VtM: swansong

since MARCH 2019

QUEST/level designer

 

Plateforms: PC, PS4, PS5, XBOX One, XBOX SERies X, nintendo switch

Developer: BIG BAD WOLF STUDIO

Publisher: NACON

In Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong, play as 3 vampires, harness their powers, embrace their desires, and face their demons in a heart-pounding story in which your choices decide the fate of Boston.

 

CONTEXT

I joined the company in early 2019, right after the project got out of preproduction. There was still a lot to define as I started designing the very first quest of the game. The first two quest I designed were set in environment already built before hand, which was a challenging constraint. I entirely designed the level of my third quest which was an even bigger challenge, yet so satisfying to tackle. A few months before the end of the project, following the departure of my superior, I took the lead of the Quest design team.

 
 

AS A Quest Designer I:

  • developped the narrative, the pacing as well as the choices and their consequences on the game with our writers

  • designed puzzles/challenges, iterating based on internal playtests

  • designed levels, from paper to block mesh, to their final version

  • scripted gameplay & narrative events with UE4 blueprint system

  • ensured my teammates had the latest information about the needed ressources for the quests to work (FXs, sounds, cinematics, lighting, meshs, animation and more…)

  • integrated & debugged ressources from every teams

  • documented every path and interactions of my quests and worked closely with internal and external QA testers

AS A LEAD I:

  • continued with all of my LD/QD tasks

  • crafted design documents detailing behavioral and technical aspects of mechanics for programmers

  • defined guidelines of how mechanics should be integrated throughout the entire game for quest designers

  • organized and prioritized tasks for my team

  • reviewed quests and helped my teammates improving them

  • discussed and refined technical aspects of game mechanics with game designers and programmers

  • created documents helping the different teams to track and manage in-game ressources and their current status (dialogs, cinematics, FX, etc.)