Daedra Christopher, Level Designer at Raven Software
Daedra Christopher, photo courtesy of the subject
In Career Spotlight, we interview women, non-binary, and marginalized gender professionals in the gaming and esports industries. By showcasing a variety of ways that people can work in gaming, we hope to show the next generation of gameHERs or those who may want to make a career change the many ways in which gaming can be part of one’s work.
This week we feature Daedra Christopher, a level designer who has worked for many years within the game design industry, was a level designer at 343 Industries on Halo, and is now a level designer for Raven Software on Call of Duty. We discussed how she got started in her game design career, how she tells students and aspiring designers to practice level design, the best parts of her job, and so much more.
the*gameHERs: How did you get into game design? Did you always know that you wanted to be a game designer? What inspired you to get started?
Daedra Christopher: My path is a little bit odd and a little bit interesting. I was studying to be a doctor. I had been in IT for years and I decided I wanted to pursue my dream of being a vascular surgeon. Being older than most students, I already had children, so returning to school was a big step for me. I soon realized I did not want to do a residency this late in life -- in my thirties. I wanted to be able to have time with my kids and try something different. I also had health issues preventing me from becoming the surgeon I wanted to become, so I had to overcome those obstacles too. I began to rethink everything. And I asked myself, ‘What do I want to do?’
One day, I was on the campus of University of Texas, Dallas, and saw this huge radio tower. I have always been fascinated by architecture and curious about buildings. I walked up to this little, tiny building that had this giant radio tower on it, and simply walked through the door. I asked the receptionist what classes were taught in this building. She replied with, “We make video games.” I knew at that moment that this was what I wanted to do.
I had always been an avid gamer. So, when I found out that I could go to school for making games, that is all it took. And the next day, I changed my degree plan and started studying games.
As far as how I specifically got into level design: originally, I wanted to be a 3D Modeler. I quickly learned Autodesk Maya, Quixel Suite for PBR, and a slew of other software packages. However, once I touched Unreal Engine for the first time, crafting my own spaces and worlds through this digital experience, I knew design was where my path would lead. I knew that I wanted to be a designer, whether it was level or game design, I did not really care, but that just sold it for me.
I was lucky that I had Phil Johnson, one of the Professors at UTD, as a fantastic mentor who pushed me to be the best designer I could be. I spent hours and hours in game engines like Unreal, and Unity learning everything I possibly could.
I graduated with my Master’s degree, planning on teaching later in life, but I initially wanted to get into the industry first. However, I saw my student loans and thought, “I need a job, and I need a job now.” There are only a few studios in the Dallas area, making job competition high. I also was not in a place where I could move at that time, so I began teaching. In doing so, I gained even more insight into Unreal Engine. In fact, I have even had some friends at AAA studios ask me questions on Unreal. All the experience teaching others helped me to move into the games industry and work on major titles.
I want to pause for a second and just ask — for people who might not necessarily already know — what's the difference between a level designer and other kinds of designers within the game design department?
There are many different designer types in the industry, depending on your focus you could be a level designer, game designer or even a narrative designer. Game design and level design have a lot of crossover, but specifically what a level designer does is block out the maps or levels within the game. Determining how that map is crafted would be dictated by the narrative and/or mechanics. The game itself determines what type of level design you are doing. You work hand in hand with game designers and together you lay down the skeleton of that game.
Once you have laid down the bones of your levels or map you start building your basic geometry. Then you playtest, and you playtest some more. In development, you are testing all the time. You cannot simply create a level without understanding how the mechanics feel within the game as the player. You want to make sure the level aligns with expectations of the players, publishers, and your team while also maintaining the vision, lore and canon of the game or IP (intellectual property).
While there are many first-person shooters out there, it is a quite different experience playing Halo versus Call of Duty. While both games are shooters, the experiences players have will be different for numerous reasons. So, as you are designing you make sure you are creating the best levels for those franchises while innovating at the same time.
