Seth Carus portfolio

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... Creator, Design Lead
Crystal Dynamics

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Computer Games industry)

November 1997 — April 1999 (1 year 6 months)

Co-Creator, Designer, Script Author - Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver.

Lead Designer
Crystal Dynamics

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Computer Games industry)

September 1996 — November 1997 (1 year 3 months)

Lead Designer for Blood Omen : Legacy of Kain. Trained & managed team of 15 designers.

...

―Seth Carus

... Creator & Lead Designer
Crystal Dynamics
November 1997 – April 1999 (1 year 6 months)

Served as Lead Designer & Script Writer for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
Co-Creator of innovative game concept. Developed the meta & micro game design, character & environment design, game mechanics & level layout outline, story outline & initial script and wrote and maintained all design documentation for the duration of the project.
Designed the game flow and the world layout. Worked with the core team members to model and script the prototype used to pitch and green-light the game.
Continued to use prototype methods to propose and demonstrate initial layout concepts for all areas in the game. Based on the feedback from meetings regarding these prototypes, developed all World Maps using Adobe Illustrator.
Pitched and sold the game design & production plan to the marketing & finance departments and all company executives.
Hired 12 individuals from our in-house Q/A department and successfully trained them to be designers for the game's level layout team. Established policies and practices for the level layout team to work in partnership with a 12-member team of 3D model architects and texture artists to implement the game layout. One of two people acting as manager for the design staff.
Worked closely with the engineering team to establish the functionality of the game and develop one of the first 3D games on the PlayStation Console system. Worked with the lead engineer to design, create, deploy and maintain/update a new proprietary scripting language and system which allowed the design team to script all the in-game events & cinematics. This was the first scripting system built at Crystal Dynamics specifically for the design staff to have control of the events in the levels they were building.

Lead Designer
Crystal Dynamics
September 1996 – November 1997 (1 year 3 months)

Served as Lead Designer & unofficial 3rd-Party Producer for Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.
Worked as a liaison between third party Developer (Silicon Knights) & Producer/Distributor (Crystal Dynamics).
Promoted to Lead Designer in order to fast-track the game's development to meet deadline requirements.
Re-Designed & evolved the overall game design, level design & story/game flow. Developed viable & innovative game vision with new direction by working with original game designers at Silicon Knights. Redesign included: player character, NPC, enemy & boss mechanics, interactive object mechanics, AI specs, interface design, game flow & character development outline, game story & entire world design & level layout.
Re-developed story & served as Co-Writer of the in-game voice-over script. Directed voice talent during the studio recording of in-game dialog.
Trained & Supervised team of 15 level layout designers. Responsible for the management of the team in correspondence to the design schedule.
Wrote & maintained new GDD/Game Design Bible & accompanying design documentation (Level Layout One-Sheets, Design Tool-Kits, Schedule, GUI Designs, Level Layout Drafts (using CAD application). Also responsible for project management & asset tracking documentation.
Worked off-site at the offices of Silicon Knights in Saint Catharines, Ontario (Canada). Was responsible for the management of entire off-site design team, the maintenance of each team member's well being & safety, the procurement & payment for hotel & car rental reservations as well as providing meals & other perks offered to the design team for serving the company's interests at great personal sacrifice. Provided expense reporting & financial projection & tracking documents for the Producer for the project.
Processed and built sound assets from raw audio recordings for both effects and voice-overs to be used in-game and implemented by the level design crew. ...

―Seth Carus