The Coalition is a flagship first-party studio within Xbox Game Studios and the home to one of gaming’s most critically and commercially acclaimed series, Gears of War. The studio is one of the world’s leading studios pushing the limits of available technology to build next-generation experiences in Unreal Engine 5. 

I worked as a Gameplay Designer at The Coalition from February 2023 to August 2024. The studio is located in Vancouver, BC (Canada).

Reference letter from Microsoft’s Lead Game Designer is readily available. Please send me an email requesting the letter and I will send it over.

My role at The Coalition involved:

• Design owner for a subset of game features (Environmental Mechanics), with a keen eye for the impact on the overall gameplay experience, including player combat interactions and AI.

• Built level layouts that implement Level Blueprints/Level Sequencer to showcase specific play situations.

• Used 3D tools (Unreal Modelling & Fracture modes, Blender, Houdini) to iterate on metrics and visual readability of game features.

• Prototyped and iterated on Enemies.

• Used Blueprints in Unreal Engine 5 (visual scripting) to develop drag-and-drop editor utilities, dynamic combat encounters and AI interactions.

• Debugged C++ code in Visual Studio and submitted C++ code improvements to engineers.

• Created and supported technical architectures for gameplay mechanics considering studio-wide scalability.

• Determined metrics, collision and networking replication rules on Environmental features to optimize their architectures.

• Tuned combat attributes for enemies and weapons with special attention towards game balance, feel and readability.

• Broke down feature requirements and components, communicating with other disciplines (Level Designers, Artists, Animators) and reporting to the Lead Game Designer to drive owned features through production.  

• Created, upkept and iterated on thorough design documentation. 

At Hololabs, I helped bring mixed reality games to life such as Sky Haven (mobile AR game) and interactive theme park attractions at Universal Studios.

Hololabs is a game development studio based in Victoria, BC (Canada). The team of AAA industry veterans is using novel Mixed Reality technology to deliver innovative and unique experiences.

I attained or upgraded several skills at Hololabs, such as:

• Enemy & Character behaviour development and finetuning

• Finetuning moments for best player experience with high quality bar

• Gameplay and systems development (including game feel, UI, developer tools and performance optimization)

• Collaborating with artists to bring features to life

• Reporting to leads and iterating on features according to feedback

SimBrain VR is a project by the University of British Columbia (UBC), a virtual reality training simulation for medical students.

The simulation includes a Clinical Room where students can go through a neurological exam on an interactive virtual patient and a Mind Palace to visualize their anatomical knowledge and compile relevant information.

In this project, I had the following responsibilities:

• Usage of Speech-to-Text voice recognition in gameplay

• Usage of hand-tracking technology for gameplay

• Best practices for User Interface in VR

• Reporting to leads and iterating on features according to feedback

This is a project where JIBC (the Justice Institute of British Columbia) asked our team to develop a VR-based scenario to train police recruits on responding to active shooter situations.

The scenario is in the format of a single responding officer, from a first-person perspective, as they move through a building responding to various stimuli and ultimately engaging the active shooters.

In this project, I attained or upgraded some specific skills, such as:

• "3Cs" (Character, Camera and Controller) Design and Development 

• Civilian and Active Shooter character behaviours

• Breaking down features into asset requirements

• Collaborating with the team and client to produce feature requirements

• Usage of Speech-to-Text voice recognition in gameplay

• Design of voice-based immersive tutorials and interactions

• VR User Experience focused on first-time users

• Achieving immersion even when limited by mobile hardware (Oculus Quest 2 unhooked from PC)

• Iterated and finetuned multiple types of player locomotion

• Level Design for first-person perspective

• Redirected Walking iterations so that players are automatically redirected to the center of the play while moving to avoid bumping into walls

Archery Masters is a VR game prototype made by myself.

The player needs to aim precisely with their bow while trying to escape a dangerous mob of angry goblins.

Download and play the prototype here.

In this project, I attained or upgraded several skills, such as:

• 3Cs Hero design and implement in VR

• Prototyping and iterating on combat systems

• Exploration of player physicality against objects and enemies when playing in VR