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Armando Villarreal III

Level Designer/Scripter

Skills/Abilities

Level Editors: Unreal Tournament 3 Editor / Gears of War, Hammer (Half-Life 2), TES Construction Kit (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), Torque 2D

Level Design Skills: BSP work, texturing, lighting, level streaming, gameplay planning, scripting, triggers, machinima, sound/music integration

Programming/Scripting: C++, C#, VB, VBA, SQL, Lua 5.1, Kismet

Software Tools: Unreal Matinee, 3DS Max 2009, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access), Digital Performer, M-Audio Session

 

Game Experience at the Guildhall at SMU

Play Soldier, Unreal Tournament 3 Team Project (Team Size: 16)

(August 2009 - December 2009)

Assistant Game Designer/Producer

  • Faculty selected producer/designer for a team of: 6 artists, 7 level designers, and 3 programmers
  • Planned and worked on in-game Matinee sequences with team members
  • Developed overall game design with other team leads
  • Created documentation for the team (Asset List and Development Plan, Game Design Doc)
  • Maintained Sprint task lists and project schedule for team members
  • Composed custom thematic music and managed audio for the game

 

Elastiball, Unreal Tournament 3 Team Project (Team Size: 7)

(March 2009 - May 2009)

Lead Level Design

  • Wrote Level Design Document to support the game's design and vision
  • Implemented a custom menu system using Kismet, Unreal Script, and Unreal's UIScene editor
  • Designed the layout for two, fun goal scoring areas
  • Placed art assets within two goal  scoring areas that took advantage of the game's slinging mechanic (like Spiderman)
  • Placed art assets within the level to create fun transitions around seven goal scoring areas
  • Communicated the game's level design during team presentations

 

Return of the NOM, TorqueX Builder Team Project (Team Size: 4)

(October 2008 - December 2008)

Game Designer/Project Lead

  • Created original IP that won award for "Best Enemies" at the 2008 Guildhall Exhibition
  • Managed the team's Sprint task list and project schedule
  • Maintained the game design document, and asset and development plan
  • Designed, documented, and implemented three levels in Torque
  • Added and manipulated Torque components to create fun gameplay
  • Added C# code to TorqueX engine to support a dynamic camera in "cut-scene" sequences
  • Composed custom music and managed audio for the game

 

 Evacuation, Individual Gears of War Level

(March 2009 - May 2009)

Level Designer

  • Designed a single player mission
  • Created three Matinee sequences to communicate mission goal and player progress
  • Blocked out BSP, textured, lit, and placed gameplay elements

 

Ascension, Individual Half-Life 2 Level

(June 2009 - July 2009)

Level Designer

  • Scripted four unique gameplay mechanics
  • Designed original gameplay and created and maintained the Level Design Document
  • Blocked out BSP, textured, lit, and placed gameplay elements for five rooms in Hammer SDK

 

Master's Thesis Project - The Effects of Music on Gameplay and Immersion

  • Created three gameplay areas in Gears of War (includes BSP, textures, lighting, and gameplay)
  • Introduced music in different ways as players progress through the three areas
  • Music consisted of:
    • Thematically appropriate
    • Thematically inappropriate
    • No music
  • Conducted surveys to study how each tester reacted to an area and the music introduced

 

Education

Masters of Interactive Technology, Digital Game Development - Level Design             (December 2009)

Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, Plano, TX

  • Specialty: Scripting
  • Thesis Work: How Music Affects Gameplay

Bachelor of Arts, Computer Science/Application Systems                                                               (May 2005)

St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX

  • Major: Computer Science/Application Systems
  • Minor: Music

 

Work Experience

Technology Engineer, Harland Clarke, San Antonio, TX                                                   (May 2003 - Present)

  • Conduct data analysis and generate manufacturing reports that trend different performance metrics of key company processes
  • Create and modify existing Visual Basic applications that allow users to interact with different company machinery
  • Collaborate with team members to develop company software
  • Create and modify existing SQL scripts for database management