pROJECTS

Introduction

My story begins with a couple of high school buddies enjoying some Halo 2 after school, sneaking our xbox systems in our backpacks just to play some system link with 8-12 of our friends. Gaming has always been a hobby of mine and something that sparked a passion in me. I also had a passion for architecture thanks to my grandfather, who spurred on my creativity with all his drawings at a young age.

Fast forward to 2010, My love for level design began when I begun using Halo: Reach’s forge tool. Much of this passion was an exploration of creativity, at first just slapping stuff together to see what works. My skills began to evolve when I push myself to build a level with matchmaking in mind. With a mountain of effort, I reached my goal with my level called “Imago”.

Since then, I have pushed my boundaries to innovate through theory crafting and set design in arena level design. Always focused on my growth on a design and surpassing my past self. I have worked alongside the Halo Community for many years with QA groups and testers that have shared my passion for level design and wish to bring that passion to the industry.

Design spotlight: Insolence

Project Lead: Chandler Johnson

Project Role: Co-Designer

When me and chandler started this project, we were on a major time crunch for this upcoming tournament. We knew going into this design we had to come up with a design that was tried and true to classic halo level design within a 2 month time frame.

We both worked countless hours, Deciding macro-pathing and building assets for the project. I personally drove for over 30+ hours testing each curve and movement to fine tune the terrain alongside my Co-worker. We also worked tirelessly to balance cover for vehicle-to-player balance making sure we carefully crafted the ideal Halo experience.

Thanks to our efforts, players got to enjoy the ideal big team battle experience for the Halohub tourney. Not only that, Insolence would be selected by 343 Industries for their matchmaking playlist. One of the proudest accomplishments in my level design career thus so far.

Design spotlight: Vyrant

Project Role: Project Lead

Chandler Johnson - Co-designer / Trevor Palmer - Asset Design

My main goals were straight forward with this project:

• To build a level with a small team
  
• To Build on a geometric idea of utilizing 45 degree angles
• To define play “areas” instead of “lanes”

Building on these aspects, we had to achieve balance through careful lane consideration and vertical positioning. By utilizing the angled walls, players could creatively push and maneuver across the middle atrium when correctly utilized.

Each angle was carefully crafted to allow players to feel empowered no matter where you are on the map. Readability was the main challenge that we encountered, given the extreme meta of the level made it a lot to take in. Some of this I did try to reign in, but was still met with some players feeling overwhelmed. Something I plan to rectify with future designs.

Despite its shortcomings, Vyrant would go on to win the 4v4 Treadstone Forge contest hosted by Forgehub which was judged by prominent names such as Andy “Bravo” Dudynsky and Onset from the Halo Community.

Design spotlight: Downfall

Project lead: Nicholas Alexander Project role: Co-designer / Layout

Commissioned by Nicholas to assist him on the design and bring it to life through his vision and ideals. Initially designed for 2v2 experiences, the design started infancy as an initial block-out built in unreal. The challenges I faced came from how me and Nick design maps on a fundamental level, where his ideals are more abstract versus my more logical and practical approach.

Many of the rooms were redesigned from the initial layout that I felt fell short of an ideal gameplay experience. Many of the Areas got redesigned by me to try and address balance issues with movement and power positioning. After many months of butting heads on the project, we finally built something we were proud of.

Thanks to the efforts of the environment artist working under Nick, this design truly shined as one of the few levels I have worked on that met developer quality. The level would go on to be featured by many content creators and 343 industries.

Redesigned Train Area

Original Train Area

Conclusions

Level design is an ever-growing art form that can be both challenging and rewarding to experience. In due time, I hope that you feel inspired by my work and see a future in my ability as a designer. For me? I will continue to grow and evolve my craft, learning new tools and keeping my book open as my story is still being written. I hope that you will become a part of that story.

Thank yOU