Aaron Butler
Senior Designer
aaron[at]aaronbutler.com
Game Design Contract work is acceptable.
[Resume available in .doc or .pdf formats]
I’m an experienced Senior Designer with many years of game development experience along with five credited titles, the last being Killzone 2. My main qualifications are in the design of features, mechanics, and systems. I am also capable of designing missions and level layouts, as well as encounter dialog, battle chatter, and dabbling in narrative design. I relish the chance to try and push the boundaries of game development, attempting to innovate upon all areas of design.
I consider myself a very well rounded and experienced designer who is in tune with the expectations of a games desired audience, By utilizing not just my years of professional experience, but also over 20 years of playing games across multiple genres in order to craft fun and memorable experiences for gamers that fit within a games overall scope. Making and designing the total gaming experience is my ultimate dream job and I consider myself fortunate that I get to do it for a living.
My goal is to create the most compelling, and memorable gameplay I possibly can by entertaining and challenging players with the use of incentives, intuitive features and systems, well laid out levels, compelling dialog, narrative, and when feasible to innovate upon areas of design to offer players new and exciting experiences.
Professional Experience
November 2009 – Present: Insomniac Games – Durham, North Carolina, USA
Designer – Unannounced (n/a)
Designing the fun!
January 2009 -July 2009: Yager Development – Berlin, Germany
Senior Multiplayer Designer – SpecOps: The Line (PS3, 360, PC)
Lead the initial design of the multiplayer component. Updated, maintained, the Multiplayer GDD.
Mediated design and feature creation with outsourcing team. Creation of MP specific features. Creation and maintenance of design documents. Create and maintain lines of communication between out sourcing company and various internal departments.
Evaluate and critique multiplayer level creation. Conduct in-house playtests to gather critical feedback. High level story creation and feedback on story boards. Feedback on monthly milestones. Critique character designs to ensure optimal visual communication.
April 2007 – November 2008: Guerrilla Games – Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Senior Game Designer – Killzone 2 (PS3)
Conceptualize, create, refine, and produce core gameplay mechanics, systems, and features.
Create technical design documents used to communicate the desired behavior, and functionality of game mechanics and systems.
Refine, design, and maintain the Battle Chatter System as well as writing Battle Chatter dialog. Assist in quality control of narrative dialog, creation of Encounter Chatter guidelines for Level Designers, and maintaining quality control of Encounter Chatter in general.
Provide constructive feedback on both over all level conceptualization as well as individual encounter creation. Also provide constructive feedback on art, animation, and sound.
Work in conjunction with all disciplines; game director, production, game design, tech art, A.I., game code, art, animation, Vis, and level design in bringing mechanics and features to fruition and implementation.
December 2005 – April 2007: Guerrilla Games – Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Level Designer – Killzone2 (PS3)
Created the initial gameplay encounters, objectives, and level flow for the first combat level of the game. Created proof of concept levels to test and refine game mechanics and A.I.
Provide feedback for other levels of the game, feedback and suggestions for Level Design tools, and feedback on and ideas for game mechanics.
June 2004 – September 2005: Electronic Arts Los Angeles – Playa Vista, Ca, USA
Game Designer – Medal of Honor: European Assault (XBox, PS2, GameCube)
Help create/implement game play encounters for various levels of each campaign. Provide feedback in the creating and refining of the over all game play and design mechanics, created rough animations and level geometry, object and AI placement, AI path optimization, and the creation of various game design documentation.
Level lead: Responsible for the over all game play of the level, working in conjunction with Russia’s Campaign Lead, Producer, Design Director, engineering, art, and animation, teams to bring each level to fruition.
January 2004 – June 2004: Climax Group, Inc. – Venice, Ca, USA
Level / Game Designer – Tron 2.0: Killer App (XBox)
Level Design: Optimization of single player levels created for the PC to work on the X-Box. Create/manipulate in-game cinematic sequences. Populate new multiplayer levels with various game design elements. Conceptualize and create new multiplayer maps.
Game Design: Optimize, add and modify single player game play mechanics to be more console friendly and fun. Created and assisted in optimizing gameplay mechanics for new multiplayer gameplay modes. The creation of various game/level design documents used to keep track of new gameplay concepts/mechanics, an efficient level creation pipeline, and other bits of information used in keeping a healthy degree of communication going between the programmers, artists, other designers and management.
2004: Game-Over.net & GameSpy.com
Freelance Writer
Write creative and opinionated reviews, previews and articles covering games of all platforms and genres. See www.aaronbutler.com for current list of written work.
November 2003: Black Ops Entertainment – Santa Monica, Ca, USA
Game Designer – X-Files: Resist or Serve (PS2)
Brought on to assist in the projects completion. Assisted with object placement as well as tracking down and fixing both bugs, and tweaking various game play mechanics.
January 2003 – November 2003: Black Ops Entertainment – Santa Monica, Ca, USA
Game Designer – Terminator3: Rise of The Machines (XBox, PS2)
Created and modified AI scripts for non-player characters in the game, creation and placement of in game A.I. paths. Placement of Non-Player Characters and enemy AI encounters, as well as weapons and power ups for six of the 22 levels in the game all while maintaining the “Terminator” feeling found in the movies.
Additional Tasks – Bug tracking and QA, sound effect and in game cinematic placement. Collaboration of game mechanics with development team leads.
2002: Atari Inc. – Santa Monica, CA, USA
Production Intern – Unreal Tournament2003 (PC)
Production Intern – Mission Impossible: Operation Surma (XBox & PS2)
Assisted the Executive Producer & Producer in various production responsibilities. Tracking down and assigning bugs, quality assurance and providing creative feedback.
2002: Interlex Incorporated – Burbank, CA, USA
Contract Quality Assurance – Metal Dungeon (XBox)
Performed Quality Assurance and English Translations for the Japanese RPG import to the US.
1999-2001: GameSpy Industries – Irvine, CA, USA
Web Developer – Planet Brand, GameSpy, GameSpy Arcade, RadioSpy
Provided creative input as well as creating and assembling game-oriented websites, as well as designed and created Flash projects.
Education
2001-2004: Art Institute of California Los Angeles – Santa Monica, CA, USA
Bachelor of Science Degree in Game Art & Design
Educated in both traditional 2D and 3D art and animation specific to the gaming industry. Further educated in the art of game design, game mechanics, level design, and scripting by industry professionals.
Skills
I’m a hard working, self-motivated, and fast learning team player. Good balance of creativity and logic to get the job done.
Tool Sets:
· UnrealEd
· DEdit
· WarCraft3
· Aurora NWN Toolset
· QeRadiant
· Worldcraft
OSs
· Windows
· MAC
3D Packages:
· Maya
· 3DStudio Max
Programs:
· MS Office, Visual Studio, Visual Source Safe, Access
· Adobe Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10, Premiere 5
· Macromedia Flash MX
· ProDG Debugging Software, Test Track Pro
