work one

Real-Time FX/Level Design--Demo Reels 2010

What you'll find here is the culmination of all the hard work I've done over the past year or so. I've tried to explore as many aspects of real-time game effects and level design as possible, and I sincerely hope that is reflected in my demo reels. All work seen on this website (sans the board game) was created using the Unreal Development Kit or UT3 Editor. Click on the icon at the bottom of the panel to watch. Enjoy!

 

work two

Stonegate--Group Level Design Project

I was fortunate enough to be part of a small game design group consisting of four students, including myself. This first-person action-adventure focuses upon a captured wizard who has been thrown in a dungeon and stripped of his magical staff. I was personally responsible for the effects work and some of the environmental assets. For more details, feel free to download our game design document below.

 

work three

Frigid Mountain--Level Design

For this level, I wanted to create an environment that gives the player a sense of loneliness and despair. After being left at the base of the frigid mountain, the torches reveal the only path forward, towards the mysterious stone gateway ahead. My technical goals for this level included exploring the terrain system, fire particle effects, skyboxes, cutscene creation using Unreal Cascade, and the creation of snow effects. A PDF case study is also available for download.

 

work four

Infernal Volcano--Level Design

The goal here was to create a small, interior environment with a lot of atmosphere. I chose to construct a volcano because I was able to work on some interesting assets such as spikes, rocks, lava, and the center platform. It is worth noting that this level was made within the UT3 editor, in which I had to work within that engine's limitations. This was also my first experience using Unreal Matinee to create cinematic cutscenes.

 

work five

Unreal Kismet Project--Level Scripting

Here I did a lot of experimentation with the Unreal Kismet visual scripting toolset. Included in the level are things like cutscenes, countdown timers, pickup items, switches, streaming levels, and moving water volumes. In addition to these things, I also modeled, skinned, and rigged a custom character and imported it into the engine, which required some light code and editing a couple of .INI files. A custom class was also written to create the skeleton enemies.

 

work six

Board Game--Zombies vs. Rednecks

This twist on the classic board game Stratego was an all-inclusive final project from an intensive three-week Digital Media summer course, in which I studied game development principals such as design, story, interaction, gameplay, and testing. For this final project, I, along with three other students, had three class days to create a professional-quality board game from start to finish. I was responsible for cementing the unique gameplay mechanics and creating an extensive game manual, which you can download and view for yourself.