Curriculum Vitae Declan Troughton Portfolio: www.dectroughton.com e-mail: [email protected] Senior Level Designer Phone: +31 6 40015003 Profile I am a professional Level Designer with over six years of industry experience working on a variety of games with level types ranging from platformers and flight-based levels, to narrative-driven cinematic levels in both a linear and an open world context. My passion for level design lies in creating levels that help drive a narrative forward while blending mechanics together in fresh and exciting ways for players. I love to collaborate with other developers and take pride in understanding the inner workings of disciplines outside of my own role as a designer. Having a genuine interest in the areas of art, architecture, design, nature and more, I enjoy drawing inspiration for my work from the world around me and never pass up an opportunity to expand my understanding and experience, enhancing my skillset as a designer. Outside of game development, you can probably find me soaking up some literature or hiking on a hill somewhere with a bulky camera gathering reference and enjoying the outdoors! Key Skills • Level, Game, and Cinematic Design • Experience leading multidisciplinary teams • Visual (node) and text-based scripting • Proficient in professional software including CryEngine, Unity, Unreal Editor, and Maya • Works well in teams large and small • Strong communication skills Employment Experience Paladin Studios Senior Level Designer (Dec. 2018 – Present) Unannounced Console Title • Level creation and leading a multidisciplinary team. • Help guide the level design process and design pillars alongside the project directors and producers. Cloud Imperium Games Senior Level Designer (Nov. 2017 – Nov. 2018) Previously: Level Designer (Apr. 2016 - Nov. 2017), Junior Level Designer (Nov. 2014 – Apr. 2016) Star Citizen (PC) • Design and set up of some of the major levels of the single player campaign with experience in linear scripted levels and more open hub levels. • Working closely with artists to develop levels that range in scale from the huge to the compact. • Creating level set pieces, combat encounters and implementation of narrative scenes and NPC interactions. • Being product owner for cross-discipline teams of art, design and code which cover development of levels and systems used throughout the game and communicating the team’s updates to leads and company directors of all disciplines on a regular basis. • Help develop new systems and tech that allow us to achieve gameplay and narrative goals. • Establish and maintain set up practices for various areas of development. Curriculum Vitae TT Games Junior Level Designer (Sep. 2013 - Nov. 2014) LEGO Jurassic World (PS4, XBox One, PC) • Level ownership and a portion of the hub area. • Using Maya to create and animate all the LEGO props I would need throughout my areas of ownership. • Level flow and object scripting. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Nintendo 3DS / PSVita) • Proofing out and implementation of new level variant - ‘flight’ levels. • Work closely with the dedicated coder, feeding back and prototyping new ideas for the system. • Teach other designers the set up for the new system. LEGO The Hobbit (Nintendo 3DS / PSVita) • Owning and building levels. • Following, iterating on and evolving design docs, and communicating those iterations to the rest of the design and art team. • Scripting level events and flow using level mark-up and the text-based level scripting tool. • Animating objects within the levels. QA (July 2013 - Sep. 2013) LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (Nintendo 3DS / PSVita) • Writing up detailed reproduction steps for issues and communicating them to the development team • Compliance testing passes to ensure work done with the Marvel characters were accurate to the official lore. Professional Photographer Band & Event photographer (June 2012 - July 2013) • Touring the U.K. with a band as their official photographer supplying my own equipment. • Collating, sorting, and selecting the best shots, before bringing them into Photoshop for editing & clean-up. • Presenting final selection of photos, actioning any feedback from the clients. Education University of Central Lancashire (2010 - 2013) BA (Hons) Games Design – At the end of my 3 years of studying Game Design, I achieved an overall 2:1 grade with a First in my honours project which focused heavily on level and puzzle design, driven by a narrative developed by myself. I learned how to use game development software such as Unreal Editor, how model and animate in Maya, and the fundamentals of game and level design. Holy Cross College (2008 - 2010) Graphic Design, Photography, Music Technology - Focusing on subjects that interested me the most, I learned how to use a full suite of Adobe software and the fundamentals of Graphic Design, the foundations of Photography (which led to my stint as a professional photographer), and my understanding of music theory and music creation was developed further. References Michael Barclay Simon Vickers Jon Dadley Joseph Kinglake Naughty Dog Avalanche Studios (Malmö) Cloud Imperium Games Sumo Digital Level Designer Lead Designer Lead System Designer Senior Game Designer [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] .