Borderlands 3
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Genre: First-Person Shooter, Action RPG, Multiplayer
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release: September 13, 2019
Mission Designer
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Developed over a dozen side missions including gameplay scripting, events, combat encounters, and voiceover in UE4
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Pitched, designed, and implemented all 4 missions for the “Director’s Cut” expansion with a small strike team of artists
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Designed game mode and gameplay scripting template for “Takedown” raid missions
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Designed and built missions on the live service team including seasonal events and other free content patches
RESPONSIBILITIES
Source: YouTube, ItsLemon
Takedown Raids
I was tasked with scripting the game mode structure for Borderlands 3's Takedown raids, a critical endgame challenge map feature meant to appeal to our most achievement-motivated players. My work handled the partially-randomized combat den progression for replayability, as well as special handling for player respawning, custom UI, voiceover implementation, and resetting map elements on the fly without reloading the level, all while considering our normal co-op constraints related to late joining and save state. I created a scripting template off of my work on the first Takedown that made future raids faster and easier to develop.
Side Missions and Live Events
When I was hired in the later half of development of Borderlands 3, most of my work consisted of taking mission blockouts through alpha, polish, and release. This included gameplay scripting like mission objectives and interactive objects, combat encounters, voiceover implementation, NPC choreography, animated level sequences, and rewards. Several of the missions I built would appear on many "Best Missions of Borderlands 3" articles shortly after release, including Sell Out, Buff Film Buff, Swamp Bro, Head Case, and Baby Dancer.
After my work on the main game concluded, I worked on the live service content team for over a year designing missions and other scripted content on a number of seasonal events and free content updates.
Source: YouTube, Trophygamers
Director's Cut DLC
The Director's Cut DLC was the final paid expansion package for the game which consisted of four side missions and a raid boss mission, each with a unique level. I worked with a small team of level artists to realize these five missions from my original design pitches through their blockout stages, including map layout, scripted sequences, NPC choreography, combat encounters, custom music, and interactive objects. In the back half of the project, I passed two of these missions to a new hire who I trained throughout while I finished out the rest. This was my first exposure to developing downloadable expansion data.