Game designers are primarily responsible for the core loops and mechanics of the game. Will the player jump, run, shoot, etc.? They also must determine the minutiae of those mechanics and loops. How far will the player be able to run? Can the player run whilst shooting? Will the player need pickups or potions to continue at this pace? All the details we enjoy in our games, designers spent countless hours fine-tuning to ensure the game feels good, but more importantly that it is fun.
Whether you are a game designer or a level designer, your work affects many other teams. Now this can vary depending on the size of the studio and overall organization of the team in general. Smaller studios tend to have key people who can do a little bit of everything, and sometimes every team member is someone who can ‘do it all.’ Regardless of whether it is a AAA studio or an indie startup, designers often work hand-in-hand with a lot of collaboration.
I know that we've spoken to a lot of different kinds of designers in these interviews — narrative designers and different people who work in games in different capacities. pretty much everybody we've talked to talks about how collaborative the gaming workplace is. In terms of the relationship between you as a level designer and the game designer, do you feel like that's your closest companion on the day-to-day? Who else do you work closely with?
Absolutely, we are always working together to make sure that mechanics, design, layout, and hundreds of other things align with the direction of the game. One of the things I love about working in games is how closely you work with other people from all disciplines. You make lasting friendships that carry on throughout your career regardless of what studio you are at.
We often work closely with art teams to make sure that our designs will work well with the artistic goals that are set, as they do with us. We always try for a symbiosis of art and design to create a memorable player experience. Although ultimately, we try to ensure that the design is solid so the player will enjoy the game.
Right, because if it doesn't work, then what good is it?
Exactly, it can be a beautiful game, but if it is not fun to play, what is the point?
That is awesome. What are some skills that you find that you're using within this role frequently as a level designer?
In terms of soft skills, of course collaboration and communication. Teamwork is vital. You cannot be an island unto yourself. You must work with other people. If you cannot work with other people, you are probably not in the right industry. You need to get feedback, whether it is from programing or art. Everything is tied together, which is why it is really important to make sure that you communicate well. It is important to reach out to your teammates even those in a different discipline or department for their feedback. Sometimes there might be part of your design you do not like, but you are not sure why it feels wrong. Reaching out to a colleague can often spark solutions and help you process why you are not satisfied with your work.
Another important skill to have is to be able to take constructive criticism and not take it personally. We have all heard that some of our work is not the best, it may be from fans, colleagues, friends or even streamers. It is okay. Game development is a process, and no one is perfect, but it is never personal. Lots of people love games for different reasons, and no one is always going to like what you produce. The same is true within the studio. You may have an amazing level which just does not work for the current direction of the game. It does not mean your time is wasted or your level is bad. You learn by creating, so every experience whether it makes it to the finalized game or not is good because you learned. Levels or games get shelved, cut, or postponed; it happens. Being able to accept those events with grace and understanding will take you a long way in this industry.
In terms of becoming technically proficient as a level designer, download an engine, whether it is Unreal Engine 4 (or 5) or Unity. Spend every single day in that engine — eight hours a day. That is what I did. I spent so much time in Unreal Engine it is engrained in my mind. Recreate spaces you have seen in other games or make up ones of your own. Have people test your levels, ask them to describe their strengths and where they need to improve.
Another thing as a designer that I find to be incredibly important is to look at your surroundings. Imagine the room you are sitting in right now as an action-adventure game. Now picture it as an FPS. How would they differ? How are they the same? How would the architecture of that room affect the game play and vice versa? What mechanics would you need? Where would your pickups be? Get into the mindset of asking simple questions like: who is the player? Why are they here? What are they doing? When is this level taking place? How are they going to complete this level? While these seem to be elementary ideas, they are vital to understand the space you are building.
Not only should you look at rooms within buildings but check out places that move people through spaces like malls, amusement parks or city centers. I love amusement parks. I find them to be amazing places to research how to funnel players into specific destinations while keeping them interested in their surroundings. Or if you happen to be walking around an interesting place in your city, look at the buildings, the roads, the sidewalks, and shops. How are they laid out and why? Really tap into the architecture and the negative space surrounding these locales.
I think that is such an incredible, multifaceted answer.
I want to go back a little bit in the story. Can we pick up from how you got into teaching and where your career went from there?
