Level Design Projects
Year: 2020
Genre: First Person Shooter
Game: Left 4 Dead 2
Map: Geonosis: Petranaki Arena
Petranaki Areana is a survival map for Left4Dead2 based on Geonosis from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. In this solo side project, my main role was general developer. Secondary roles included level designer, texture artist, and 3D modeler. I developed this map for Left 4 Dead 2 to expand my skill set, try new ideas, and expand on my Star Wars project of bringing more of the galaxy far far away to the community.
Year: 2015
Genre: Fighting Game
Game: Super Smash Bros Brawl
Map: Mac
MAC is a simple map for the Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Noticing my portfolio was mostly FPS maps, I wanted to showcase my ability to make great maps for other games and genres. In this solo side project, my main role was level designer. Thanks to the simple level editor in the game, I didn’t have to do any support work. I’m very proud of the pure level design essence of this map. Please read my design breakdown below to share in my excitement!
Year: 2015
Genre: First Person Shooter
Game: Crystalline
Map: Crystal Canyon
Crystalline is an 8 player networked first person shooter built in Unreal Engine 4. In this student group project, my primary role was level designer. I designed and built the environment of our game. Secondary roles included, gameplay scripting and project management. Crystalline was the capstone project for my masters degree at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Year: 2015
Genre: First Person Shooter
Game: Left 4 Dead 2
Map: Death Star
The Death Star is a survival map for Left4Dead2. In this solo side project, my main role was general developer. Secondary roles included level designer, texture artist, and gameplay scripting. I developed this map for Left 4 Dead 2 because there was no Star Wars themed map for all the Star Wars content on the workshop. With a world for the content, it creates a more immersive experience for the user.
Year: 2012
Genre: RTS / FPS
Game: Nuclear Dawn
Map: Rock
In this group side project, my primary role was general developer. Secondary roles included, project management, level designer, and gameplay scripting. Rock is a map for the RTS-FPS fusion hybrid, Nuclear Dawn. Rock was my first group attempt at a large scale level design project, and I learned many hard lessons from it. Although for all the hardships, we ultimately submitted this map into a community contest and placed 4th. The map was well received by the community. We were later contacted by fans who wanted to put the map on their custom server and worked with them to help bring the map to a more user friendly downloadable state. Rock helped expand my understanding of the Source Engine, paved the way for future Source projects, and was overall a valuable learning experience.
Nick Buonarota 