Charles Peng Email & Phone Number

Irvine, Ca, Us

Currently working as a Combat Designer on Diablo 4, with a focus on Encounters (monsters, bosses, scripted fights, etc.)The majority of my content has been boss fights--I've worked on over two dozen of them including all Stronghold bosses, all Capstone-Dungeon bosses, a couple Campaign bosses, Act bosses, World bosses, Activity bosses, and Repeat-Dungeon bosses. I've also developed multiple monster families--these are the smaller monsters that make up the bulk of combat in the open world and dungeons.As part of the monster making process I work closely with other departments like Story, Animation, VFX, Sound, Concept, Programming, etc. to create a shared vision, and lead everyone in making a creature that not only plays well and appropriately challenges our audience through gameplay, but that highlights the talents and imaginations of the many skilled developers on all these teams.My personal tasks revolve around conceptualizing kits, prototyping abilities, creating the creature's AI/Behavior, managing the big picture goals and direction for the feature teams working on these monsters, and maintaining strong back-and-forth between individual team members (concept, animation, vfx, sound, etc). Abilities and AI are largely scripted myself using our robust engine, with help from programming for more intricate asks.I have the most fun working with teams of developers creating entirely new content, but I also have a good amount of experience working solo and creating unique fights out of recycled assets. At every job I've had, finding ways to get the most bang for buck out of our budgets has a key factor in developing content. Whether it's making something new with the intention of easily re-using parts of it, or finding fresh uses for existing animations, models, vfx, mechanics--I've been diligent to keep our budgets in mind and make as much content as possible.

Alpharetta, Ga, Us

At Hi-Rez I worked in many different fields of design on the projects: Paladins, SMITE, and Rogue Company- Character/Gameplay/Combat DesignWhile on Paladins I drove the creation of several characters in our popular hero-shooter. This included designing unique gameplay hooks, ability kits, and each of the character-specific guns our champions have. As part of character design I've also spent a great deal of time working with multiple departments in animation, vfx, sound, programming, and 2D-art to drive the best unified vision of the character as possible.I also worked on character balancing and card / talent balancing (Paladins' unique playstyle customization system) which includes several hundred different modifiers. We strove to make sure the meta never felt too stagnant and that players could enjoy the game in new, interesting ways.- Systems DesignDeveloping strong outer-loop systems is vital for a live-service game to maintain interest, and while on Paladins and SMITE I developed several special events, progression systems, monetization/retention systems (eg. Battle Pass), and out-of-game engagement systems (eg. pushing players to watch our esports with in-game systems).- Voice Pack Writing/Casting/DirectingI've written and cast many of the voice packs as part of the cosmetics we sell at Hi-Rez. We do our best to add as much quality content as possible with player purchases and have spared no effort to produce voices that capture the feel of the cosmetics we sell. With every voice we also direct the actors during recording to ensure the right feel. My personal favorite to have written: https://paladins.gamepedia.com/Ameri-Khan_Khan_voice_lines- AI and PvEWhile on Paladins I was in charge of all things AI and PvE related. This included the implementation of each character's AI tree as we released them. PvE prototyping was also handled by me. On SMITE I revamped and implemented the majority of their character AI, and developed PvE encounters.

Alpharetta, Ga, Us

Jetpack Fighter (iOS, Android)- Lead Level Designer for Hi-Rez’s mobile 2.5D speedrunner/action game Jetpack Fighter- While working on Jetpack Fighter I developed over a hundred levels in Unity 3D with over two dozen kinds of enemies, several bosses and minibosses, and multiple environmental gimmicks, spanning over three themed zones.- The levels I worked on, like much of Jetpack Fighter, were heavily influenced by Mega Man and built to incorporate some of that game’s core values like fostering fluid gameplay and teaching players about new enemies and environmental hazards through level design.Paladins (PC, XBOX, PS4)- Lead AI Designer for multiplayer hero-shooter Paladins.- In Paladins I’ve designed and coded AI Trees in Unreal 3 tailored for each character in the hero-shooter. - I've made the AI focused on providing a fun experience for new players and fair difficulty to veteran players so that difficulty comes from bots coordinating, making use of each character's abilities, and playing with roles in mind, without the need to “aim-bot” to create artificial difficulty.

Alpharetta, Ga, Us

Jetpack Fighter (iOS, Android)- Worked as an intern level designer for Hi-Rez studios for the Summer on their mobile games team and developed several levels for Jetpack Fighter that would later become part of the finished product.- While working as an intern I did my best to absorb as much new information as possible, produce the best work I could, and invest as much time as I could to make fun and engaging content. It was after a few months that I was offered a full-time position.

Ithaca, Ny, Us

Worked with research team developing algorithms to optimize computer systems network trafficking. Set up a data server for the team, assisted with website design and coding, software debugging, and familiarized new team members with basic UNIX and using the data server to submit code.