Level Designer | World-Builder
MARVEL HEROES
ROLE
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Content Designer
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Mission | Encounter Design
TOOLS
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Unreal Engine 3
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Calligraphy (proprietary)
PLATFORM
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Microsoft Windows
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Mac OS X
ZONE EVENTS
War Games | Mission Design, Encounters
As a content and mission designer for Marvel Heroes, a major part of my role was focused on creating public "zone events" in addition to traditional missions. These events were large-scale, dynamic challenges set in open-world zones, providing players with engaging content outside of the main story missions. I wrote & designed numerous public combat zone and patrol zone events, crafting experiences that encouraged player cooperation and competition in the world.
For the "War Games" event, I centered it around the Taskmaster Institute, with the concept that Taskmaster would naturally incorporate superhero battles into his curriculum. Since Patrol Zones were endgame content, I designed this event to be multi-phased, with escalating difficulty and rewards. I was responsible for mission design, crafting a multi-phased event structure with increasing difficulty, encounter scripting to define spawn behaviors and enemy AI, and dialogue for the Mercenaries and Taskmaster. The event included combat design to balance enemy roles, stats, and abilities (e.g., Mercenaries, Taskmaster), while also overseeing the event flow to ensure smooth transitions and pacing across all phases.
Phase 1– Deathmatch
Players were tasked with defeating randomly spawning elite mercenaries. I designed spawn points for the mercenaries, including entrances where they would rappel in from above, and wrote unique dialogue lines for each. The mercenaries had distinct names, many with humorous, MMO-style puns, adding personality to the encounter.
Phase 2 – Hostage Rescue
Players needed to rescue hostages from warehouses, where they would spawn in groups of one to three. These hostages were guarded by mercenary grunts. The interaction required to rescue each hostage was disrupted by enemy attacks, and once players interacted with a hostage long enough, they would "run to exit" and despawn. I designed this interaction to create tension, as players needed to balance offense and defense while rescuing hostages.
Phase 3 – Hardpoint Capture
The third phase tasked players with defending a key area on the map. They had to hold off 150 mercenaries within a three-minute window. Success in this phase triggered the appearance of the event boss, Taskmaster, who rappelled into the scene for the final showdown.
Final Phase – Taskmaster (Boss Fight)
Taskmaster, as the event boss, was designed to be a higher challenge than his story mode counterpart. While Marvel Heroes had both story and event bosses, event bosses like Taskmaster were designed to be fought by parties, with higher damage output and more resilient armor. I made sure the battle's difficulty curve was steep, with Taskmaster presenting a tough challenge that required teamwork to overcome.
ENCOUNTERS
Discoveries | Design
The discovery system added narrative and interactivity to exploration by placing visual story moments throughout the world. Each setup combined characters, props, and effects to suggest a scene or event without direct exposition.
Markers served as modular anchors, allowing for flexible placement and tuning across different levels. This made it easy to adjust pacing and density of content. Behavior overrides and dialogue brought scenes to life, with actors reacting to player proximity, combat, or scripted triggers. Some discoveries offered rewards or lore, while others existed purely to deepen atmosphere. Overall, the system rewarded curiosity and observation, making exploration feel meaningful and alive.