Destroy All Humans! 2 : Reprobed

Description

Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed is a 2022 action-adventure video game developed by Black Forest Games and published by THQ Nordic. It is a remake of the 2006 original game.

In Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed, players assume the role of the grey alien Crypto as he travels to various locations in an open world, including England, Japan, Russia, and the United States, to complete missions and defeat human enemies. It features a variety of alien weapons and mind abilities, including the ability to mind-control humans and pilot a flying saucer.

Responsibilities and Achievements

As a Lead World & Level Designer, I led the World & Level Design team responsible for delivering the game’s five open-world levels from concept through final implementation. I worked closely with Creative Direction, Design, Narrative and Mission Design, Art, Programming, QA and Production to ensure the successful delivery of world design content.

Level Design Ownership

• Owned the level design and implementation of 7 major gameplay locations from concept through final delivery.
• Created blockouts for gameplay spaces, designed and scripted missions and encounters, and iterated on content through internal playtests and feedback analysis.

World Design Leadership

• Led the World Design Team responsible for building and delivering the game’s 5 open-world levels, including crowd and traffic systems setup, alert-system components setup, ambient world activities, and Landing Zones content.
• Managed world design deliverables, production planning, and day-to-day cross-department coordination.
• Oversaw the design and implementation of 17 Landing Zone missions and over 100 ambient NPC activities across the game’s worlds.
• Remained hands-on throughout development, personally setting up crowd and traffic systems for 2 open-world levels and designing and scripting 5 Landing Zone missions.

Tools & Workflow Improvements

• Initiated the process of defining gameplay metrics and designed and built a Metrics Helper Tool, improving collaboration between Level Design and Environment Art.
• Designed and implemented the Crowd Composition Tool that saved approximately 50 development hours per month.
• Developed the 3D Spatial Notes Tool that improved collaboration and iteration efficiency between Level Design and Environment Art teams.

Team Building

• Owned the Level Design recruitment process, including portfolio and CV reviews, creating level design test, candidate interviews and evaluations.
• Successfully recruited 3 level designers who remained with the studio long-term.
• Mentored and contributed to the promotions of 3 level designers.

Featured Work

Level Design Metrics Helper Tool

I’ve designed and implemented this tool to improve the communication between Level Design and Level Art Departments;

• Once placed in a level, the tool allows to select a main character’s move from the list and see the metric;
• I’ve also built a gym level with the metrics;

Open-World Level: Bay City | The Harbour Area

I’ve designed and blocked out this location as a part of the Open World.
This area is mainly utilized in a side mission “Private Danza”. Below are the before-and-after screenshots of the area.

Here is the final block-out for the Side Mission in particular. You can also check the final result in this Mission Walkthrough.

Open-World Level: Solaris | The Blisk Base

I’ve designed and blocked out this location as the part of the Open World. It was also used in the final mission of the game;

• My priority was speed so, I didn’t do any formal documentation. Instead, I  roughly blocked out the location first and used quick overpaint to communicate intentions or explore the gameplay possibilities;
• The mission is about infiltrating the final enemy base, solve several puzzles on the way, while protecting your companion Natalya from Blisk attacks and to reach the final boss room;
• There’s a lot of environment dangers in this location: poisonous gas jets, pools and waterfalls of acid, exploding alien eggs;
• I’ve collaborated with Mission, Narrative and Game Design Departments as well as with Art and Code Departments to bring this blockout to final;

Here you can see my process for this block-out. The quick overpaint with the key mission points. And an example of doodling on a rough blockout to find good ideas;

And here is the final result;

I’ve also designed and blocked out the Final Boss fight location;

• Continuing the theme with the environment dangers I’ve come up with the design for 3 phases of the fight that utilize them:
  • Phase 1 – No danger: focus primary on the Boss;
  • Phase 2 – Low danger: Poisonous gas jets on the outer rim;
  • Phase 3 – High danger: A pool of acid right under your feet! Crypto must use the hovering platforms or little islands around the area  to avoid being damaged;

Here you can check the final result in this Mission Walkthrough:

Open-World Level: Takoshima | The Volcano Escape

I’ve retro-designed and blocked out this location as the part of the Main Mission;

• The OG design was rather short so, the decision was made to make it a bit longer to enjoy this adrenaline-pumping moment a bit more;
• I  roughly blocked out the location first and used quick overpaint to communicate design intentions and explore the gameplay possibilities;
• The mission in a nutshell is about infiltrating the enemy base inside a volcano, pressing a button to reveal information and then escape from there while being in the middle of the earthquake and volcano eruption;
• Water down below is deadly for Crypto adding even more thrills. The water later was replaced with lava;
• I’ve collaborated with the Mission, Narrative and Game Design Departments as well as with the Art and Code Departments to bring this blockout to final;

Open-World Level: Takoshima | Zen Temple

I’ve re-designed and blocked out this Major Landmark location as part of the Open World. This area is also used in 2 Main Missions: “Takoshima Story” and “Our Man Crypto” as well as in the Cult Mission “The Coming of Arkvoodle”;

• I’ve made the location work well with the new updated game mechanics, changed the layout and adapted it for the Mission;
• The 1st Mission in a nutshell is about escaping from the Temple after the enemy ambush;
• The 2nd Mission is about scouting the Temple in search of a photgraph under the rocks;
• I’ve collaborated with the Mission Design and the Art Departments to bring this blockout to final;

Here’re before-and-after screenshots:

Open-World Level: Tunguska | Blisk Warship Crater

I’ve re-designed and blocked out the Major Landmark location as part of the Open World of Tunguska. This area is also a playground for 3 Main Missions: “A Deadly Reaction“, “A Hard Day’s Fight” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Furon“;

• I’ve made the location work well with the new updated game mechanics, changed the layout and adapted it for all the Missions;
• I’ve collaborated with the Mission, Narrative and Game Design as well as with the Art Departments to bring this blockout to final;

Brief description of all 3 missions taking place in the Blisk Crater: 

• In “A Deadly Reaction” Mission Crypto needs to bring 3 fuel rods to 3 gas pumping generators in the underground bunkers. In order to destroy all 3 and clear the radioactive fog above the crater;
• “A Hard Day’s Fight” Mission is about finding a vulnarability in the burried Blisk Warship and then destroying it from the flying saucer;
• In “The Good, the Bad, and the Furon” Mission Crypto needs to protect and save Natalya from the poisonous gas capsule in the middle of the Blisk Warship Crater;

Here’re the screenshots of the blockout progress:

Here’re the Missions Overviews :

Here’re the beautiful concepts from our talented concept artist and my blockout:

• As you can see this part was heavily inspired by “Stranger Things”.

And here’re my iterations for the undeground bunker:

It was a challenge to come up with the layout for the underground bunkers that will fit inside the Crater and at the same time their chambers will match the poisonous gas chimneys on the surface. Here you can see how my overpaints over the existing proper scale blockout helped me to find the right layout.

The overview of the underground bunker:

After several attempts to find the right layout I’ve finally come up with the one you can see in the screenshots below. I’ve also designed it so it was assembled from the modular pieces:

• This helped the Environment Team to save time;
• That also allowed to have several variations. of the layout without too much effort;

Here’s the Blisk Warship Crater and the Bunker in the Final Game in the Missions Walkthroughs: