HI THERE, I'M MARK

Apex Legends is a live service Battle Royale developed by Respawn Entertainment. I joined the team shortly before the launch of Season 2 (Battle Charge) and contributed to updates through Season 12 (Defiance), primarily focusing on game modes for Limited Time Events, as well as contributing some core systems.

Over the course of my time working with the Apex Legends Design team, I grew my responsibilities to prototyping and shipping larger features with significant iterative playtest and minimal guidance from leadership. In my last 6 months with the team I oversaw a pod of designers, producers, and content departments dedicated to producing new game modes. 

Project Responsibilities:

• Planned modes with game director and design director for Limited Time Collection and Thematic Events to y to drive player engagement and retention during keys parts of each season with compelling and novel gameplay dynamics
• Prototyped, pitched, and iterated in production on numerous features within Apex
  • Solos, Duos, Armed and Dangerous, Winter Express, Always Be Closing, Battle Armor, Flashpoint, Control
  • Crafting System, Trident Vehicles
  • Identified modes as an opportunity for testing proposed meta changes in a live environment which resulted in meaningful gameplay changes being integrated into the core game - such as the evolving armor only meta
  • Coordinated with content departments to bring modes to shippable quality as the design vision holder for the feature
• Oversaw a pod dedicated to prototyping and producing LTMs and other experimental modes, as well as maintaining recurring seasonal modes and Arenas
  • Created a roadmap focused on producing foundational modes with high replayability that could be expanded with additional content in the future
  • Worked with a senior producer to balance creation of new modes while also supporting legacy mode content and maintaining a seasonal release cadence
  • Identified and targeted mode production for a casual audience that is not currently engaging with the more competitive slate of permanent modes in Apex (Battle Royale and Arenas)
  • Guided other designers in prototyping and iterating on new mode concepts
  • Coordinated modes content with team directors and other stakeholders

Ascend is a first-person VR arena shooter where you rise to greatness in a crucible of visceral and kinetic aerial combat. Rise above your enemies through intense engagements and leverage the power of VR with our unique lean motion system to tower above your opponents.

The player is given control of a jetpack, which they can fly by throttling the controller and leaning in their direction of flight. This is done by dynamically estimating their lean origin, while still allowing for free movement, all while leveraging leaning to minimize motion sickness.

Ascend is an advanced game project at USC. A large multidisciplinary team is working on the project, targeting a Steam release the Summer of 2019.

Project Responsibilities:

• Directed vision for a multidisciplinary team of 40 engineers, designers, artists, producers, usability, and marketing students.
• Documented player experience goals and presented game demos and vision to large groups of stakeholders.
• Worked with production to increase velocity and parallelize content development pipelines.
• Developed a team culture with a focus on sustainable work hours while hitting production targets.
• Worked closely with Engineering and Design teams to drive vision, implementation, and tuning on four warriors with unique ability sets.

Prototype Responsibilities:

• Iterated on locomotion controls to find a comfortable movement scheme that minimized motion sickness.
• Integrated Photon PUN Networking API for multiplayer
• Designed a level that takes advantage of flying afforded to the player while creating areas requiring skillful maneuvering on the part of the player.

As part of the Maestros team, I joined as a dedicated User Interface / User Experience engineer. I joined the project as an intern with no knowledge in Flash/Scaleform or Unrealscript, and within six months, I had completed a top to bottom rehaul of the game menus and in-game HUD.

Project Responsibilities:

• Worked with Flash and Scaleform to rebuild and design new, user friendly, and graphically appealing interfaces
• Integrated a brand new progression system from scratch in the UI and in any pertinent front-end code
• Worked with our network engineer to design and integrate a new account creation system with functional user verification

On the Sky Command team, I led User Experience and Systems Design for the team. In this role, I focused on room-scale interactions that allowed the user to engage with the space while maintaining the immersion of the experience.

Project Responsibilities:

• Designed and implemented elevator locomotion to enlarge playspaces while maintaining a 1:1 room footprint
• Designed and integrated an AI companion for guiding new users through a room scale VR experience while introducing players to the game world and narrative.
• Scripted modular, magnetic handles in VR that provide 1:1 visual feedback on user interactions while using mounted objects
• Prototyped a modular repair system driven by atomic actions for placement by level designers

Our game uniquely asks players to control two independent ships with their own resources as they explore a procedurally generated board that builds throughout the game. We've also built a deep card based combat system and a tailored story, both of which are tied to exploration, so as players explore the final frontier, they encounter perilous situations, quests, and build themselves into a formidable competitor on the intergalactic stage.

Project Responsibilities:

• Rapidly prototyped an original game concept, creating the systems that served as a baseline for the current version.
• Led a team of specialized designers to ensure a cohesive final product with deep systems.
• Worked with our production artist to unify our design throughout the game.