Avengers Initiative
As the sole level designer on Avengers Initiative, I took its environments from hand-drawn layouts through to the shipped game. The project drew on Infinity Blade as a reference, with Hulk as its main character. My work focused on branching routes, camera framing, and environmental interactions, alongside broader contributions to combat, systems, balancing, and scripting.
Designing Exploration and Replayability
Players explored by tapping to move between set camera positions, with limited room to look around at each stop. The levels had optional routes, so players could choose a path they had not taken on a previous visit. I drew the layouts by hand and worked with the art team to select environments that would be interesting to explore.
We began with a rough greyscale blockout, then I set an initial camera pass. The artists used those views to build the environments around what players would actually see. Once the final art was in place, I adjusted camera positions, angles, field of view, and the limits of how far players could look around. A recurring challenge was showing enough of the level to make the next destination clear while leaving room to explore and find secrets.
Making Exploration Feel Like Hulk
I developed environmental interactions that let Hulk’s strength change the route through a level. During certain fights, a piece of the environment became interactable for a limited time. Tapping it triggered a special animation, such as throwing an enemy through a wall, and the fight continued in the next environment. These transitions often led to secret paths players could discover.
I set the triggers in the environments and worked with art on what Hulk would do, which piece of the scene would break, and how the action would flow into the next space. Another designer, who focused on combat and balance, handled the interaction window within the fight. It gave us a way to connect Hulk’s destructive actions to exploration as well as combat.
Adding Variety Between Fights
I proposed an ISO-8 mining minigame to give players another activity between fights. ISO-8 was a rare material central to the game, and finding a crystal vein led to a short, timed challenge where players tapped specific locations rapidly to dislodge material.
I pitched the idea to the design team because I felt it could add variety without requiring a large amount of work from the rest of the team. Another designer implemented the minigame, and I placed the veins throughout the levels with a chance to spawn. The interaction gave players something else to discover and do while exploring.
Level Diagrams
