Borderlands 3
I worked at Gearbox Software as a level designer mainly on the Borderlands 3 title. Below, you’ll find videos, pictures, and some information about the work I did on the Borderlands franchise at Gearbox Software.
Athenas Playthrough Video
Working on Athenas for the BL3 campaign was an exciting opportunity as I fell in love with the theme and aesthetic. The best part about working on Borderlands are the complex combat tools at our disposal, along with such a strong emphasis on good, fast paced FPS combat. With that in mind, the most fun part of working on this map was definitely all the encounter designs and layouts I got to create.Level Artist Morgan David Avery Station:https://www.artstation.com/davery
High Level View:
Created in UE4
Blockout work and composition
Encounter design for all combats, with special consideration for solo players and up to 4 player coop
Boss encounter design at end of level
Utilized blueprints to script special encounters, backwards combat, and other basic level actions.
Responsible for waypoints, optional challenges, etc.
Provided support and worked with the mission design department to implement the main quest, along with side quests
Iteration and cuts to appropriately scope for timeline
Worked closely with level art over multiple passes, along with various other departments, such as lighting art
Optimizations' passes that include things like custom collision, lightmap changes, decal overlap considerations, etc.
Proving Grounds Video
Working on Proving Grounds for BL3 was a nice change of pace from the main campaign levels because they were fully focused on challenging combats. One of my favorite things to design for FPS combats is when there's a higher difficulty expected (I love challenges such as Destiny's various raid maps, or Call of Duty Zombie easter egg completions). Beyond the combat, it was exciting getting to dip my toe in the level art and lighting art world and expand on my skills to be a more well-rounded level designer.
High Level View:
Created in UE4
Layout work and composition
Encounter design with special considerations for solo play and up to 4 player coop
Balance passes to ensure each new level was more difficult and different enough from the last to keep the player engaged
Blueprint work to support events and combats, such as special beat combat moments (ex - enemies introduced into arena on rising elevator) and gating
Responsible for level art passes throughout multiple levels (architecture, set dressing, decals, landscape painting, foliage work, etc.)
First pass at lighting to hand off to lighting artist department on multiple levels
Smaller scale landscape sculpting work in editor
Optimizations' passes that include things like custom collision, lightmap changes, decal overlap considerations, etc.
Worked closely with some other level designers to push this mode through shipping