About me
Vasiliy Skobelev
Level Designer. Consultant. Speaker. Science Editor.
Hi! I've been developing games for 9 years now. It was a long journey with lots of challenges. I've tried out different jobs and participated in a few cool projects. Alongside my primary work I share my knowledge both on personal studies and public speeches. Took some contracts on game literature as a Science Editor from time to time. At some point I've decided to showcase all my content in one place. That's how this site came to be. Welcome =)
Games
Here you can see projects I've worked on and my respective roles at the time.
Vector
Level Designer, Project Manager, QA
Vector 2
Level Designer, Scrum Master
Shadow Fight 2
QA, Game Designer
Shadow Fight 3
Atomic Heart
Lead Level Designer
War Robots: Frontiers
Lead Level Designer
Books
Science Editor - a person responsible for authenticity of facts. I took this mantle to work on russian localization of books you can see below.
Вселенная Assassin's Creed. История, персонажи, локации, технологии
Создание трилогии BioShock. От Восторга до Колумбии
MARVEL Человек-Паук: Майлз Моралес. Искусство игры
Игровая разработка без боли и кранчей. Руководство для гейм-дизайнеров
Events
Here you can watch some of public speeches I've had an honor to be a part of.
'Narrative design of environment and characters, not just simple texts'

Jule 29, 2023. Narratorika and I discuss the instruments of storytelling.

A talk about platformer games design

Jule 17, 2023. A talk during the platformers gamesjam

Interview with "Indikator" community of indie developers

June 16, 2023. Lots of honest answers to a number of cool questions =)

Narratorika online-school. 'Basics of Unreal Engine for Narrative Designers' exam.

June 14, 2023. We go through the levels of five students.

A talk about life and level design

May 5, 2023. Stream with a host of "Game Design practice"

Press to play: what it means to be a Level Designer

April 20, 2023. An hour long podcast with RedBard studio

Narratorika online-school. Narrative Design exam.

March 26, 2023.We go through the games of 3 students on TWINE engine

Scream School Game Development class. Talk about Level Design

March 21, 2023. I answer the questions about my job and everyday tasks

Design session. Skill Checks in Puzzles
March 16, 2023. My collegues help me to polish presentation for the upcoming meetup
Design session. Deconstruct of Call of Duty Modern Warfare II

January 26, 2023. My collegues and me analyze campaign, cooperative and competitive game modes

War Robots: Frontiers - Development Spotlight: Crash Site

December 27, 2022. Dev diary video where I talk about the first map I've prepared for War Robots: Frontiers Early Access.

How a Narrative Designer can help a Level Designer?

August 16, 2022. Presentation for Narratorika Online Conference 2022

Interview for web series "Я-PRO"

June 1, 2022. Questions about level design, tips for newbies, metaverses and favorite games.

Why am I still not a Level Designer?

May 27, 2022. My speech on DUMP 2022 in Yekaterinburg

8 tips for Level Designers

Spring 2022. Compilation of 8 educational videos recorded with help of VK Junior

How to properly design a level
November 22, 2021. Alexander Mezin, Roman Ilyin, Denis Kozin and me answer the questions of attendees of free LD course we've published recently on devtodev site.

P.s. The course itself can be found at the bottom of the page under "Publications"
Videogames - future of literature?
September 26, 2021. Anton Gorodetskiy, Eugen Sudak, Vladimir Obruchev, Vadim Panov and me discuss how games might affect the written media.
How to become a gamedev?
August 28, 2021. Mikhail Vovk, Denis Kozin and me telling our stories of becoming a game developer on Russian Creativity Week 2021
How consoles affected modern LD metrics
July 23, 2021. We discuss some cases with my collegues Arkadiy Kiselev, Denis Kozin and July Komarova on TBD PRO: Game Design NG+
About Level Design

April 24, 2021. Here I'm trying to recover after a high temperature and explain attendees on twitch what Level Designers actually do. Was a part of second season of "Go_v_gamedev". Special thanks to ASAP GAMES and Far Eastern Federal University.

Students
Alexander. Confident Unreal Engine user. 2 individual sessions.
Arsalan Azizi. Confident Unreal Engine user. 2 individual sessions and a week long written feedback after each.
Zakhar. 12 years old. Haven't used Unreal before. 8 individual sessions.
Alexander. Junior Level Designer. Level inspired by Resident Evil. 8 individual sessions.
Sergey. Level Designer. 5 individual sessions.
Alexander. Third year of college. 12 group sessions.
Ilya. Third year of college. 3 group sessions. The 1st homework.
Референс
Результат
Ilya. Third year of college. 12 group sessions. Course work draft inspired by immersive sims.
Pavel. Junior Level Designer. Haven't used Unreal before. 8 individual sessions.

Nikita. Third year of college. 3 group sessions. The 1st homework inspired by Payday 2.

Gratitudes
Publications
Level Design. Basic course
I've made a video about learning curve and difficulty in Level Design for this course. It's free, with videos and test in the end. My topic is #7
All roads lead to gamedev

An article about how people with drastically different background have become a game developer. My part is the last, please scroll down =)

Level design 101: the language of location development
The first article from a series where I talk about level design.
Follow the breadcrumbs: the basic techniques of level design
The second article from a series where I talk about level design.
Advanced level design: borrowing cinematic techniques for gameplay
The best piece on level design I've managed to pull off
Level design FAQ: what LDs usually don't talk about
The final LD article from the series
Who is Level Designer and how popular this profession in Russia?
Interview for REGNUM
The secret of good level design
Six essays from developers about level design, sence of flow and importance of level art
How to create interesting levels for online shooters — a workflow description
Collegues from My.Games and me sharing different tips on map development
Development Spotlight: Crash Site map
Patrick Kindlon and me talk about interesting details of the first map from War Robots: Frontiers
Resident Evil 6 review: why it's failed
We've come together with a several other developers to discuss problems of the title
Development Spotlight: Mont map
Shredder-Blitz and me dig into the design process of the second map from War Robots: Frontiers
How to create engaging open worlds
Vasiliy Skobelev, lead level designer at My.Games' studio Pixonic, shares his tips on how to make interesting open worlds and understand the different types of game levels
Contacts
Made on
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