Origin Backlot

Invasion of the Burmese Python put players inside one of Florida's most destructive invasive species. Through touchscreen survival mechanics — hunting, hiding, reproducing, evading — players experienced predator/prey dynamics and the real environmental fallout of the python invasion. Born at Full Sail University — 'the Harvard of video games' — during the inaugural Innovation & Entrepreneurship master's program, where Bigglesworth Studios LLC was founded as the studio behind the game: the business WAS the degree, and the class assignments doubled as company milestones. It was the first proof that James could assemble a team, write a full design document, pitch a concept, and turn an ecological problem into playable media.

• Designed the world, ecology, and survival mechanics from scratch
• Wrote a complete game design document and led a team of game-degree students to a playable prototype
• Pitched the concept and ran a crowdfunding campaign (Wake Up! Florida was its commercial)
• Copyright-registered the original work
• Founded Bigglesworth Studios LLC for it — inaugural Innovation & Entrepreneurship master's, Full Sail University, Oct 2012 → Nov 2013, 3.86 GPA
• Hid a chocolate-rabbit Easter egg you could never catch — Coco's origin story

Role: Creator, Game Designer, Design-Doc Author, Team Lead, Pitch & Fundraising|Tools: Unity & Unreal (2013), Game Design Document, Touchscreen / Mobile Concept, Narrative Design, Crowdfunding (RocketHub)

→ Never shipped commercially — but it was the workshop where the studio's instincts were forged: build the world, write the spec, rally a team, ship the pitch.

Wake Up! Florida was a fake TV show — written and produced by James, shot on the lot at Full Sail University in 2013 with a crew of film-degree students — built as the commercial for IBP's crowdfunding campaign. Equal parts local-news parody and worldbuilding, it even featured a real 9-foot Burmese python: an instructor introduced James to nature expert Chief Todd Rowley, who brought his pet snake (Tiny) on set. Story making an idea feel real before it existed.

• Built a believable promo world around an unbuilt game
• Wrote and produced it end to end, directing a film-student crew on the Full Sail lot
• Cast a real 9-foot Burmese python — Chief Todd Rowley's Tiny — as the star
• Used satire to make ecology and the crowdfunding pitch memorable

Role: Creator, Writer, Producer|Tools: Video Production, Scriptwriting, Comedic Tone, Student Film Crew

→ Proof that James could direct tone and produce video years before it became a service line.