Helldivers 2
Being able to work on a game you're a fan of always feels great, so when the chance to work on Helldivers 2 came, I jumped on it. It felt surreal traveling to Sweden to meet the team and see the place where the game was made. Hear the stories about its development and the plans the team had for the future.
I became part of a team tasked with developing the technology behind Mega Cities, which was meant to deliver "The fight for Super Earth". This eventually became the "Heart of Democracy" update, but the tech we built helped us support Mega Cities in other worlds too.
My job as the main Level Designer on the team at that point was to work with the programming team to adapt the procedural generation so it could build believable cities. I came up with a lot of the rules we use to define the city zones that we then fill with "Stamps" (aka a pre-made bit of level that varies in size).
Since the procedural generation that shipped with the game was designed to make primarily natural landscapes, it was a challenge coming up with new steps that made levels look like man-made environments, but looking at the end result, I think we got it right.
Joining the project early on meant that much of my work is all around you when you're in a city. From World Stamps to special stamps like Extraction Zones and Outposts.
The way these bits of level get combined basically comes down to packing 2D shapes on a Voronoi grid, so the way I had to handle it involved defining the ideal Stamp sizes to maximize the packing and defining the ideal sizes for everything else off that.
Nonetheless, it didn't stop there. We also had to keep an eye on performance, since cities are vastly more demanding than any other kind of environment. To mitigate that we fine-tuned map sizes, object counts, and player line of sight.
Doing that required me to dive deep into the procedural generation and collaborate closely with the programmers. The system works off text files with no visual editor, which means much of the design has to live in the designer’s head.
At times, it was difficult to balance goals like creating performant, cinematic and fun procedural environments , but really enjoyed the challenge and think it pushed me to deliver some of my best work.
Being able to work on a game you're a fan of always feels great, so when the chance to work on Helldivers 2 came, I jumped on it. It felt surreal traveling to Sweden to meet the team and see the place where the game was made. Hear the stories about its development and the plans the team had for the future.
I became part of a team tasked with developing the technology behind Mega Cities, which was meant to deliver "The fight for Super Earth". This eventually became the "Heart of Democracy" update, but the tech we built helped us support Mega Cities in other worlds too.
My job as the main Level Designer on the team at that point was to work with the programming team to adapt the procedural generation so it could build believable cities. I came up with a lot of the rules we use to define the city zones that we then fill with "Stamps" (aka a pre-made bit of level that varies in size).
Since the procedural generation that shipped with the game was designed to make primarily natural landscapes, it was a challenge coming up with new steps that made levels look like man-made environments, but looking at the end result, I think we got it right.
Being one of the first to join the team meant much of my work is all around you when you're in a city. From World Stamps to special stamps like Extraction Zones and Outposts.
The way these bits of level get combined basically comes down to packing 2D shapes on a Voronoi grid, so the way I had to handle it involved defining the ideal Stamp sizes to maximize the packing and defining the ideal sizes for everything else off that.
Nonetheless, it didn't stop there. We also had to keep an eye on performance, since cities are vastly more demanding than any other kind of environment. To mitigate that we fine-tuned map sizes, object counts, and player line of sight.
Doing that required me to dive deep into the procedural generation and collaborate closely with the programmers. The system works off text files with no visual editor, which means much of the design has to live in the designer’s head.
At times, it was difficult to balance goals like creating performant, cinematic and fun procedural environments , but really enjoyed the challenge and think it pushed me to deliver some of my best work.
