Until Dawn

As a designer, I helped complete various passes on the game.
I added transitions out of cinematics that established the geography of a level with the new third-person camera. I adjusted the environment and collision to give a smooth user experience that worked best with our predictive locomotion system. Most importantly, I added and improved horror scares to work with the new perspective. 

My role branched out into cinematic design, creating and improving the bespoke cameras on interactions. I also used my background in art to edit and create small animations to fix issues from the original game.

With each change I made, I worked to create a more immersive user experience and constant implicit guidance to help them discover all the secrets of Blackwood Mountain.

As the project progressed and trailers were released, we began to see predictions and dreams from fans of the original. Seeing how excited they were to watch their favourite characters again, I began to brainstorm how we could give them new endings.

We only had a few months to release, and that deadline was already tight. Any new content would need to have a strict budget. This led me to the new ending for Josh

In my own time, I developed a pitch, then delivered it to the creative director. He and Sony greenlit it and gave me the opportunity to work with the narrative designer to bring it to life.

I built a cross-disciplinary feature document for the producer to keep work coordinated. I then provided feedback and support to the team while it was integrated with the project. 

It took a lot of effort, but seeing the fan reaction made it all worth it.

Following my work on improving the levels, I was tasked with adding dynamic cameras to decisions.

 I worked with the cinematic team and the game’s director to iterate to a polished final result. Later passes expanded to include creating new shots to remove awkward cuts and poor framing. We rebuilt Until Dawn to bring it to modern standards, from gameplay to cinematography.  

I was responsible for creating the decision cameras for all the major action scenes, such as:

• Sam being chased through the lodge by the psycho 

• Emily’s escape from the mines 

• The final confrontation with the Wendigos in the lodge 

After finishing my work on the decision cameras, I was moved from the design team to lighting. I worked on cinematics, replacing the old lighting with new setups that matched the director's vision.

My goal was to strike a balance between making shots both dramatic and readable. The lighting team was incredibly supportive, constantly trading feedback to ensure a consistent modern horror style across the game.

I was responsible for creating the lighting for several scenes, such as:

• Sam being chased through the lodge by the psycho

•  Emily and Matt confronting the deer and exploring the fire tower

• Matt’s escape with the flaregun or his death on the wendigo's hook