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Batman: Arkham Shadow

Action-Adventure, VR Game 

Game Designer, Camouflaj Games

From Aug 2022 - Dec 2024

During my time at the award winning VR studio Camouflaj Games, I worked on the 2024 VR Game of the Year: 'Batman: Arkham Shadow' for the Meta Quest. 

The goal behind Arkham Shadow was to create a completely authentic Batman Arkham game in VR. With free locomotion, spinning plate gameplay, and challenging combat and predator encounters, we succeeded.​

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Responsibilities:

  • Create satisfying stealth-based predator levels that allow the player to sneak through the shadows and pick off enemies one by one. Starting with 2D top-down layout drawings, then creating 3D grey-box levels inside Unity, to create dynamic and challenging encounters.
     

  • Design and implement in-game cinematic sequences that place the player in the driver seat with focus on narrative pacing and storytelling. Lead a team of 3 designers in implementation and methodology.

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  • Lead the system design and implementation of the “RPG Town,” a hub area featuring 20+ unique NPCs, multi-branching dialogue paths in NPC conversations, shop gameplay for cosmetic items, and side quests that supported player choice and narrative depth.
     

  • Creating game design prototypes and handling level logic using advanced visual scripting tools inside of Unity Graphs.
     

  • Producing iterative development pipelines to be used across the team, collaborating with peers from Design, Art, Narrative, and Engineering.
     

  • Engaging in peer review, accepting critique and running meetings to bring effective solutions to design challenges.
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  • Writing Documentation for levels and prototypes; implementing design friendly metrics based on design requirements, that communicate the intention of the gameplay space while supporting the core mechanics.

Predator Blockout

This is one example of my work on the game's Predator levels, "The Cage". I created a pen-and-pad sketch and a greybox blockout of the space, as well as the enemy pathing throughout. The goal was to allow the player to "spiral in" to the center of the arena, taking out enemies on the periphery before descending into the vent network to emerge within the center cage and unlock the path forward.

TheCageGreybox.png
CagePredatorShot.png

Cinematic Sequences

Opening Sequence

I took ownership over the design of the opening minutes of Arkham Shadow. The player is subtly taught how to turn, move, and mantle, then to crouch and sneak, as well as VR-specific actions such as ladder climbing and hand interactables (in this case, a lighter and molotov). Each new action is deliberately placed, necessary for progression, and easily accomplishable, with room for multiple tries.​

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Blocking, framing, and lighting are invaluable tools in VR cinematic design. Since we don't utilize pre-rendered cutscenes involving the player and we can't take control of the player's camera (we don't want our player vomiting on the floor), we need to find more naturalistic ways of drawing the player's attention.

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