Released in 2014

Watch_Dogs

Ubisoft Montreal | Level Designer | ~2 years

Watch_Dogs was my first released work at Ubisoft Montreal, where I was involved in mission and level design from concept through to final quality content. I primarily worked on mid-game content, but also offered support for the penultimate act of the game. Besides level building and scripting mission content, I was additionally responsible for a number of support tasks during the closing of the game, such as the distribution of crafting items across the campaign and providing scripting assistance for other missions.

This was my third open world game, so I was already savvy with many of the design challenges and complications involved with open world level and mission design. I applied this background knowledge to quickly establish a vision for my content and was able to quickly prototype and iterate to successfully produce high-quality results.

Responsibilities

  • Full mission and level design for multiple pivotal moments of the game’s narrative from concept to final
  • Responsible for design of two major areas of the game world; one of which featured prominently in multiplayer
  • Championed side content with design structure and initial implementation
  • Level audits and refactoring of junior designer content
  • Extensive use of Ubisoft’s proprietary engine, “Disrupt” and it’s associated visual scripting tools

Working in such a huge team was an interesting change from my prior experience in a smaller, agile prototyping team at Ruffian Games. Despite the team size, I still maintained a good number of cross-discipline relationships and collaborated regularly; especially within art and script-writing departments. Through these pooled resources I was able to ensure fine detail across narrative and visuals without a sacrifice to gameplay.

Levels

  • “Collateral”
  • “A Risky Bid”
  • “Thanks For The Tip”
  • “Hold On, Kiddo”
  • “One Foot In The Grave”
  • “Stare Into The Abyss”
  • “No Turning Back”
  • All “Criminal Convoy” missions

Watch_Dogs broke Ubisoft’s company record of first day sales and went on to become the fastest-selling new IP in video game history, selling 4 million copies in its first week. As of December 31, 2014, Watch_Dogs has shipped 10 million copies.

Images and concept art © Ubisoft Entertainment