Project Starwarden


Project Starwarden was a third person action-adventure title, with a solarpunk sci-fi theme and a metroidvania structure. Gameplay would take place over four expansive planets and involve plenty of exploration, backtracking, environmental secrets and ever-escalating player abilities. The narrative told an optimistic story that featured galactic stakes but was ultimately about the unbreakable bonds between a loving family.

Players would take control of Adara as she, her father and twin siblings searched for Adara’s mother Voen who mysteriously vanished during an exoplanetary research mission. Aided by Vee, a cowardly AI companion, Adara would combat a terrifying existential threat to her species, restore varied but ruined ecosystems to their natural state, rescue her mother and take on the mythical role of The Starwarden.

As Lead Level Designer on Starwarden, I was responsible for planning and overseeing all aspects of level design. I worked with the other discipline leads to define the scope of the game and the four planets that made up the game’s playable areas. I then broke each of those planets down into districts, which would comprise one or more levels each.

As the game was a metroidvania, this involved planning ability based gate-and-key progression curves and ensuring each world and district would be fun to revisit multiple times in different orders.

I was also responsible for assigning the design of each district to a level designer, then reviewing and guiding the level designs at each stage of development; ensuring the designs always kept the player’s experience in mind while staying achievable from a technical and scheduling perspective.

In addition, I line managed the level design team; interviewed design (both level and systems) candidates; and trained and mentored new team members.

As the narrative director on the project, I was responsible for creating the universe, characters, factions, main story beats etc. in order to allow other departments and disciplines to produce concepts, prototypes and designs that integrated with the overall game.

Click to read an overview of the game’s narrative

I was also responsible for shaping the tools, methods and pipelines that enabled us to deliver the narrative to the players; for directing the cutscenes and co-directing the voice over sessions for cutscene dialogue.

I was the contact point between the studio and external writers, responsible for assigning and scheduling writing tasks; then regularly reviewing the work, meeting with the writers and offering feedback and guidance.

I worked in tandem with the art and design directors to shape the vision for the game, and then ensure that each piece of development work supported that vision.

During preproduction and the creation of the game’s vertical slice, I worked closely with other discipline leads, the project director and company stakeholders daily to steer development focus and overall game ‘feel’.