Cryptic Studios (2003–2007)

Titles: Game Designer

Projects: City of Heroes, City of Villains, Champions Online

Designed content, missions, and world systems for the hit MMORPGs City of Heroes and City of Villains, as well as early development work on Champions Online. Focused on creating immersive environments, engaging mission structures, and dynamic world events that enhanced the player experience across large-scale online worlds.

Key Contributions:

• Designed and populated world zones with unique villain group spawns, behaviors, and dialogue, ensuring narrative cohesion and gameplay balance.
• Authored and implemented ‘Safeguard’ missions, scripting objectives, ambush events, and character interactions to create high-intensity, replayable content.
• Constructed mission maps using the proprietary game editor, developing layout variations and populating them with objectives, NPCs, and environmental storytelling elements.
• Collaborated with programmers and artists to create and implement live zone events, coordinating scripting, visual design, and testing to maintain stability and excitement in persistent areas.
• Maintained detailed documentation for all new features and gameplay updates while engaging with the player community to gather feedback and inform design adjustments.
• Contributed to Champions Online pre-production by designing and whiteboxing levels using Photoshop, 3DS Max, and SketchUp to define encounter flow and spatial composition.

Achievements:

• Contributed to the successful launch of City of Heroes and City of Villains, both critically acclaimed and commercially successful MMORPGs.
• Developed mission and event systems that became core frameworks for subsequent live content updates.
• Recognized for strong cross-disciplinary collaboration and ability to blend storytelling with systemic gameplay.