Skyrim Mod: Lordbound

Development Period: 2014-2021
Group Project
Engine: Creation Engine
Status: Alpha
Lordbound is a DLC-sized modification for Skyrim under development by an international team working alongside our jobs or studies. The team is structured after the hierarchy of a professional studio and is trained during production to work like one.

Over six years I've primarily been responsible for implementing (and directing) the open world and its dungeons. I've created blockouts, encounters and environment art for the open world as well as one-page briefings or paintovers for other designers and artists to work off of and make sure everyone is always well informed on latest developments.
I am also heavily invested in the training of my team as many of them have limited or no industry experience. Of those who I have trained personally: Five now work in a AAA studio as designers, three more have been promoted from QA to Design at their respective studios.

For this project we are using Bethesda's Creation Kit and its original Skyrim assets, which we have supplemented with an additional modular kit which I co-designed. We have also modified the tools themselves and use third party programs to further improve our pipeline. These include: Worldmachine, Perforce, Tortoise SVN and a special launcher I have created for the team, Grabber, which is meant to simplify our toolset. It handles:
  • Daily Pull/Get Latest
  • Collecting shortcuts to important folders & hyperlinks
  • Making back-ups
  • Acting as a wizard for complicated proccesses
    • Making & Exporting of builds
    • Generating environments from heightmaps
    • Accessing tools with preset variables for quick access
In-game screenshots of my level designs & set dressing.
World Machine & Shortcut Manager
Communication Maps (Main Worldspace)
Maps that further detail design planning, progress charts, dungeon locations and more are available upon request.

Overview of Level Design Process:

Written in 2014:
Contains a written report and imagery on the building of an Orcish city.

Lessons learned, the city is being redesigned and prepared for content complete.

Media:

Picture
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​  Covered on PCGAMER!​
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​Covered on Kotaku!

More Information Available:
Visit the project ModDB page to read about recent project updates!

Downloads Available:
The latest version of the project will be made available on request.

Responsibilities include:

Level Design
  • Concepting
    • Paperdesign
    • Greybox in Maya or Creation Kit
    • Develop proof of concept
    • Heightmap Editing
  • Development
    • Iterate proof of concept to first playable
    • Design & implement encounters
      • Combat
      • Loot
      • Set dressing
      • Scripting custom events & AI
      • Unmarked quests
    • Mission scripting
    • Decoration pass
    • Playtest and organising playtests
    • Optimisation pass
    • Iterate gameplay elements to final
Systems and Support
  • Game/Systems Design:
    • Faction design & implementation
    • Creating NPC/Faction templates
    • Creating loot tables
    • Creating new weapons and armour with scripted effects
    • Designing new enemy types
    • Implementing assets
      • Exporting meshes/textures for use with the engine
      • Implementing equipment, static objects, setting up LODs, and landscape brushes.
      • Modifying existing Skyrim assets for re-use in Lordbound.
  • Technical Support
    • Version Control management
    • Build Master
    • First point of contact for technological issues
    • Custom pipeline upgrades
      • Custom launcher for team
        • Currently written and operated in Command Line
        • Plan to convert to GUI
        • Automated getting latest on editor startup (Can be aborted in rare events of broken builds)
        • Performs or partially automates complex tasks
        • Centralises all our common tools
  • Training new members:
    • Design principles
    • Gameplay Systems
    • Source Control
    • Game Art basics
    • Scrum
    • Working with our game editor (Creation Kit)
    • ​Working in a team
Level Design Lead
  • World Design
    • Designed the overworld
      • Directed architecture and ecotypes to form cohesive areas
      • Created distinct regional themes
    • Designing and implementing flow between locations of interest
    • First point of contact for Quest Team to allow:
      • Matching themes, territorial borders, loot, level requirements, ETC across the game world
      • Assigning points of interest close to quest sites to support intended gameplay
  • Managing World and Dungeon teams for:
    • Tracking assignments
    • Creating mock-ups
    • Assigning areas to designers
    • Integrating & locking completed areas
    • Organising feedback sessions
Project Manager
  • Leading an international 29 people team
    • Eight countries
    • Four timezones
  • Project scheduling
    • Pre-production to Beta
    • Managed scope
    • Weekly stand-up scrum-master
    • Role was successfully handed over to dedicated producer for Beta to Release

Recommendations:

Daniel Lewis
Game Designer at Outplay by day;
Level Designer for Lordbound by night.
"Michiel has thrown himself at the challenge of producing an ambitious DLC-sized content modification for TESV: Skyrim with incredible gusto, passion and discipline. As project lead he has done a remarkable job of not only keeping the team together, focused and on target, but also in keeping in touch with it's design, providing feedback and direction and leading it's overall vision during the collaboration.

In his design work he always shows good attention to detail, keeping both gameplay and 'feel' of the areas in mind, and is always receptive to, and acts on received feedback across all areas of design, from levels and quests, to narrative and artistic directions. It is a testament to the many hats Michiel wears that the project continues to move from strength to strength. ,,
Elena Knödler
Level Designer at Crytek by day;
Level Designer for Lordbound by night.
"As part of his modding team, I had the pleasure of working with Michiel. His sophisticated grasp of level design principles and his ability to balance between professionalism and amusement during review and scrum meetings create an enjoyable but productive atmosphere. His detailed feedback on changes he would like to see in the levels are well-founded and, in my opinion, Michiel’s highest skills lie at this moment with environmental storytelling and player flow. His abilities surrounding team management’s many aspects have well improved over the time I've known him, learning how to keep even a team of volunteers productive.

For all these reasons and for his ambitious drive to create, I am sure he will be a fine addition to any team either in the position of level designer or in a management position. ,,
Conrad Stroebel
Intern at Force Field VR by day;
Level Designer for Lordbound by night.
"Working with Michiel as World Lead and Level Designer on Lordbound has been an enjoyable experience. He is an easy to work with, competent, friendly designer that strives to deliver the best quality on all his tasks. He is very meticulous in his work, and has proven to be able to handle heavy workloads without sacrificing quality and time with the team. With a can-do attitude and ability to learn and take on new pipelines, I would easily recommend him to anyone."

More from the team:

James Brown, Dungeon Designer
"From progress maps to level design and environmental storytelling, Michiel continues to improve the projects overall quality along through his proficiency."
Nicholas Lamb, Core/System Designer
"He cultivates professionalism in himself and in his teammates. In the various technical, logistical and personnel challenges that Lordbound has encountered, Michiel has gotten up to tackle each one in turn."
Rebecca Dastina Falktorp, Level Designer
"Michiel has shown great knowledge about identifying problems in tools and pipelines, and shown fortitude developing solutions to create a better work environment for the rest of the team.​"
Luci Holland, Composer​
​"It's been a pleasure working with Michiel on Lordbound - he really respects the value of artists and their work, and puts the energy & well-being of his team first to ensure the project is something everyone will be proud of.​​"
​Arcanuum (Alias), Illustrator
​"Michiel is able to provide meaningful constructive critisism to his teammates' work so they can deliver the best quality.​"
Theodore Hilhorst, Dungeon Designer
"Michiel is a positive force within the team ensuring that everyone receives all necessary information while keeping meetings short and efficient​."