I’ve been working at Funkitron for a year now! I’ve enjoyed it a lot and have to say it’s a great job. Fresh out of college, I was at first just grateful to be employed, but I’ve learned that’s not how I should feel. I worked hard through school and I earned this. And that makes me feel great.

Funkitron is a small company. And while I worked on smaller teams at school, that was school. A small company like this is just as tight knit as it can be when we all telecommute for work. It’s really cool to not be so separated into work divisions. While we certainly have our tech team and design team, it’s a lot more flexible. There’s very much an atmosphere of “if you want to do something, do it!” It’s very encouraging, and it’s why I picked up writing some cutscenes and other tasks that are very organizational and/or visually pleasing. If I have tech questions, I can talk to anyone on the tech side, I don’t have to do paperwork, and my opinion even just for my preference on workflow is important.

We just got new interns which has me very excited. For a small company, any new person is a great and important addition. I remember being where they were a year ago. If I had any advice for them or anyone else recently working in the game industry, it would be this:

1. Never be afraid to speak up. If you have questions or concerns, talk to someone! Most of us are very open and friendly people. We remember being where you are. We also greatly value your opinions. Certainly there are more experienced people in the company, but this is your chance to learn new things and offer up new ideas. You’re here to help the company, certainly, but on another level, you’re here to gain your own experience. And on that note:
2. You get in what you get out. Generally applicable to a lot of activities, I know. But it’s true. This is a job and an enjoyable one, and to facilitate learning and understanding in order to do that job better, you need to invest in it. Ask questions, ask for more work, learn new things, interact with your co-workers about work but also about general things in the industry or just about them. Friends are just as important as knowledge. Contacts are part of the experience and the best contacts are one you actually know, not those you were obligated to work with. This is your chance to do great work and to be memorable and make memories.
3. Make designs that break boundaries. One of the best ways to learn the rules of design (in general or game/company specific) is to push them. Be creative. Be overly creative. Novelty is an important aspect of puzzle level design. Novelty is memorable. Things that are hard to understand, that have poor conveyance, are not great in puzzles, but when you’re learning how mechanics interact, this can get in your way. Going over the top on design aspects can help you understand while you build. And it’s also a chance to learn from a more senior designer – the level design standards guide might say that doing X a certain way is wrong, but until you do X that way and see for yourself or get an indepth explanation, doing X that way just sounds like random taboo. The beginning is the time to get the taboo out of the way and give you a chance to stretch your legs. Revision is a natural aspect to making a level and it’s better to go big and then shear down to the good stuff than it is to go home and build a whole new house.
4. Take an art class of some sort. Even if you’re focus is programming, games are a form of art. While there can be an art to efficiently designed code, the visceral element of games is very important because that’s what the player gets their hands on. Even if that hash table is impeccable, the players only see the output and if that output doesn’t make any sense, then it doesn’t matter how well the table works. You might not be a designer, but understanding and/or being able to appreciate where art came from is important in media. I took plenty of design courses in college and I am always reading new books on the topic. A favorite past time of mine is admiring architecture. I’m not an architect, but I use buildings every day and I appreciate what the designers do to make a building speak beyond their function. Understanding that games should do this too can help make the game feel real and crafted with a purpose and care.

I just finished up the second level for my Project Spark platformer, Pack! With it came some previously un-added Kode like moving between levels, enemies, and respawning, since it’s a bit more dangerous in the abandoned city proper. I really enjoyed getting to design this space and the puzzles and adding a few new mechanics such as combat and a split ending. I have plans for two more levels to end the game’s story arch, technically three, since after level two, the player has to pick one way or another and can’t do both.

Project Spark has a ton of fantasy and sci-fi models, but not really any modern day pieces like cars or building, so I did a lot of work on my own to spoof the models I needed in a way that fits with the art theme. Feel free to check it out here!

http://www.projectspark.com/#world?id=7772955&tab=overview

I also updated my other projects with tons of images and embeded videos so you can see more of my levels if you can’t play them. 🙂

Hello! My name is Brooke. I’ve been studying game design for a while and figured I should have a nice website to show off what I can do and how I work.

It’s taken me a while to find my place in the game industry while going through school, but I finally found it when I took a class on Level Design. It combined a lot of my favorite things: Worldbuilding + Game Design + Mechanic Design + Writing. I’m still working on my own projects and hoping someday to get my foot in the door of the game design industry somewhere. So for now, I got to buckle down, do some work, have some fun and

A bit about me before I get too carried away:

• I’m a gamer.
• I’m also a writer. And I love reading.
• I enjoy animals and most cute fuzzy things.
• I like science-fiction and fantasy.
• I really love RPGs – digital and table top. I’ve never LARPed before, but maybe one day.
• I enjoy worldbuilding – alone and in groups. You should check these sites out for some collaborative game based fiction/worldbuilding projects of mine: Steampunk Rochester and Worldbuilding.
• I enjoy watching hockey. Enjoy is too polite of a word for how much I love hockey. That said, I’m not really much of a sports nut. Go RIT Tigers!
• I love movies and tv shows. I cry during sappy movies, yeah, but I cry the most for movies like Gladiator and Blood Diamond. I never figured out comedies, so I’m an action, drama fan. Or course, I also enjoy animated films. The Prestige though…that movie is my favorite.

I’m not really sure what to do with this blog yet. Probably make it a place to post my thoughts about level design things as an amateur in the field. And of course, how all that relates to what I’m doing, in my own projects, in the games I am playing, and in the games I am watching be played.