Engine: Unreal Engine 3          Game: Gears of War

Build Time: 8 weeks

This Gears of War level follows Marcus and Dom as they make their way through alleyways and a ruined factory to rendezvous with a King Raven helicopter for extraction.

This directed focus study has a significant amount of Unreal Kismet scripting and Unreal Matinee cutscenes. These elements help push the player forward while providing them a story to follow through the level, complete with timely reminders and details as they progress. At each point in the map, the player is aware of both his immediate and final goals because of these elements.

Engine: Unreal Engine 3          Game: Unreal Tournament 3

Build Time: 8 weeks

For Unreal Tournament 3, I recreated and adapted the Q3DM17 map found in Quake 3 Arena in a new setting. Called 'Platform 17', the map spaces have been enlarged to take advantage of UT3's more floaty movement, and additional platforms on the periphery extend the fight past the original dimensions.

Platform 17 is a mining platform suspended over a lake of lava within the caldera of a volcano. The rising and ebbing of the lava occasionally covers the bottom platforms of the level, requiring players to pay close attention at all times.

Engine: Gamebryo                    Game: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Build Time: 8 weeks

The Red Leaf Inn is a plug-in for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with a new exterior world cell and three new interior cells, with non-player characters to interact with and quests to complete.

While I had used The Elder Scrolls Construction Set before (my portfolio submission to the Guildhall at SMU was a The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind plug-in), I used the skills gained from the Guildhall to create a more complete experience in Oblivion compared to what I had done before. In particular, more advanced quest scripting allows the player a bit of choice in how they approach the experience.

Engine: Source                            Game: Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Build Time: 8 weeks

This small-level for Half-Life 2 focuses on a series of scripted events and triggers to create a new experience. Here, the player must use the gravity gun to capture and use manhacks as tools and weapons. As they have no other weapons, the manhacks act as a melee attack against the zombies found in the level. Additionally, Combine shields block the players path unless they use the bladed manhacks to cut through the power cables.

The setting is based on the Nova Prospekt prison facility in the original game. Complex brush structures combined with good use of static meshes and physics items flesh out the area.

Engine: Unreal Engine 3          Game: Gears of War

Build Time: 8 weeks

The Courtyard is a pure combat sequence for Gears of War that went from the planning stages through documentation, whiteboxing, alpha, and finally beta. The final product is a single-player combat arena that takes from thirty seconds to two minutes to complete. The map's design highlights the unique tactical approach Gears of War brings to the shooter genre, with plenty of low cover and enemies that attack from multiple angles and elevations.

The Courtyard is an example of almost pure design--the original assignment required only brushes, pathing, AI, and simple movers to convey the full experience. It wasn't until after these were complete that beautification passes were even begun. The end result is a map that is strong on gameplay with visuals that compliment it well.