Halo Infinite Level and Game Design
I had the honor of working on one of the most beloved shooter franchises in gaming history. Being a Halo fan, this was a dream come true! Throughout this album, you will find a myriad of areas I worked on within Halo Infinite. Working with multiple teams within 343 Industries, I was tasked with both level and game design during my contract at the studio. I have a large majority of my work posted within this album, but as you can tell from the following list, there is a lot to cover. I hope you enjoy checking out these areas of the map as much as I have working on them.
Here is a list of the Level Design within the open world that I handled:
I did the level design for four of the spartan cores, which you can see in this Halo Infinite Album. Four major POIs within the game are areas the players fight through to get Spartan Cores that enable them to upgrade Master Chief’s abilities in Infinite. Each one was unique and amazing to create. You can find more detailed screenshots within this album.
FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) are the rally points for Master Chief to reload, grab a vehicle and even get some help. Players use the FOBs to move around the open world through fast travel and opening up sections of the map by taking the FOBs over from The Banished. I created the level design for the following areas:
FOB Bravo
FOB Delta
FOB Golf
FOB Hotel
FOB Lima
FOB November
Pictured in the above image, the Beacons are a critical aspect of both narrative and design within Infinite. Imperative for player progression through the story, the level design needed to present a challenge for this level beat. I designed two of the Beacons, one on the east-side of the map and another on the west-side. Both areas are represented within this album and were some of my favorite spaces to design.
Moving into the game design areas of my work on Halo Infinite, I was given the opportunity to choose the locations for the High Value Targets or HVT events within the map. Creating a balance of events was imperative to keep players engaged while also moving them to key locations within the open world of Halo Infinite. Researching what areas needed these events was an important part of the process of this aspect of my design work. While I chose the general area for all the HVT locations, it was definitely a team effort to create these engaging events that fleshed out the world of Zeta Halo.
Choosing the locations of the events, I also designed the encounters of some of the HVT events. Fine-tuning combat and engagement was a pivotal role for making these spaces come alive to the players. Play-testing each HVT for difficulty, immersion and functionality enabled me to balance and plan for each of these experiences. Little level design work was required for this responsibility, and using the existing terrain and spaces was very important for this task. I refined the combat and game-play for the following events:
HVT Arch Khordat Barroth
HVT Zeretus
HVT Balkarus
HVT En ‘Geddon
HVT Ik ‘Novus
HVTs were not the only areas in which I worked on game-play elements. Working on the UNSC Marine events was engaging and a lot of fun. Refining and balancing combat while creating unique experiences to engage the player was another task I completed on Halo Infinite. I was assigned several squads to create experiences for. I also included screenshots in this album. Using existing areas to further enhance the existing areas in Zeta Halo was a key aspect of creating these events. My area of focus was determining how the combat would be deployed, what happened to the marines and iterating upon the game-play. The squads I worked on UNSC Marine Events for were:
Barracuda Squad
Bengal Squad
Cobra Squad
Lancer Squad
Jester Squad
Paladin Squad
Starlight Squad
Besides placing, setting up and iterating upon the Marine Events, I also placed kill volumes around the open world map and the wildlife spawners for half of the map. I focused both aspects of design on the technical aspects of the process and ensuring the world of Zeta Halo felt alive for the players. Working on this game with so many wonderful colleagues and friends was such an amazing experience, and I cannot wait to see what is next for 343 and Halo in the future.
