CALL OF DUTY
BLACK OPS 6
AAA Cinematic FPS
PS5 / Xbox Series X / PC
Release: October 24th, 2024
"Join CIA agents Troy Marshall and Frank Woods to hunt down Pantheon, a paramilitary group with covert ties to the agency."
ROLE
I was a Lead Designer for the campaign of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
MISSION
I led a team of 10+ people in the development of the final mission for Black Ops 6, titled "Checkmate," and also contributed to the design of several other missions, including:
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"Most Wanted"
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"High Rollers"
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"The Rook" missions
As the primary point of contact across all disciplines, I served as the Product Owner for "Checkmate."
My responsibilities included presenting the mission during:
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Director reviews
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Production meetings
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Team syncs
I also led weekly design reviews, where I ensured that action items were defined, tracked in JIRA, and completed for the following week’s progress to reach the best quality on time.
Additionally, I reviewed other maps and provided detailed feedback to help improve the overall quality of the campaign.
On the team management side, I was responsible for recruiting new talent, which involved:
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Resume reviews
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Conducting interviews
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...
I also managed and mentored designers, focusing on:
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Sprint Objectives
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1-on-1 meetings
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Quarterly meetings
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Annual performance reviews
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Salary updates
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...
Level Design
I was also hands-on creating the geometry in the Level Editor called Radiant for many different areas:
Ideation and concepts:
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2D Top Down plan, sketches
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Miro Board, architectural references
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Describing thematic and gameplay for each area
Macro Level Design:
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Using the Terrain Tool to create the topology across different areas
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Creating and placing building elements to form the layout
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Coordinating and aligning with the multiplayer team
Flow and Navigation:
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Creating traversals and ally/enemy lanes, circulatory
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Guiding and orientation of the player navigation with visual landmarks, lines of sight, ... etc.
Cover and Enemy Lines:
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Placing props to create various cover lines for allies
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Following metrics and guidelines to design an interesting and readable combat environment
Environmental Storytelling:
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Kitbashing props to create visual stories and dressing design intentions
Level Integration and Debugging:
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Responsible for integrating various elements from different disciplines
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Assisted with debugging and polishing the map, optimize to meet the tech / performance budgets.
Mission Design
I also implemented the mission using a LUA-style scripting language and the Editor to place nodes and scripted objects.
Mission Design Document
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Ideation and gameplay proposals
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Create and implement all narrative beats
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Articulate these narratives with meaningful gameplay
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Create and implement voiceovers to play during the mission
Combat Design:
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Placing and scripting enemies, level design elements, ammo, weapons, etc.
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Choreographing and manipulating AI to create memorable moments for the player
Flow:
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Pacing and balancing combat intensity
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Ramping up difficulty throughout the mission
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Variety: Mixing elements of the game setting to create unique gameplay situations
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Second-to-Second Gameplay
Key Cinematic Moments:
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Worked on multiple key moments, blending gameplay with high-end cinematics
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Implemented complex animation sequences and tuned them with gameplay systems, FX, and voiceovers
Debug and Polish:
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Debugged and polished missions for release
Game Design
I was also involved in designing various features of the game:
Design Concepts and Proposal/Documents
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One-pagers
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Miro, sketches
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Decks
I participated in diverse design discussions and groups to define different gameplay features.
I worked on and helped define:
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Killstreaks for the campaign
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Vehicle / AI logic
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Special enemies
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Weapons, gadgets, UI
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Game systems
Balancing and Readjusting Features
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Contributed to balancing and fine-tuning certain features
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I also helped redact Rational Game Design documents to track different variables in the game.
Direct follow up, guidance, debug with the gameplay programmers to implement and ship these features.
TOOLS
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Radiant: Call Of Duty Map Editor
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Miro
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Office Suite
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Confluence, Jira
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P4
ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA
AAA Open World Adventure Game
PS5 / Xbox Series X / PS4 / Xbox One / PC
Release: November 10th, 2020
"Play as Eivor, a viking, explore a beautiful, mysterious open world, face brutal enemies, earn a place in Valhalla."
