NICK PARDE
PRINCIPAL / LEAD / SENIOR LEVEL DESIGNER
VIDEO PORTFOLIO
FRONT MISSION EVOLVED
PS3, X360 – 2010
- OVERVIEW -
~2 year production, I came on about 6 months before it shipped and was on the project for about 4 months (where I then moved to reboot the Green Lantern project). I implemented a solid first pass and scripting for the opening of the tutorial level (taking over a design from another LD) and fully designing and implementing the intro flight scenarios for Missions 5, 9 and 14. I also did collision work and scenario scripting clean up in several levels across the game.
Mission 1 ‘Tutorial’ -
I setup all objectives, adapting a design that was given to me. I ended up changing it the objectives to be in a completely different order and in different areas. I consolidated and put the different lessons the player needed to learn in an order that made sense.
I did all of the design documentation, block out, gameplay scripting (ie enemy spawning and objectives),object placement, helicopter spline path, streaming and collision for all three opening scenarios. The levels all linked into ground missions that were helmed by other level designers. They were meant to be quick intros that add a little bit of variations to the normal ground action, spread about every 1/3rd of the way through the game. The sequences were intentionally made some what easy, so the player felt very powerful during these intros.
(Skip to 3:20 for when gameplay starts)
Helicopter Flight Missions -
Mission 5 – This was the first of the helicopter flight scenarios that I implemented. I worked with a programmer to implement the AI that controlled the Helicopter. This was meant to be a quick escort mission where your Wanzers on the ground get to the end, and make it safe for the helicopter to land at the end. Supporting your ground troops was not important, as they were just there to add some cross fire and distraction for the enemy resistance on the ground.
Mission 9 – This is the second of the helicopter flight scenarios. The idea is that they don’t know you are coming and you are ambushing their facility. What starts out simple, becomes a bit more dangerous as enemies start to swarm from every direction.
Mission 14 – the longest and toughest of the helicopter flight areas. There are two ally Wanzers that will continue to fight with you the entire scenario, so keeping them alive is beneficial, since they will draw enemy fire. This was probably the most intense of all of the sequences and the one I spent the most time with of the three scenarios.