Level Design | Game Design
Level Designer at Freejam
I was the level designer at Freejam for nearly 3 years and worked on 3 different titles. Primarily on Robocraft 2, a PvP vehicle-shooter with player-built robots.
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As the sole level designer at Freejam, my responsibilities included not only the design and implementation of the levels themselves, but also refining our pipeline. Starting from briefs discussed with the wider team, I designed, implemented and iteratively tested the game's levels, utilising both human and AI players to rapidly improve my work.
I also spearheaded the shift from a custom tile-based world editor to using procedural landscaping tools, helping coders integrate the systems and artists to use them.​
Here is a more thorough breakdown of my work:​​
Quarry & PvE Gamemode
Level Design | Game Design
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This greybox was created for our cancelled PvE horde mode. I worked closely with artists and other designers to create an interconnected layout that would be suitable for our new gamemode, with careful considerations to scale, landmarks, and problematic lines-of-sight.​ The new mode was designed to have randomly-selected objective locations, so the map caters to this by having many pre-designated 'arenas' intended to house a defense objective or boss battle.
Along with the Quarry map, I also contributed to the design and development of the gamemode itself. I participated in many design discussions and helped nail down aspects that didn't have a clear direction.
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Noma Transmitter
Level Design
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I created this original layout as our second PvP environment for Robocraft 2. The brief we agreed on involved a large Satellite dish "Hero-Prop" as the central feature, surrounded by canyons.
I used the major landmark as a central location for most of the fighting to take place, with flank route options for players with less powerful robots. The bridges in the map were purposefully added to create bottlenecks which allowed teams to defend from the central lane more easily.​ Due to the​
canyons and elevated centre, this map required a
focus on "weenies", ensuring that players are able to locate themselves anywhere on the map based on unique architecture.
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Spitzer Dam
Level Design
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This map was based off a map from Robocraft 1, but required a number of adjustments and additions to function with our new systems and gameplay goals. I imported the original heightmap and play tested it thoroughly to identify issues and weaknesses. After making adjustments to the layout, I held several in-house playtests with human opponents to do more thorough balance and UX tests. Our desire to facilitate more interesting contexts for combat meant I needed to alter the flow of the level, moving
roads and larger structures.​
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Hellion Crater
Level Design
This was the first map we created for the "Updated" Robocraft 2. As well as a defining point for our new art style, this was the first map created with procedural landscaping tools, and an important step in finding the identity of the new game.
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The layout is based on a beloved map from Robocraft 1, and went through the same iterative process as Spitzer Dam.
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This level's USP was the long sightlines and exposure.
A great benefit I had however, was years of feedback on the original level, which I had the chance to address. The large meteor in the centre was added to remove problematic sightlines, and shifting other landscape elements helped the general flow.
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The Arbitron
Level Design | Onboarding
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This map acted as the testing zone for players who were still building their robots. It was important to showcase a variety of terrain shapes and scenarios that the player could find themselves in so they are able to properly test the usability of their creation.
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This level had different requirements from the others as it had no larger gameplay. My usual focus on funnelling, sightlines and combat spaces were replaced with an open, explorable environment.
Players needed to be able to test their latest vehicle
designs which required a variety of surfaces to be naturally present, as well as a purposeful flow to give them a sense of direction and decision making while experimenting.
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Legacy World Editor
Technical Level Design | Visual Scripting
When I first joined Freejam I had to quickly learn the proprietary in-house tools that were used to create levels in earlier projects such as 'Techblox' and 'RC2: Legacy'. Using this tool I created a number of tile-based levels and wrote several docs outlining new tools and features that would make my workflow more efficient.​ The world editor required the user to create the gamemodes within the level using the in-house visual-scripting tool, which I used ​
to create PvP gamemodes with dynamic gameplay and built-in rubber-banding to help the losing team claw back a victory.
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Modular Building Kit
Technical Level Design
I designed the shapes used in the modular building kit that is seen within most levels of Robocraft 2. The set was designed under the strict rules of the Legacy World Editor which disallowed any intersecting meshes and required the buildings to be compatible with the landscape tiles. After being modelled by a 3D artist the modular kit allowed me to quickly place down unique buildings of any proportions necessary for the level's layout.
Design Documents
Game Design | UI Design | Combat Design
I took responsibility of several gameplay features in Robocraft 2 including the design of new weapons, abilities, and various user interfaces. I would also host kick-off meetings for each of my designs to present the concepts to relevant coders and artists.
Testing and Iterative Design
Game Design | Level Design | QA
I often hosted our in-house playtests consisting of other Freejam developers. These sessions were used for testing a variety of new features such as maps or weapons and were vital to creating a fun and balanced experience. I would organise my peers to ensure our collective approach would make the most of our sessions. Through note-taking and talking with developers, I helped identify areas that required any design or balance changes, which I could then bring to the rest of the design team.​
AI Enemy Design
Game Design | Combat Design
I designed and built some of the vehicles that the enemy units use in the PvE mode. These covered a range of enemy archetypes such as 'fodder enemies', healers, tanks, snipers, melee, etc. They were planned in an efficient way so as to reuse as much work as possible so that we could crate 100 variations from a few interchangable parts.
AI Behavior Trees
Technical Design
I helped design, implement, and maintain complex Behaviour Tree systems for our 'PvP AI'. This includes attack/retreat behaviour, sensible weapon selection, activating abilities intelligently, and accounting for arbitrary vehicle size and shape to support user-created robots.
