has been cast out of heaven and is trying to fight their way out of hell in an attempt to find salvation.

All art was done by me. Coding was done by Josh Schonstal and Music was done by Zack Pierson. If you wish to play the game you can find it on Itch.io here:

https://schonstal.itch.io/profane-salvation

Curse of the Blood Moon is a fast paced arcade style score attack game made for the 2020 Global Game Jam. The theme for the jam was ‘Repair’, so we made a game where you take damage when you shoot and can only repair your health when you melee attack enemies.

You play as a cursed soul trying to survive an endless night of torment. You must fight against your fate and purge the darkness of its demons.

All art was done by me. Coding was done by Josh Schonstal and Music was done by Zack Pierson. If you wish to play the game you can find it on my itch.io page:

https://schonstal.itch.io/curse-of-the-blood-moon

Downbeat Underground is a rhythm fighting game that combines the mechanics of DDR, Crypt of the Necrodancer, and Punch Out, in order to deliver the feeling of bobbing and weaving in a neon drenched underground robot fight club. This game was made for the 2021 Global Game Jam. All visuals were made by me. Code was made by Josh Schonstal and sounds by Zack Pierson. You can download and play the game here: https://globalgamejam.org/2021/games/downbeat-underground-4

Dog Witch is a dice based rogue-like game I was hired to work on between the years of 2020 and 2023. My main task was to design little trinkets you collect while playing. These include Rings, Bracelets, Necklaces, Bones, Books and some other odds and ends.

Tempered Fury is a reflex driven combo game about crafting armor and weapons as a blacksmith. It was made for PIGSquad's 2023 Summer Slow Jam. The theme was crafting.

All art was done by me. Coding was done by Josh Schonstal and Music was done by Zack Pierson. If you wish to play the game you can find it on my itch.io page:

https://smhancher.itch.io/tempered-fury

The BIG Show is a rhythm bullet hell where you must dodge incoming projectiles being fired on the beat. You play as a small rabbit who must quickly learn their choreography on the fly and catch incoming roses tossed by fans. Fail and it’s curtains. Succeed and you just might become a STAR!

It was made for the 2024 Global Game Jam. The theme was “Make Me Laugh”. While the game was not complete, I'm still quite proud of the visual style we were able to accomplish. All art was done by me. Coding was done by Josh Schonstal and music/sfx were made by Zack Pierson. You can check the game out at: https://smhancher.itch.io/the-big-show

To-DO is an atmospheric, narratively driven, horror puzzle game. It was made for the 2020 Summer Slow Jam held by PIG squad in Portland OR. The technical theme was “Horror” and the creative theme was “Don’t let it out”.

As a player you inhabit the mind of a man who’s returned home in the dead of night, to a house that grows more unsettling. In an attempt to maintain a level of clarity, you must return to the one thing that won't lie to you: your lists.

All art was done by me. Coding was done by Yori Kvitchko. Game design by Christian Scandariato. Story and VO by Michael Middleton, and music/sfx were made by Zack Pierson. You can check the game out at: https://yorikv.itch.io/to-do

Duel Arms was a platform fighting game made by Gutter Arcade. I was hired at the beginning of 2020 to do concept art, illustration, level design, and animation. Many of these illustrations are to show off the Golem mechanics. Duel arms was unique in that, outside of combat, you could participate in some light gardening mechanics. Using the plants and veggies you produce from gardening (as well as ‘soul essence’ you collect from battles), you could create a golem. Golems acted as friends and sparring buddies that you can pamper, feed, and equip with your spare gear.

The other work you see is concepts for different levels that players would have been able to fight in.

Sadly the final product never ended up seeing the light of day, though it's predecessor Knight Club is available for download:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1056720/Knight_Club/

Pyxl Chain was a crypto currency company I worked at from October 2021 to October 2022. I was hired on as Art Director and Game Designer for a number of internal project including a pet raising economy game, a pet racing game, a farm sim, a poker game, and a rock paper scissors game. I lead a team of artists, programmers, designers, and economists in trying to construct an engaging interactive experience in the crypto market place. While I'm personally not a fan of the crypto culture, I did enjoy some of the challenges that came about working in the space.

BloodRush is the name Josh Schonstal and I have given to our game making partnership. A lot of the games in my portfolio are the product of our teamwork. We have since spent a lot of time trying to make larger scale projects.

