GAME DESIGNER - Technical & Level Designer
GAME DESIGNER - Technical & Level Designer
Mikhail Nevill
Some of the pages are under iteration and are being updated, so feel free to contact me about them!
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You can find me at "mikhail.nevill@gmail.com" or at my LinkedIn.
MY PORTFOLIO
01
Puzzle-Adventure, Time-Based mechanic
TECH DESIGNER | LEVEL DESIGNER | GAME DESIGNER
Project Details: 1.5 Months | 2024 | Team of 12
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A group-based game project with the intended goal of creating a vertical slice for our 3rd game project course at FutureGames. We were give 3 themes to work with, and from there, were made to create a vertical slice that fit thematically with the team's chosen prompt.
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My areas of responsibility included technical design for base implementation of mechanics and puzzles before handing them over to programmers for further refinement, though I still maintained close contact with programmers throughout the process, helping out when needed, as well as implementation of level specific events and design. I was also responsible for the level design of the game, including events within the level and the overall pacing and structure of challenges within them.
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Learnings & Takeaways:
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Level and challenge/puzzle pacing
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Key landmarks and further level "events" knowledge
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Further blueprint refinement and knowledge
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Working within a larger team
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Adapting plans and ideas in consideration of time constraints and other areas not working out
02
Psychological, Investigative, Trippy, Level Design Project
Full walkthrough & Commentary available on Game page
Level Designer | Game Designer | Quest Designer | Technical Designer
Project Details: 3.5 Weeks | 2024​ | Team of 3​
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Group-based level design project based done for our Level Design 2 course. We were to take some prompts, and from there, create a coherent story thread/quest line and design a level/string of levels based on the idea.
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​Each member of the group was expected to create a level that would feed into and advance the created narrative. We elected to create one main level that would serve as a joining area between the 3 other individual levels, and then streaming each of our levels in and out as needed. My primary area of responsibility was for the ending of the quest chain, taking part in a basement of the building where things have dived into the weird and wonderful, and the technical implementation of everything in that area, including the non-Euclidean rooms.
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​Learnings & Takeaways:
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Group based level design and workflow
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Further knowledge of Unreal's Blueprints system
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Further knowledge of Unreal's level loading/streaming components
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Knowledge about other areas of Unreal that I hadn't touched before
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Quest chain and story progression
03
Cooperative, Whitebox, Weird, Level Design Practice
Level Designer | Level Scripter | Technical Designer
Project Details: ~1 - 1.5 months (First time using Unreal Engine) | 2023 | Solo​​
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A level made after receiving the prompt "You and your friends find yourself in a strange place. Things have been getting weirder." General Idea for the level was that as the level went on, things would get weirder, with events happening or things/items that are out of place. The level starts of on a small islet, with the players having just escaped from a sinking boat, and things progress from there.​ It was meant as an introductory sequence/beginning level for whatever game may follow it.
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This was my first proper attempt at using Unreal Engine, and as such, I mainly focused on trying to get a hang of what I was capable of doing with it, trying out some of the level tools like Data Layers and trying out the Blueprints system. My areas of responsibility include the Level Design, and Technical Design and implementation of all the level events, interactables and edits done to the character controller.
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Give it a walk through: https://mnevill.itch.io/mnldweird
**Though the level is intended as a multiplayer level, it currently functions as a singleplayer only experience**
Download includes
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Level Executable + all the stuff generated when building a level using UE5.1
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Read me file containing controls + small explanation of debug texts
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A very basic Level Design document.
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Learnings & Takeaways:
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First time using Unreal
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Designing with multiplayer in mind
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Better understanding of pacing of challenges inside of levels (Back to back jumping puzzles aren't great sometimes)
04
Casual, Psychological, Funny, Stress-inducing
Game Designer | Level Designer | Sound Designer | Graphics Designer
Project Details: 1 Week | 2022 | Team of 3
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The initial game idea is based on a challenge given to us by our teachers to create a game within certain constraints.
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After some brainstorming, and feeling a bit stressed for time, we arrived at “Essay Writing Simulator”. The idea was to capture the essence of writing an essay under strenuous conditions, while balancing that with wanting to read and check what you have written, and adding a small bit of humour to it. To achieve our experiential goal, we focused on making the game as stressful as possible, having the walls close in on the player as time ticked away, speeding up the ticking of the clock, introducing heavy breathing and heartbeats as the deadline came closer, and having the edges of the screen darken and close in on you. We also created a random text generator that would create words as the player typed away, having a random string of sentences appear on the screen that were normally somewhat humorous in nature to try and make the player stop to read what was actually written.
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My responsibilities included sound design and creation, setting up the level, helping with the overall game design, and creating most of the assets used within the game itself.
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Learnings & Takeaways:
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Rapid prototyping and rapid iterations following player feedback
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Aspects of sound design and modelling
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What it means to follow through and give an idea a chance
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Working with and understanding constraints
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Diegetic UI Practice