Life is Strange: True Colors - Wavelengths (DLC)

General Information

Role: Lead Level Designer

Duration: Mar 2018 - Jun 2021 (Includes Main Game)

Genre: Narrative Adventure

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Stadia, Nintendo Switch

Developer: Deck Nine Games

Team Size: ~80

Publisher: Square Enix

Release Date: September 30, 2021

Tools

Overview

I served as lead level designer while working on the Life is Strange: True Colors bonus episode, "Wavelengths". Similar to the main game I served as a working lead and was reponsible for managing the level design team as well as creating levels and documentation. During the course of production on the episode the team continued to work closely with environment and narrative as we had while making the core game. I continued to serve as point of contact for the level design team and also helped to onboard several new designers who joined Deck Nine during that time period.

Responsibilities

Managed the level design team:

  • Collaborated with production to prioritize tasks and create schedule for level design team
  • Served as point of contact for other departments
  • Ran team stand-up and organized team meetings
  • Reviewed and gave feedback on levels at various stages
  • Managed and distributed bugs assigned to level design team
  • Administered yearly performance reviews for the team
  • Managed the hiring of a new level designer
  • Organized the onboarding process for new designers

Created and maintained documentation:

  • Level design documents
  • Episode pacing documents
  • Tracking documents for various features
  • Unique gameplay system design documents
  • Process documentation

Took levels from concept to polished final product:

  • Created and iterated on graybox levels
  • Collaborated with environment and narrative teams to achieve level goals
  • Designed puzzles
  • Implemented and polished interactive and miscellaneous game systems
  • Built collision geometry for cameras and navigation
  • Managed the flow of levels using in-house tools
  • Polished all interactable aspects of the level
  • Responsible for fixing a wide variety of logic and content bugs

My Levels

The bonus episode was separated into the four seasons of the year and I was responsible for the fall season.

Bonus Episode: "Wavelengths" - Fall

During the Fall level Steph (player character) is confronted with the anniversary of the Arcadia Bay tragedy. The level focuses on her attempting to avoid and eventually processing the grief she experienced. The player has a set of simple tasks within the record store that Steph struggles to complete due to reminders of what happened and ends with her talking through it with Mikey over a tabletop role-playing game. (1:26:37 – 2:12:43)