Destroy All Humans! (2020)

Description

Destroy All Humans! (2020) is an action-adventure video game developed by Black Forest Games and published by THQ Nordic. It is a remake of the 2005 original game.

The cult-classic returns! Terrorize the people of 1950’s Earth in the role of the evil alien Crypto-137. Harvest their DNA and bring down the US government in the faithful remake of the legendary alien invasion action adventure. Annihilate puny humans!

Game Steam Page : https://store.steampowered.com/app/803330/Destroy_All_Humans

Responsibilities and Achievements

As a Senior Level Designer on Destroy All Humans! (2020), I designed and implemented main and side missions, tutorials and a major open-world area redesign. I also prototyped gameplay features for boss encounters. I worked closely with Creative Direction, Game Design, Narrative Design, Art, Programming, QA and Production to ensure the successful delivery of the level & mission design content.

A mission “Foreign Correspondent” I redesigned and a gameplay space I created for this mission were featured in official IGN video coverage of Destroy All Humans! (2020).

Level Design Ownership

Owned the design and implementation of 5 missions, 2 side missions, and 2 mission tutorials from mission design document through final delivery.
Redesigned and rebuilt a major open-world gameplay area, improving mission flow, gameplay pacing, and overall player experience while adapting the gameplay area to modern gameplay expectations.
Key responsibilities included:
- Creating and iterating on gameplay space blockouts.
- Designing and scripting mission flow, objectives and encounters.
- Prototyping gameplay features for 2 boss encounters.
- Driving gameplay iteration through internal playtests and feedback analysis.

Tools & Workflow Improvements

Contributed to the development of the early version of 3D Spatial Notes Tool that improved collaboration and iteration efficiency between Level Design and Environment Art teams.
Created the Master Shoping List production workflow, enabling teams to track, prioritize, and coordinate mission-related asset requests across multiple departments, improving visibility and reducing communication overhead.
Collaborated with Programming on mission design features and tools, including mission coordinator nodes, improving mission scripting workflow and efficiency.

Featured Work

Mission 10 | Foreign Correspondent

During the remake’s development, Lead Level Designer and I identified this mission as one of the areas that had aged poorly in terms of gameplay and presentation.

In the original game, the mission took place in a generic hilly area protected by forcefields and populated by Majestic agents and police. The objective was to rescue an NPC held inside a cave before escaping the area. While functional, the location lacked a strong visual identity and no longer met the quality bar we were aiming for in the remake.

I was tasked with redesigning the entire gameplay space and adapting the mission to the new environment. One of the primary challenges was preserving compatibility with the original voice-over recordings, as the budget for recording new dialogue was extremely limited.

My first concept explored a small military airfield. After reviewing the existing dialogue, I concluded that several key voice-over lines would feel disconnected from the new setting, so the idea was abandoned. In the second concept I proposed a naval facility housing a submarine. This setting not only provided a stronger visual identity, but also aligned naturally with the existing narrative and dialogue.

After validating the concept against the available voice-over content, I sketched the mission layout and key gameplay beats before moving into blockout production. The first playable iteration was completed within a short time and served as a communication tool for design discussions with the Lead Level Designer and the rest of the team.

Several additional iterations followed. Alongside gameplay and mission-flow improvements, I worked closely with Art to address production constraints. To stay within the available art budget, I adjusted major interior spaces to maximize the reuse of the existing hero assets while maintaining the intended visual quality and gameplay goals.

In parallel, I adapted and scripted the mission content and encounters to ensure the narrative, objectives, and gameplay progression felt naturally integrated into the new environment.

The screenshots below illustrate the evolution of the level from early layout sketches through blockout iterations and the final shipped version.

Early Layout Sketch and Voice-Over Content Overview