Skills, Experience, Motivation

Level / game / narrative designer, passionate about smart, immersive and ambitious games

Arkane Studios Lyon, September 2013 > February 2017

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  Designer of the Dust District mission, used as the main gameplay showcase in the recent E3 2016 demo
  
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  Large-scale, complex level design work involving:
  
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    Layout, gameplay, narrative scene and dialogue ideation from initial whitebox stages to ship
    
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    Combining scripted content with systemic gameplay in large interconnected spaces full of stealth, exploration, storytelling and action - managing pacing and clarity throughout
    
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    Designing narrative scenes that invite the player to interact with them, and encourage interesting, divergent experiences driven by player choices
    
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    Working closely with the level artist to make sure his work not only looks great, but helps us constantly tell stories that enrich the mission and the game’s world, offers strong visual affordances of gameplay elements, options and interactivity, and supports the many layout, navigation and verticality requirements of Dishonored gameplay
    
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    Maintaining a regular feedback loop with the narrative team to ensure requested writing and dialogue is appropriate (conveying key narrative info and gameplay affordances, etc), sometimes contributing my own writing
    
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    Designing specific layouts to encourage the use of a wide range of unique and powerful player abilities, empowering players to assess situations, plan and act with intentionality
    
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    Very non-linear objective design, creating a mission that can be played in many different ways, both in terms of low-level tactics and even high-level goals
    
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    Lots and lots of communication with team members from all disciplines
    

Irrational Games, February 2012 > July 2013

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  Owner of some of the early levels in the game that introduce key game features (e.g. Skylines), and continue to establish the core fiction of Columbia, the game’s setting
  
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  Level design with strong emphasis on evocative, thematically-rich world-building, visual and audio-based storytelling, and first-person exploration
  

People Can Fly / Epic Poland, Sep 2009 > May 2011

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  Owner of several levels, including the introductions to both the game's main unique player tool (the Leash), and the game's core combat system (the skillshots / skillpoints system)
  
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  Later moved into a hybrid level and game designer position, helping drive iteration and implementation of certain game-wide design elements and level design standards, such as in-game readability of different enemy types, design support on UI elements, visual affordances of interactive objects and the boundaries of player-navigatable area
  

Midway Studios Newcastle, Feb 2009 > Jul 2009

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  Promoted from Junior Mission Designer to Game Designer, working on pre-production design of core game systems and world simulations for an ambitious, systems-driven, open-world cop game
  

Midway Studios Newcastle, Aug 2007 > Feb 2009

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  Design and implementation of scripted, cinematic gameplay taking place in an emergent open world
  
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  Owner of several missions from initial implementation to shipping, including the mission used most prominently in press demos and promotional material to illustrate the game's premise and features