Michael Bilodeau Email & Phone Number

Los Angeles, Ca, Us

Working with some of the very best in the industry to further delight the amazing community of players dedicated to Riot Games.

Culver City, California, Us

The small team at BOXI has a lot of ambition! The debut title, Ally & Conquer is jumping into the MMORTS genre with some of the biggest games in the mobile market. My responsibilities started with reviewing the state of the game and designing and planning updates to improve the fun factor, retention rate and fair monetization. My role expanded to managing the implementation of these updates while also creating any content required to fill them out. The breadth of the game and the volume of the UI required to access each feature at this time was extremely challenging. This project has greatly expanded my skills with Unity, interface design and balancing complex systems. At the next major milestone, it was up to me to determine what the new set of priorities was and updates necessary to best satisfy our goals. This pass was focused on streamlining the player experience and making sure that each feature was obvious and accessible. Every step of the way I jump on whatever needs the most attention, even handling the art outsourcing. Mobile games of this scale with a small team are just as challenging as any console title.

Human Element went through many iterations from the initial reveal to the final form teased at the Game Awards. My role grew over the course of the project and I learned so much about new tools and teamwork. In the feature driven, flat structure here I often found my self in the roles of coordinator, instigator, and facilitator in addition to getting my hands dirty with implementation of all wide variety of gameplay and effects. This environment was unlike any I have worked in before and the new challenges had me learning constantly. I became very familiar with both Unreal Engine 4 and Cry Engine 3, and even SCRUM to a degree. The biggest takeaway from this job for me was learning to focus all of my energy in a positive direction for the project and how to best identify impediments to this process.

Being the first level designer at Broodworks/SuperBot was quite a challenge, we did a lot of soul-searching to determine what would really set us apart. Once we finally determined our direction and expanded the team, my role expanded significantly.I had many responsibilities:- Vetting candidates to join the Level Design team, as well as those that will support their creation like Animators and Environment Artists.- Managing the development process for all of the levels we create. Not just making sure they follow the process, but that they really fulfill the goals, and then communicating that to the team at large.- Instituting and formalizing the steps of the development process and nurturing it as we put it to use.- Driving creative sessions to inspire and empower the teams working on levels and other features.- Pushing the limits of our available tools and working with engineers to refine them for effective use of time at work, as well as empowering the designers to do more for less as the project developed.

Designing and implementing systems for solo and cooperative player challenges as well as competitive matches. Working closely with programmers to create an environment where designers can more rapidly prototype and implement new features without impacting other resources. Planning levels, working closely with artists and other level layout designers. Creating new goal types and then scripting unique systems to handle progress tracking. Assisting with creation of groundwork for goal building tools. Writing scripts for level events, ai background characters, simple camera and in-game cutscenes. Constructing geometry, creating optimized collision, and adding other various game specific features.

Us

Continued as Lead Designer after aquisition by Midway Games. Worked on several prototypes, and helped wrap up Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.This position ended when Neversoft Entertainment offered me more opportunity and better benefits.

Moorpark, Ca, Us

Co-Leading Design of Project. Including: introducing realtime physics, designing camera systems, organizing layouts, designing events and weapons, implementing systems -physics, AI, camera, effects, triggers, scripts, weapons, events- using custom tools, planning level progression and player rewards, developing and designing tools for future implementation, and training junior designers in these tasks.This position ended when Midway Games bought out Paradox Development.

Moorpark, Ca, Us

Hired on for help with X-Men: Next Dimension. Moved over to Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home when X-Men was being submitted. Worked as a Designer for Backyard Wrestling product cycle, and was without a lead for the last few months.This position ended in my promotion to Lead Designer.

Moorpark, Ca, Us

Helped with the end of X-Men: Next Dimension. Laying out collision, hide groups, see-through groups, and breakable objects, for levels that were already art-complete. I assisted in the reporting, tracking, testing, and even fixing of bugs.This position ended in my being hired on full time.