JAMES BEECH

DARKSIDERS 3

My primary work for Darksiders 3 (DS3), an Unreal Engine 4 game, was the creation and completion (paper map to ship) of two major zones: The Bonelands and The Depths. These two giant, interconnected areas, account for over 1/3 of DS3's world. The video above starts roughly where my work begins, at The Church, and goes on to highlight The Bonelands (the swamp zone), whereas the video below highlights The Depths (the underwater zone).

Each zone was built to showcase the evolving Metroidvania abilities of Fury, the game's protagonist. Additionally, as Dark Souls was a reference point for DS3, both zones feature numerous backtracks and shortcuts, leading to the aforementioned interconnected world. I collaborated with DS3's other two LDs to create the overall flow of the world.

Additionally, I was tasked with creating unique and compelling encounters throughout the game. All told, I setup over 3/4 of DS3's encounters, with an eye towards making enemies feel like part of their environment, again using Dark Souls as a touchstone.

This encounter task eventually led me to placing ALL items/pickups in the entire game, as they often worked as lures to setup interesting combat situations. As such, I was involved with shaping Fury's progression across the game, working with the Game Director to figure out how and when Fury should increase her power.

Towards the end of the project, I was in charge of making sure the entire game world was optimized and performant across all platforms, altering levels as needed to meet these requirements.

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Darksiders 3 is available on PS4/XBox One, Switch, and here, on Steam.