Chris Proctor

Chris Proctor

Senior Systems Designer at 343 Industries

Senior Systems Designer / 23 yrs

Seattle, WA

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Senior Systems Designer

Halo 5: Guardians (2015)
I am a highly experienced senior designer specializing in shooter combat mechanics and roleplaying progression systems. I have a proven track record of working creatively and collaboratively with all of the disciplines to develop systems and mechanics that make a perceptible, satisfying contribution to the player experience.

Key Skills:
- AI design - particularly for enemies in shooter RPGs
- RPG system design - appropriately deep progression systems for a game, from shooter to MMORPG
- Design leadership - running brainstorming sessions and providing design guidance in a cross-disciplinary team
- Varied system design experience - first person / third person shooter, real-time / turn-based strategy, MMORPG
- Extensive tools and scripting experience - the Halo editing tools, Unreal, Unity, Bigworld Technology, Funcom's Dreamworld engine, 3D modeling packages, Photoshop, C/C#, Python, Perforce
- Art and programming background - helps with sanity checking feature scope
Work History

  • Systems Designer

    343 Industries

    January 2014 - Present

    Systems design on Halo 5: Guardians:
    - Covenant enemy and friendly Spartan character/AI design
    - AI driving design and tuning
    - redesigned most Forerunner player and enemy weapons
    - cooperative mechanics (Revive, Respawn)
    - final difficulty tuning (for 1, 2, 4 player and Easy, Normal, Heroic, Legendary, Skulls)

  • Senior Systems Designer

    2K Marin

    September 2010 - December 2013

    Design work on The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
    - Led an 8-person design team (systems and levels) for 6 months during a change in project leadership
    - Tuned enemies against the player game ramp and level progression, creating variants to fill holes in the roster
    - Ran 8 person brainstorming sessions and prototyped the resulting new enemies and weapons
    - Designed community features, tying the single player game into Facebook and the community website through a platform-independent back end, working with the community programmer to reach a functional first pass

  • Lecturer

    NITH

    August 2009 - July 2010

    - Taught DS150 (Level Design)
    - Covered the level design process from brainstorming through documentation, maps, prototyping and implementation.
    - I allowed students to use any game editor they wished for their final project, but used Unreal (specifically Gears of War) to teach single player level design.

  • Assistant Project Manager

    Funcom

    September 2009 - April 2010

    Stepped in to manage the 3 person system design team after the lead system designer's departure

  • Content Designer

    Funcom

    November 2008 - September 2009

    - Designed and implemented gameplay for 3 playfields
    - Developed a template for mapping playfield plans, adopted by the gameplay design team
    - Designed kit pieces with artists, built dungeons out of proxy meshes ready for drop-in replacement by artists

    Projects: The Secret World

  • Senior Designer

    BigWorld

    March 2006 - October 2008

    - Implemented the character classes and enemies for Super Spy Online, in a way that encouraged team communication and cooperation in party-based shooter gameplay
    - Oversaw implementation of the item system and user interface by a 3 person, offsite programming team
    - Designed a system for procedural placement of enemies and objectives, based on the defending faction and ongoing conflicts between NPC factions
    - Led design on a prototype for an iPhone MMO and a number of single-player java games for phones

    Projects: Super Spy Online, unannounced PC MMO, unannounced iPhone and social games, BigWorld's Fantasy Demo

  • Senior Systems Designer

    Perception

    August 2004 - January 2006

    - Balanced all enemies, player weapons and vehicles, worked with level designers to implement in-game
    - Designed 3 multiplayer game modes, managed multiplayer level designers (onsite and offsite)
    - Designed all UI in the game, including HUD and menus, adhering to Sony and Microsoft's console requirements

    Projects: Stargate SG-1: The Alliance

  • Artist/Designer

    Infinite Interactive

    February 2003 - April 2003

    Continuation of Warlords IV development

  • Artist/Designer

    Strategic Studies Group

    February 2001 - January 2003

    - Designed and built hundreds of terrain tiles for Warlords IV and Warlords Battlecry II
    - Built 2 single player and 4 multiplayer RTS maps for Warlords Battlecry II
    - Designed 6 strategy game races for an unannounced Warlords game
    - Built the Warlords Battlecry II website, including graphics and a map download database

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Education

  • Bachelor (with Honours) in Engineering (Electrical and Computing)

    Monash University

    1994 - 1998

  • VCE

    Melbourne Grammar School

    1984 - 1993