What I did/do:​
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Level Designer:
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Concepted the Jewelsmithe's shop and 6 procedurally-connected mine rooms through blockout in UE5, with heavy focus on player experience and ease of use
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Ongoing ideation and research into mechanics and activities the target audience would want to engage in
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Made the Jewelsmithe's shop visually distinct and believable through kitbashing
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Exploring solutions for visibility concerns through camera angle experimentation and situationally-transparent materials in UE5 Blueprints
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Concept and iteration on various in-world regions through rigorous research into real-world and virtual counterparts
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Provide functional and appealing lighting to the scene
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Design Lead:
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Keep the design team organized and punctual through weekly meetings, planning deliverables ahead of time, assigning actionable tasks, and timely communication
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Advancing the project through swift design decisions
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Constant collaboration with our artists and programmers to keep everyone on the same page and to keep the other disciplines at full potential through proactive design work
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Software: UE5, Blueprints, PureRef, Miro, Trello, Clockify​​​
Notes
This game was made for a course in the master's program at FIEA. It has re-entered production, as it was a prototype at the time of my graduation. I am now the Lead Designer on this game, and we intend to complete production with a full release. WIP.
Shop
Quick Drawouts
The Shop has several uses: talking to customers at the counter, making jewelry at the forge, and interacting with a main menu. Because of these hard requirements, the Shop needed three areas the player could look at that would initiate the menu for each interaction. It was decided that the player character would stay in place and rotate to each of the 3 elements to decrease time and energy spent changing between interactions.
I drew out a plethora of potential basic shop layouts based on the criteria. This first step was crucial, and kept me from wasting time.
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The square shape with the beveled edge was chosen for it's simplicity and slight variety.
Initial Blockouts
These blockouts focused primarily on the placement of the three main elements - counter, forge, and menu area. However, it was also important to make the shop both believable and relatively small.
A slight modification of the accepted drawout.
Further modification of the accepted initial drawout.
A total departure from the drawings; a final anything-goes design to see what might stick
Mines
Initial Blockouts
The Mines are a location for the character to gather jewelry-making materials from. They are hand-made rooms joined together procedurally to create a different experience every time the player enters them.
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I helped organize the Level Designers such that each room uses the same amount of space and connects to each other room properly, as well as standardizing various scales and metrics.
Overworld
General
To begin designing areas, we first needed to figure out what we wanted from the game - what do we want the player to do and see?
Cliff + Beach
General
This area started as a pleasant place for the player to go to and collect resources, go fishing, and maybe watch the sunset. Very early into brainstorming, someone came up with a silly idea for "Mount Rushmore but with dragons" and I told them to write it down. Eventually, it led to the beach being home to a fossilized hydra skeleton!
Enchanted Forest
General
This area started as a pleasant place for the player to go to and collect resources, go fishing, and maybe watch the sunset. Very early into brainstorming, someone came up with a silly idea for "Mount Rushmore but with dragons" and I told them to write it down. Eventually, it led to the beach being home to a fossilized hydra skeleton!
Leadership
General
My leadership duties are plentiful, but standard: assign tasks, check work, do work, communicate information, etc.
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However, my dad-to-day usually involves more problem-solving, communication, and planning than anything else. I am constantly trying to find ways of streamlining our workflows
General
This area started as a pleasant place for the player to go to and collect resources, go fishing, and maybe watch the sunset. Very early into brainstorming, someone came up with a silly idea for "Mount Rushmore but with dragons" and I told them to write it down. Eventually, it led to the beach being home to a fossilized hydra skeleton!
General
This area started as a pleasant place for the player to go to and collect resources, go fishing, and maybe watch the sunset. Very early into brainstorming, someone came up with a silly idea for "Mount Rushmore but with dragons" and I told them to write it down. Eventually, it led to the beach being home to a fossilized hydra skeleton!