Adventure Roll
 - Level Designer | Acting Producer -

​Development: Ongoing
Studio Project at Allied Games Inc.

Engine: Unreal Engine 4.26.1
Status: Released in 2021 Early Access | Discontinued
My Duration: April 2021 - Present

​​Project Summary: 
Adventure Roll was an Early Access title that gave D&D 5e Game Master's [GM] and players a platform to run their games. It was intended as a sandbox where gamers could have an immersive tabletop RPG experience in a fully realized 3D environment. GM's can create their own campaigns and adventures using our tools and levels. The tools allow our users to add notes, props, traps, puzzles, and NPC's which players wandering around the space can interact with. 

Since Adventure Roll is a tool used for others to create, the levels are made to be ready out of the box and are easily adjusted by the users to better fit their campaigns. The setdressing design for the levels is meant to provide an aesthetic and initial premise for the GM to work with and help give ideas for their stories. Essentially, kind of like a drawing book where I give them an outline and they can draw in whatever color they'd like. Every environment comes with a series of prefabs like tables and shelves which the user can easily remove or swap. The majority of the prefabs and their implementation were prepared mostly by myself while working alongside our programming department. 

Because this is an early access title with a broad community filled with different interpretations and expectations, we made it a priority to take the feedback given to us and iterate our designs to better align with what the average user wanted. On my end, I try to make sure that the levels are made to be as easy as possible for a GM to hop into and start messing around without feeling too overwhelmed. For example: Cliffs are measured and separated evenly so that GM's can place down bridges for walking paths. Openings are presented fairly obviously so that GM's know, "Hey, this looks like a perfect place to build my Goblin Camp!" Holes in floors invite evil GM's to place down traps and cover them to surprise the players. And the levels are balanced around the 5E grid system for fair (or unfair) combat encounters for a variety of different playstyles. 

Alongside my other responsibilities I've begun outlining and assigning tasks to other members of the team, ensuring tasks are well appropriated and triaged.

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Detailed Level Design Role Descriptions / Tasks: ​

Concepting: 

• Pre-design notes filled with:
  • Notes from other departments referring to what needs to be in the design.
  • ​Mood Board (concept drawings, visual aesthetics, etc.). 
  • What is the level trying to achieve? (Are we looking for a more creative or linear design for the GM's).
• Paperdesign (Drawing, Adobe Photoshop, Paint 3D, AutoRealm)
• Graybox design with gameplay implementation.
  • Due to my short task schedule on assignments, I tend to not spend too much time blocking out. Moreover use it to get an initial assessment on size / scaling / and overall feel. Then go straight into the initial proof of concept.  
• Setup a zoo of assets and measurements (for puzzles, traps, etc.)
• Initial proof of concept, using assets.
• Setup Prefab of assets (blueprints with instanced meshes or merged assets) for quicker implementation. 

Development:               

• Expand upon initial proof of concept and implement designs  
• Clutter / Decoration Pass 
• Optimization checks (done throughout development): 
• Create and implement encounters: ​

• Playtest Level (Recurring throughout development)​​​

To download and try the early access version on the website.

Due to NDA requirements, I cannot show development screenshots, but these are all the levels I created from scratch (beginning to end) for the game.

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Recommendations:

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Alexandru Merza
CTO at Allied Games Inc.;

"I’m very pleased and privileged to be able to provide this recommendation for Jim Brown, who’s worked as a Level Designer at Allied Games Inc. for the past 1 year and 7 months. Jim came to us straight from LinkedIn and quickly became one of our most valuable team members. His skills were invaluable as he had been able to adapt with all the work assigned to him using Unreal Engine 4. His firm understanding of Level Design best practices and his strong communication skills were a huge asset during the development of Adventure Roll. Collaboration with the team was a cinch for him as he brought forth not only ideas, but also ways in which we could improve on already existing infrastructure. I am confident that he will make a valuable addition to any studio he chooses to bring his skillset to."

Ozan Önen
Senior Network Programmer at Allied Games Inc.;

"In the year and a half I've worked with Jim, he's proven to be a competent and well-developed Level Designer. When he first joined, he demonstrated his skill for learning the development pipeline and UE4 engine quickly and proficiently. Within a year he established himself from a Junior to higher Mid-level designer giving informative ideas, providing detailed and fun designs, and creating documentation the team could use that significantly helped the project.

With each level Jim presented, the designs fit perfect with the game scenarios and visually looked fantastic. When working with Jim over new gameplay functions or other programming-related issues, he gave good suggestions and would lead in a way that made the conversation fun and informative. Whether it's creating fully built and functional levels from top-to-bottom, polishing existing ones, or fixing and reporting bugs, Jim was always willing to go above and beyond for the project to get things done in a timely and proficient manner.

It was an amazing experience working with Jim and would love to do it again in the future. I'd recommend him to any studio that's looking for a well-established and large contributing Level Designer."