ROLE
I led 2 teams: The World Design Team and the Quest Design Team. I managed a team of 10 Quest Designers and World Designers doing reviews, workshops, 1 on 1, Guidelines, High Level Intentions documents ... I was also in charge of the recruitment for these teams.
MISSION
I led the team on some territories of the game, creating the World, Main Quests, Secondary Quests, World Events. We created all the design documentation following an agile dev ops production. I personally worked on the Dublin territory doing both World Design and Quest Design hands-on work.
I was also a part of the creative team pushing high level intentions and reviewing the World and the Quests giving feedback. I also worked on giving guidance to the team to address these feedback on a day-to-day basis.
I was also responsible for all the recruitment process of the Level Designers and Quest Designers at Ubisoft Bordeaux on Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
First I reviewed the resume (CVs) for all the candidates. I made the Level Design and Quest Design test. I reviewed all the tests and made feedback to candidates. I also conducted the interviews with the candidates through all the recruitment process and gave the final decision for hiring a candidate.
I also operated on Producing tasks. I created and assigned JIRAs following an agile and DevOps method. I was in charge to evaluate with the producer what were our objectives for each sprint. I also managed standups meeting regularly.
I worked on a broad range of Level Design topics:
World Design:
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Layout: I helped and coached the World Designers to define the gameplay intention and the thematic of the World, the POIs and locations. Then we produced proof of concepts and block out, pushing the layout with the artists toward a polished version.
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Gameplay: We always worked hard to support the Assassin's Creed Gameplay Pillars. For each location we focused on pushing a unique core gameplay Flow experience, using combinations of Parkour, Navigation Puzzles, LD ingredients, Enemies.
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AI: The main focus was on placing enemies archetypes. We also worked on all the AI Network/Crowd/Patrols/Road Networks ... inside the locations. We also worked on the In-Between locations adding some enemies pockets, wildlife, challenges, World Events, World Boss, ...
Quest Design:
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Pitch: We created all the Stories and Quests into our territories. We wrote the pitch of the mission.
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Quest Flow: We broke down the pitches into detailed and complex Quest Flows and produced all the assets list dependencies working closely with the Art and Tech teams.
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Quest Graph: We implemented the quest into the editor using grey boxes and placeholders in the first version iterating the quest until the final polished version.
TOOLS
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Anvil: Assassin's Creed Open World Editor
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Office Suite
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Confluence, Jira
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Perforce
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3DS Max
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GHOST RECON BREAKPOINT
AAA Open World 1-4 Players Coop TPS Game
PS4/ Xbox One / PC
Release: October 4th, 2019
“Experience life as a Ghost, an elite US Special Operations soldier, as you fight back from behind enemy lines”
ROLE
I was an Associate Lead Mission and Level Design. I managed a team of 10 Mission Designers and Level Designers. I was also a Mission Designer and a Level Designer still producing content in the game. We were more than 1000 people on the overall project.
MISSION
Previously we shipped more than 465 scripted events with my team. I worked personally on 50 missions, designing and creating all the Level Design around Quest Objectives for PVE Missions.
We worked on more than 10 Adventure Story Main Missions and multiple Settlements and level layouts.
I worked on a broad range of Level Design topics:
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Mission Design: I helped and coached the Mission Designers to define the steps of their missions based on the narrative pitch. Then we produced a block out mission finding locations into the world using placeholders / grey boxes, then milestone after milestone we produced a final polished/shippable version of the mission working closely and coordinating all the art and tech teams to push the quality as far as possible.
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Level Design: We also worked on creating layouts used in the missions. I define the macro structure of the Layout and the model, the architectural consistency.
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I reviewed and provided guidelines and guidance to the Level Designers.
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I also checked the metrics for the navigation, the density of covers, and the overall flow in the building. I also worked on boss arena creating fun, challenging, memorable layouts for fighting a boss.
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Level Scripting: I also worked on creating and defining all the scripted events for missions and living world events.