Our first large project started out as Angel Game. A bite sized tactics game that utilizes pre-determined randomness as a core mechanic. It was constructed during the 2022 Global Game Jam where the theme was ‘Duality’.

In angel game, the world is crumbling apart and celestial forces intend to wipe the slate clean for all mortal life, and start a new. In the crumbling pieces of reality, the few remaining heroes of humanity stand strong. If they can transcend their cosmic fate, maybe they can be the architects of the new world.

However, after the jam, the game went through many iterations. You can see some of those in this gallery. This game is a passion project, and one day I hope to have the time and resources to do it justice.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of making away screens, stream frames, emotes and merch for different twitch streamers. Here are a couple of examples.

Karkalla: https://www.twitch.tv/karkalla

JimmyVsGames: https://www.twitch.tv/jimmyvsgames

Chocobose: https://www.twitch.tv/chocobose

Queen Defense is an iOS game published in 2015. It is a pass and play, turn based strategy game where your objective is to harvest energy, build robotic soldiers, and slay your opponent's Queen.

All art is done by me. Coding was done by Scott Hancher and music was done by Zack Pierson.

While no longer available on the app store, you're still about to download and play it on your PC on my itch.io page:

https://smhancher.itch.io/queen-defense

Over the years I've been fortunate enough to work with local Portland game communities to make flyers and fan art for their posters, prizes, and merch. The main two communities I've interacted with include the Portland Killer Queen scene and the Portland Fighting Game Community (PDX FGC).

This page is dedicated to all my earlier game jams that I still love, but are a little rough around the edges. Those games include:

Tank Battle

Tank Battle is an entirely mouse based tank survival game made for the 2019 PIGSquad Summer Slow Jam. All art was done by me and programming was done by my dad, Scott Hancher. You can check it out on my itch.io page: https://smhancher.itch.io/tank-battle

Kaiju Game

Kaiju Game was a brief project that I took on with Christian and Kristen Scandariato back in 2017. The objective was to make a real-time-strategy game where the Giant robots protected a city being over run by Kaiju from space. It was designed to be very story driven, and mech pilot relationships would have played a big role.

Despite it not coming to fruition, I still love the overall look that the game took on.

Civil Discourse

Civil Discourse is a game made for the 2018 Global Game Jam. The theme was 'Transmission'. The game plays as a competitive typing game where you “argue” your stance on a pedantic topic for the amusement of the shadowy underground aristocracy. Win and you get to live. Lose, and you leave ...with a bang!

All art was done by me. Coding was done by Christian Scandariato and music by Jeffery Brice.

If you wish to play Civil Discourse, you can find it at the Global Game Jam page located here:
https://globalgamejam.org/2018/games/civil-discourse

Third_Eye™

Third_Eye™ is a game made for the 2017 Global Game Jam. The theme was 'Waves'. Third_Eye™ plays as a lane based tower defense shooter in which you play as a test subject being guided by a mysterious scientist on how to exorcise the ghosts who haunt you.

Art was done by me. Story and dialog was done by Aenne Schumann. Coding was done by Christian Scandariato. Sound Design was done by Corey Warning, and our composer was Jake Fleming.

If you would like to play Third_Eye™, you can find it on the Global Game Jam page located here: https://globalgamejam.org/2017/games/third-eye%E2%84%A2

From 2017 to 2022, I was working as an artistic consultant, brand developer, and illustrator for Launchpod Inc. Holocraft was an augmented reality gaming platform that took on many different forms over the years. This project was an incredible opportunity for me to try on lots of different hats and experiment in many different styles. Some games that we designed and prototyped for the AR hardware included: A platformer with a robust level editor, a collectable card game, a pet collecting game, a building blocks style game, a table top rpg augmentation tool, and a whole lot more.

From 2016-2018, I mad commemorative wallpapers for the Portland Indie Game Squad. Each summer PIGSquad holds 3, week long games jams, called the Summer Slow Jams. People who participate receive a technical and creative theme with which to construct their game at a (comparatively) leisurely pace. At the end of the summer, the games are compiled on itch.io and I drew a small cube to represent each one. These wall papers are a visual representation of all the games that were made over that summer.

This is a collection of miscellaneous doodles, commission, and concepts I've made over the years that don't fit in a proper category; but still show off my style and skill.