Benni Lodge

A versatile designer with an indie background and a technical foundation. I believe in process driven design, rapid iteration and candid feedback.

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Projects

Until Dawn (2024)

I am currently the Lead Designer at Ballistic Moon, working on the remastered Until Dawn:

I've been responsible for turning creative direction into design concepts, workflows and technical conventions.
Improved overall cinematic quality through UE Sequencer and the animation system.
Hired and managed a team of 15 designers.
Worked with external contractors from different disciplines to deliver content.
Worked with Production to plan and schedule work for the design discipline.

Ziggy's Cosmic Adventure

I supported the developers at Stardust Collective for a short while as a freelance designer:

Worked in VR to help balance and level design.
Provided feedback through playtests.
Prototyped a per level balancing mechanic for the different ship systems.

Project Enclave (Cancelled)

I was a Game Designer on a cancelled multiplayer vehicle shooter to developed at DPS games for PC/next-gen consoles. Here are some of the things I have done:

Pitched and presented numerous combat gameplay features.
Used UE4's gameplay ability system to create performant and predictive weapons and abilities.
Owned gameplay for playable heroes from concept to final production.
Prototyped complex gameplay systems using Blueprint. For example indirect fire artillery with overhead previews.
Created varied styles of vehicle physics. Realistic tanks to arcade sports cars.
Owned large, holistic reviews and implementations of core gameplay systems.
Leveraged internal and external data capture to iterate on designs.
Mentored junior and intern staff, as well as onboarding multiple designers.
Interviewed design job applicants.

Fractured Space

I worked for a year as a scenario designer at Edge Case games on Fractured Space (PC). Essentially the role required me to create one off game modes as limited time events.

Produced and pitched game mode concepts to dev teams.
Completed live service events for several seasons.
Owned 2 season event game modes from concept to release.
Prototyped game modes and used internal reviews to iterate.
Refactored poorly implemented logic (genericised pre/post match cutscenes using UE4 Sequencer).
Mentored Junior Designers in Blueprint.

RunRed (Cancelled)

I was the Technical Designer on a start up called InMind games with my brother. We worked to produce a PC demo but ultimately we were unable to complete the project. Here are some things I achieved:

Created bespoke combat and movement systems.
AI using the behaviour tree, including multiphase bosses.
Implemented a music driven AI combat director.
Created world map navigation with a scale map of London.
Implemented a dynamic camera system to frame combat for excitement.

Eisenhorn: Xenos

Mobile and PC action adventure game based on the Warhammer 40k novel by Dan Abnett. I was tasked with level and puzzle design along with audio and cutscene integration. It was the last project I used UE3 for.

Level block out/iteration and level streaming set up.
Puzzle/Combat encounter design.
Thematic and narrative technical design.
Original script adaptation.
Cutscene implementation using Matinee.
SFX editing/recording and implementation using Audacity.

Spiral: Episode 1

Spiral was an action adventure title for mobile. There were some original ideas about inputs in this game. We allowed the player to trigger all inputs with one-handed gestures, freeing up space on the screen to see the art. It was my first project as a designer and I was responsible for several areas:

Level block out/iteration.
Puzzle design.
Fixed and dynamic cameras for gameplay.
Combat encounter design, including randomised world encounters.
Created a spawning system to populate city areas with civilians.
Implemented staged cutscenes using Matinee.

Game jams

I enjoy game jamming and have done it solo and with teams. I usually like to act as a designer, but I have also filled in as a producer, VFX artist and audio designer. Here are a few clips:

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