TOOLS
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Anvil: Assassin's Creed Open World Editor
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Office Suite
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Confluence
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Perforce
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3DS Max
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78% of positive critics on Steam
THE CREW 2
AAA OpenWorld Multiplayer Motorsport Game
PS4/ Xbox One / PC
Release: June 29th, 2018
“Welcome to Motornation – Take the challenge to the ground, sea, and sky”
ROLE
I was a Technical Level Designer during 6 months.
MISSION
I extended the Open World Editor to edit and create new slaloms into the Open World for cars, planes and boats.
I also prototyped several Rally Raid Starting Grids using the Open World Editor, placing events, props, and I helped to refine the layout.
TOOLS
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Ubisoft Open World Editor,
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C++, Blueprint-type Mission Visual Scripts,
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Jira, Confluence, Perforce.
TEAM
10 people at Asobo Studio mainly designers and programmers, and UI artists.
84% Positive Critics on Steam
FRAGMENTS
AAA Holographic Narrative Investigation
HoloLens
Release Date: March 30th, 2016
"You become the detective in a high-tech crime thriller."
ROLE
I was a Game/Level Designer during all the preproduction and production until the release.
MISSION
I designed multi-choices dialogs (like in Heavy Rain or in Telltale games for example). I also designed and balanced more than 70 Levels for 2 Puzzle Games.
TOOLS
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Asobo in-house engine and editors
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Perforce
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TFS
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Word, Excel, Visio, Visual Studio.
TEAM
International team (US/France). More than 100 people, designers, artists, programmers, producers. Microsoft Studios was the publisher. Asobo Studio was the main development studio under the supervision of a dedicated Microsoft Studio production team.
I worked with my creative director and my technical director at Asobo. Also I had a call with the team at Microsoft on a daily basis. Essentially with the Lead Game Designer, the Technical Designer and the Technical Director at Microsoft Studios.
ORI
AND THE BLIND FOREST Definitive Edition
Indie Metroidvania Narrative 2D Game
PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Release Date: April 27th, 2016
“The tale of a young orphan destined for heroics”
ROLE
I was a Support Team Member, I helped Moon Studio to ship the game on time in the best quality.
MISSION
I played extensively Ori, I troubleshooted the game framework with a full access to the Game Code, and Unity Code. I worked also on a Cross-Saving system between Windows 10 and Xbox One.
TOOLS
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Unity 3D
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Tortoise SVN
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Unity Profiler
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Visual Studio Graphic Debugger
TEAM
International team (US/France). Microsoft is the publisher, I was a member of the Microsoft Studio Support Team.
Moon Studio was the main developer. We were a small team at Microsoft Studio.
I worked with the Moon Studio Team (Artists, Producers, Programmers, Designers) over Skype Pro and by Email. Also we were managed by producers at Microsoft.
A PLAGUE TALE
Innocence
Narrative Third person Survival Horror
PS5, Xbox Series, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Release Date: May 14th, 2019
“Amicia and her brother Hugo survive against swarms of rats ”
ROLE
I was a Level Builder on an early prototype.
MISSION
I implemented the flow of interactive cinematics with the Narrative Designer.
I worked on pacing, I set different shots, and contextual actions and Voice Over Lines during the Demo.
I worked also on placing triggers and elements in the editor, refining the layout with the level artist.
TOOLS
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Internal Asobo Engine/Editor,
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P4
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Visual Studio,
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C-Style Scripting,
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Office Suite
TEAM
French Team at Asobo, 20 people at this time mainly Designers, Artists and Programmers.
We were a small team mainly me and a Narrative Designer, a 3D Artist, an Animator, and a Sound Designer.
Flight Simulator
2020
Flight Simulation and game
PC / Xbox Series X
Release Date: August 18th, 2020
“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth
with your eyes turned skywards”
ROLE
I was a Cinematic Designer.
MISSION
I implemented different gameplay and cinematic cameras, offering while flighting different beautiful and sharp shots of the plane.
I also implemented VR cameras for Oculus.
TOOLS
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Internal Asobo Engine/Editor,
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P4
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Visual Studio,
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C-Style Scripting,
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Office Suite
TEAM
International Team at Asobo and Microsoft, 50 people at this time mainly Designers, Artists and Programmers.
