Benjamin Thatcher - Level Designer

Hey everyone!

I was referred here by Gustav Engman (another level designer who I work with currently). I'm a university student at the moment, working on getting a degree, so level design is more of a hobby for me right now. I mainly work with CryEngine 2 at the moment, though I am also learning the ins and outs of the new Unreal Development Kit (UDK). In CryEngine I do level design primarily - terrain creation and texturing, vegetation/object placement, lighting, track view/cutscenes, and scripting/flowgraphing. I have worked on a couple of mods; I was the Lead Level Designer for Petrograd and right now I'm assisting the Casus Belli team on some of their maps.

Here is a quick portfolio I put together over at CarbonMade:

http://%7boption%7d

Basically, I'd just like some feedback from other level designers on what you think are my strengths, weaknesses, etc. and maybe some advice on what I can do to become a more versatile and experienced level designer.

Thanks,

Ben

Quote from Corwin

I think the same advices that were given to Vulture stand for you aswell. You should consider weither you consider yourself more of a level designer (gameplay, fun, scripting and documentation) or more an environment artist (models, beautification, textures). The game industry now does the difference between the two because of how much effort both aspects of a level need with the current engines. You mention in your post that you do level design, but your portfolio doesn't convince me about that.While Vulture's portfolio really looks like an environment artist's one because there's no gameplay shots or videos or any depiction of actual gameplay, I think yours is a bit more lost in the middle, if you see what I mean. There's not really gameplay either, but since you show characters on most of the screens, it's a bit confusing wether you designed these characters so you want to show them off, or if that was an attempt to show the level in action.

I think pictures like the 18th or 20th (Petrograd City Outskirts) are good because they show some good enemy setup and patrols, but in the 21 and 22, one wonders why show a character in the middle of the screen? It takes attention away from the nice environment. I think that Petrograd mod's attention to detail and atmosphere are really great, professional-level great, so that's a great start. I just suggest you clear some of the pictures from your portfolio and replace them with either scenery shots (without the standing characters) if you aim for an environment artist job, or gameplay shots if you aim for a level designer one.

About improving yourself, I think you should again check the comments one Vulture's topic, cause they're about the same: work hard, learn more engines, create more varied stuff, and have the balls to push your way into the industry.

Also, since it seems you weren't working alone on that petrograd level, you might want to mention exactly what you worked on in the comments. It's always a good idea to give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.

Great work anyway, I especially love your lighting work in these shots.

Petrograd was a mod, not one level. All of the screenshots in my portfolio were levels that I made by myself. Vulture (Gustav) made some levels for the mod as well.

To clear up the confusion about the gameplay vs. environment art - I did both. Here is the trailer we worked on for Petrograd:

http://%7boption%7d

Thanks for the advice about the gameplay vs. scenery shots. I'll keep that in mind for future reference.