Reboot is a fast-paced, quick shot, 4 vs 4 multiplayer arena based shooter, inspired by Freeze Tag. The game is being built using the Unreal Engine 3 (UDK).

Reboot is the second major project that I am using UDK in order to create. It is also my first attempt at creating Multiplayer focused levels. At this school, most of our time is spent learning about Single Player design, particularly on how you can use the environment and other elements of the game to help navigate the Player around the world. These same skills are necessary for Multiplayer level design, but they come in different forms and have to be used differently. For example, in SP, you want the Player to really only go one direction through a tunnel or cave, but in MP, the Player can go through from any side and will still have to be able to navigate through it correctly.

The other big difference that I am currently experiencing is creating popular balance for the map. In an SP level, sometimes you might want to give Players very strong chokeholds and locations to defend. But in a MP level, this will almost always break the flow of the combat, meaning that any sort of chokepoint has to have multiple counters, and those counters have to have their own counters and so on and so on. This is quite fun to do, but also difficult.

For the level, I wanted to focus on what I felt makes this game unique, which has a very strong double jump allowing the Players to move around at a very quick rate. So, I focused my design on this, creating multiple ways to get up to the higher areas of the level, that in turn help them get to one side or the other very quickly, as well as giving them many height advantages. To balance this though, I put less cover on top, allowing for a very intense "top of the hill" battle between Players competing for the same space.

For the second level, "Hallway", I wanted to create a play space that would attempt to fix what I saw as the game's biggest design flaw, its high percision shooting mechanic and its super fast, hard to hit movement/traversal mechanics. In order to to do this, I created more interesting play spaces where the Player still has a lot of options where to move and how to exit the battle ground, while still maintaining and limiting their possible options of movement. By doing this, I was able to make a level that played far more strategically than the other maps as it encouraged Players to use the actual terrain of the level to the advantage.

Jonathan Gregoire - Game Design
JonathanAGregoire@gmail.com

July 2020

Started at Ready at Dawn as a Senior Level Designer on an unnanounced project.

March 2020

Last days at Naughty Dog working on The Last of Us Part II.

September 2019

Shipped the Last of Us Part II press demo level "Patrol".

May 2018

Started working at Naughty Dog as a Contract Single Player Level Layout Designer on The Last of Us Part II. 

December 2017

I started doing contract work for a start-up company called MyPad3D that focuses on VR experiences for corporate products.

More interestingly, I have begun to prototype my own card game on the side and have been volunteering with Sunbreak Games on an unannounced product.

July 2017

With a heavy heart, E-Line Media has shut down the Seattle studio, laying off everyone including myself. I am currently looking for new opportunities.

November 2016

Began working at E-Line Media again as a Level Designer on an unannounced and untitled game.

October 2016

Updating my website to reflect the work I did on the Forest Song with Colabee Studios. Unfortunately due to funding issues, I am no longer with them, so I am currently looking for new opportunities.

December 2015

Lots of new stuff since I last updated. Added in a short comic I made called Old Debts. Also have put up information about my role(s) on Never Alone and Never Alone: FoxTales.

January 2015

Promoted to Lead Designer on Never Alone: FoxTales at E-Line Media.

Summer 2014

Graduated Digipen as a BAGD and with a Cum Laude. Started working at E-Line Media as a Level Designer.

March 2014

Uploaded a new Beta build of Chained. Also just put up the old builds of the game for anyone interested in our very quick process and progress.

January 2014

I recently wrote a paper that was published for the IGDA about the benefit of Paper Prototyping. You can read it at this following link: http://newsletter.igda.org/2013/11/30/student-beat-faceoff-the-influences-of-board-games-on-video-games/#!