Role and Purpose:

On the New IP team, I was the only Level Designer. I joined the team early into the project’s development. So, my role as the Level Designer was to create and blockout a metrics gym and make relevant documentation for it, before moving onto blocking out a variety of different 3D spaces that can be used to test different game mechanics through playtests held with the New IP team.

​

What I did:

• I created and blocked out a metrics gym along with the relevant documentation.

• Created and blocked out a variety of 3D spaces needed to test out different game mechanics.

  • Interior spaces​

  • Exterior spaces

  • Spaces that focus on the characters locomotion

  • Spaces that focus on the gunplay and combat

• Participated in weekly playtests, which focussed on the different areas of the project each week.

  • Gathered the relevant feedback that applied to the areas I created, then iterated those areas where necessary.​

• I was a part of daily Stand Ups at the start of each day and Reviews at the end of every other day.

  • Stand ups were so everyone know what the other team members were working on.​

  • Reviews were so we could see the progress of the other team member's work.

• Worked and collaborated closely with other disciplines.

• Had regular reviews with my lead.

​

Software Used:

• Unreal Engine 5 - The engine we used for the project

• Confluence - We used to create out documentation

• JIRA - We used to keep track of the tasks were working on

• Plastic SCM - We used as our version control software

​

Extra details:

The project we were creating was a multiplayer extraction shooter. I started this project by creating a metrics gym. I did a lot of trial and error and testing for the metrics on the project as they are very important, the metrics are the fundamental measurements that the rest of the project would be based on. I had to consider metrics for everything: cover heights, sizes of doorways, mantle heights, fall damage distances and more.

​

Once I had completed the metrics gym and was happy with it, I moved on to creating a variety of 3D spaces. I began by blocking out areas that focussed on the player locomotion. We needed an area that would allow us to test out the player movement so I created a few layouts that we could use. I then looked at creating a number of interior and exterior spaces that were focussed more on combat. I had to consider cover placements and line of sight blockers as well as how the map flowed and the pacing. The New IP team and myself would have weekly playtests where my blocked out environments were used. This was an opportunity to receive feedback that I could look at to iterate and improve my layouts.

​

I also had weekly meetings with the rest of the Expression Games Level Design team, who were working on Hell Let Loose (a live service AAA game). This was a chance for me to receive feedback off them on the layouts I had been creating. But also, a chance for me to give feedback and input on the work that they had been doing.

​

Not only did we have weekly Level Design meetings, but we also had weekly studio wide Design meetings. A chance to show each other the work we had done over the last week and provide even more feedback to each other. On top of this, I participated in weekly studio wide Hell Let Loose playtests which was a great way to experience the work that the Hell Let Loose team had done first hand.

​

Overall, I really enjoyed working on this project. This was the first full time project I worked on in the industry and it was a great experience. I was able to show off my skills in a working environment working alongside a great team who I got on extremely well with.