OVERKILL's: The Walking Dead

Game: OVERKILL's The Walking Dead
Job Title: Level Designer
Studio Project at Starbreeze Studios
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Released: November 6th 2018
OVERKILL's The Walking Dead is a co-op survival game. Four players sneak, fight and loot their way through the streets of Washington D.C. to improve their basecamp and survive.

I joined the project in the final stages of development where I was responsible for retrofitting an existing level for a revisit mission. After release I was responsible for leading the striketeam that developed a DLC level. I implemented the mission script and a new unique mechanic. The mission was ready for release when all development for the game was suspended following a dispute with the publisher.

During development the level design and tech design teams worked incredibly close with one another. Through this collaboration I had the chance to improve my technical understanding and scripting capabilities. During the development of DLC I also had the opportunity to train another level designer.
Best Served Cold:
Retrofitting an existing level for a new mission
Unreleased DLC level:
Developed with a striketeam, unreleased content.

Responsibilities included:

Mission Design
  • Collaborating with narrative designers
  • Implementing mission beats
  • Designing & Implementing puzzles
  • Implementing AI behavior, patrols, wave events, combat & dialogue
  • Planning & implementing mission randomisation
  • Creating and maintaining communication maps
Multiplayer Level Design
  • Adjusting all content to work for single- and multiplayer
    • Accomodating corridor and room sizes to co-op play
    • Balancing combat for any number of players
    • Making puzzles fun for any number of players
    • Ensuring all scripts synchronise on network

Recommendations:

Hunter Wright
Lead Level Designer at Starbreeze Studios
"My name is Hunter Wright and I am lead level designer at Starbreeze Studios. I was Michiel's boss on Overkill's The Walking Dead, and sat next to him for the last year and a half. Michiel was great to work with both as colleagues and as a direct report. He was always willing to go the extra mile to get things done and had a great sense of what is fun for the players. I could always rely on Michiel to work independently without much oversight and knew I could expect quality work from him.

Michiel was primarily responsible for the map Doctor's Orders for the main game, and the DLC map, Best Served Cold. When he started Doctor's Orders had a rough layout blocked in, which Michiel then finished out the block out, reworking areas that needed improvement, as well as doing all the scripting. He also helped design the puzzles and seeing the map to completion. For Best Served Cold, Michiel was the primary designer on the map and was a huge help with establishing the flow of the map, the puzzles, and the overall feel of the level. He also mentored one of our interns which was a huge help to me as I was super busy with other tasks at the time.

Michiel was well versed in all areas of design and fulfilled many different roles during my time with him. If I had to pick one role that he excels at it would probably be his scripting. He was able to make scripts for his levels that performed well and he was able to quickly fix any edge cases or problems that QA uncovered.

He gives lots of updates on where things are, in addition to what he needs to make his levels work. He also took the initiative to schedule extra scrum meetings for the designers that he is working with to make sure that they were all on the same page for the Best Served Cold map. Michiel was always open to hearing my feedback and often requested that I look at stuff he was working on to make sure that it was heading in the right direction.

Michiel cares a lot about the people that he works with and takes great pride in his work. I always see him helping out people with things for both work related stuff and things outside of work. He never wanted his levels to be broken or behind so he made sure to put in extra effort when necessary if he wasn't happy with something.

I would have no problem recommending him for a game design position, and I feel that he would make a great addition to your studio."
Bart Huisman
Technical Designer at Starbreeze Studios
"Having worked closely with Michiel at Starbreeze, he impressed me from day one by his eagerness to adopt standards and best practices and a willingness to dive into the technical end. Embracing the collaborative nature of development and drawing on the resources he has, Michiel takes responsibility for his own growth: he does not ask you to do something repeatedly for him, he works to understand the issue so he can resolve it himself in the future. He will speak up when he feels something is wrong, and is dedicated to making the best product.

Michiel shines on the interpersonal side. He balances a good sense of humour with his professional attitude, which makes being around him a pleasure. Dedication is the keyword again, as he is not just dedicated to his work, but also to the well-being of his friends and colleagues.

Michiel makes for a great designer and I’m sure he will go on to empower many future projects with his skillset, eagerness to learn, and warm personality."
Arie Gijsenbergh
Level Designer at Starbreeze Studios
"I had the pleasure to work with Michiel at Starbreeze on Overkill's The Walking Dead on both the main game & its DLC's.

Michiel works at a very high standard and takes a lot of responsibility over his work which is something he proved in particular during the development of the last DLC. Michiel was the main responsible level designer on this DLC & lead a pod (strike team) of several designers to complete this level as well as mentoring an intern at the time. This DLC level managed to give the players more agency and introduce more coop mechanics which made it one of the more varied missions in the game.

Michiel is technical, thrives under pressure and very friendly as well which makes him a great colleague to work with!"
Owen Evans
Level Designer at Starbreeze Studios
"It was a pleasure working with Michiel at Starbreeze studios. He was open minded and creative in his approach to solving problems within his or others levels. He gave constructive feedback and vice versa was able to take criticism, always with a keen desire for improving levels so players would love the experience. He was a friend as well as a colleague, and I would not hesitate to recommend him."