As Level Design and Unreal Engine Instructor at Vancouver Film School, I get to teach the subject I am most passionate about, but I am also lucky enough to interact with amazingly creative students that constantly challenge me and what is possible in games.
I am a Level Designer that loves to get in the trenches and solve problems. With my background in software development, I am able to quickly prototype ideas, test assumptions, and script missions and mechanics. Being an avid learner, I am not scared to push myself outside of my comfort zone and implement level art, lighting and cinematics as well. I truly believe in iteration, which pushes me to constantly revise what I teach and challenge my understanding of Level Design. This attitude was extremely useful when I worked at Immersive Tech, where I had the opportunity to design immersive experiences where we successfully integrated traditional escape rooms with video games.
Throughout my career, I have been fortunate enough to work on many awesome projects with great teams, but I have also experienced what is like setting up my own project. For instance, I solo developed BLOCK, which is a puzzle platform game that had the honor to be the first VFS game to ever be selected for an Unreal Engine Student Reel. The project was originally a PC title, but I had the opportunity to port it to Oculus Rift and to have it demoed to Epic Games at the GDC 2017.
I am very familiar with FPS, RPG, and RTS/TBS games, but I often explore other genres too because I believe it makes me a better designer. Finally, I love travelling and having pasta. The latter makes me a better designer too or at least, this is what I like to think to be true.
Teach, create and develop further the Level Design curriculum, which trains students to:
o Design maps considering metrics, requirements, and scope
o Paper prototype to support fast iteration through rational design
o Block out levels and script missions in UE4
o Play test, analyze feedback and quickly iterate to improve players’ experience
o Understand level art and lighting to improve their collaboration with other disciplines
Mentor students during their final game project
o Guided over 70 teams to define requirements, workflow and creative vision for their games
o Act as Lead Level Designer, setting up project milestones and weekly reviews
Awards
o 2018 Accolade for Excellence in Teaching
o Voted twice as Best Instructor by the students
o Level Design 3 voted as as Best Class by the students
Designed and implemented an environment to showcase their virtual humans at the Intel® AI DevCon 2018.
Game and Level Design for escape rooms
o Developed websites using languages such as: PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, etc.
o Implemented XML web services