CONTRABAND

During my first 2 years at Avalanche Studios, I worked as a World Designer. My responsibilities included planning the early stages of content distribution for locations of various scales (macro, meso, and micro). Working together with narrative and using the narrative briefs to gather references to enhance the game's believability, creating and iterating on location layouts from blockout to a first art pass, using various art kits. This meant collaborating with the art team to plan out iterations and what assets our locations would need to meet the project's directions. The process of creating locations also involved terrain sculpting and setting up roads using our road network tool.

 

I had to learn Avalanche's proprietary engine, which was a unique challenge in itself as its system, while sharing familiarities with Unreal and Unity, had its own workflow and tools to learn. Despite this, the workflow for world and level design was exceptional. I frequently assisted new colleagues in learning the engine by sharing tool knowledge and improving their workflow efficiency.

 

Later in production, I transitioned to the Level Design team, where I've been now for 3.5 years. Here, one of my primary focuses was owning the level design for a major activity area, collaborating with various disciplines (some in different time zones), and coming up with solutions to problems regarding our level design and encounter spaces. I planned and executed blockouts and took them to a first art and lighting pass to highlight the intent of said location so that it met our direction briefs. I tested mechanics within our levels to establish correct metrics together with the gameplay team, designed scripted events and gameplay moments to enhance the co-op experience. Additionally, I initiated a proposal for restructuring the workflow to optimize collaboration between the Level Design and Art teams and had discussions on how we could approach it.

 

I was fortunate to mentor a Level Design intern, which required me to refine my feedback, thinking about how and what type of feedback I gave. To effectively support the intern, I optimized my daily workflow by organizing my schedule and allocating dedicated time for mentorship. I assisted with task management, provided time estimates, pointed them to the right people if they had questions I couldn't answer, and much more. I wanted to make sure that they got as much out of their internship as possible. 
 

Avalanche Studios has been a great place to grow as a developer, and I’ve learned a lot from the very skilled and experienced game developers working here.