I began teaching while working towards my MFA, and once I graduated, teaching gave me time to work on my portfolio before moving into the industry. During my time at the University of Texas at Dallas, I joined a small indie team with a good friend of mine from my undergraduate years. It seems like a lifetime ago.
What is time anymore?
I know. Especially with COVID, it feels like you have been in the house forever.
In 2019, I received a message from a recruiter looking to fill a role at 343 Industries to work on Halo. My children grew up with the Master Chief, and we played together often, so for me, that was an incredible moment. I could not think of a better game to kick off my AAA career then with Halo Infinite.
That's amazing.
I moved out to Redmond and started working on Halo Infinite and have had the honor of working with some of the best in the industry, many of whom are my close friends.
Once my contract was winding down at 343i, I began looking for the next place to hang my hat and ended up at Raven. I have been privileged in working with so many talented people on some fantastic IPs.
Wow, that's awesome. So you already talked a little bit about general advice that you give to people who are making games. I know that at the*gameHERs, we are focused on women and non-binary people in the gaming industry, and I'm wondering if you have any advice that's specific to being a woman in the gaming industry.
I have been lucky that I have always landed with fantastic teams. And I am usually the only female level designer. It is rare to see another female designer, at least thus far in my career (and of course with my specific discipline). I do not think that is because it is an unwelcoming place. I think a lot of women feel intimidated about getting into a field that is male-dominated. I always encourage students, especially my female students to get into the industry, to just go for it. I have found that I am not treated any differently than anyone else in the studio, regardless of their gender identity. I know that sadly, has not been the case for every woman in the industry, but for me I have always found my job a place of solace and my teams a place of companionship. I take a lot of comfort in that I have never been treated as anything other than a designer.
In comparison to some of my other careers, I would say the gaming industry is more progressive than others. I have worked in IT at banks, hospital systems among other industries, and by comparison, the gaming industry is working hard to try to be more inclusive and try to be more diverse. I see more people of color, more women, more people from the LGBTQ community in our industry, and people are more accepted. I have never felt discrimination and I have never felt like I do not belong. I think it is just being able to take that chance and just having the confidence to really reach out. If this is something you want to do, there is a place for you. I know other people have had different experiences, but for me personally, it has always been positive.
That's really exciting to hear. What can the industry do to help create a better future for women and minority groups working in it?
Well, with my background in education, one of the things that we noticed in the college system was that there was a dramatic loss of females in STEAM (science, engineering, technology, art, and math) careers. Women are moving away from more technical and artistic careers to focus on caring fields like teaching, nursing, etc. And of course, there is not anything wrong with those career paths. We need nurses. We need teachers. That is fantastic. But we just noticed a massive decline in our applicants moving into these science and technology careers. I think that community outreach is something that we want to have more of. We need to make it a welcoming place for candidates to come in and not feel intimidated, whether that is through public talks, interviews like this, or through education.
You know, the hardest thing about being in the game development industry is that our time is limited. So, there is often not a lot of time available for us to go out into the public realm and talk to people about what we do. Having more women become more active within the gaming community would be extremely helpful.
Right, to just show that this is an option. This is somewhere that you can make your career.
Yeah, I do a lot of outreach on the side as well. I am working with a group called EGL and we are creating a curriculum focused on gaming for K-12 students to show these students that there are many career paths in games.
And of course, gaming is a relatively young industry, but I think in comparison to others, we are really trying to keep diversity and inclusion heading in the right direction. It is important to us because we know the most important thing about game development is the person sitting next to you. We know that the team is vital, and we want to have different viewpoints. We want to have different people from different walks of life, so that we have a multifaceted set of experiences that we can share with our fans and people who love to play games.
I think one of the things the industry can continue to do is to keep supporting people, keep reaching out and encouraging students, whether they are self-taught or go through a formal education program.
One last thing, what is the best part of your job and what do you enjoy the most?
I think the best part of my job is that with whatever team I am working on, I can express my creativity, even if it is in the smallest way. I am an avid reader and writer, and for me, level design and game design are ways in which I can express my imagination through the virtual world. Just being able to do that is amazing.
Not to mention, working with like-minded people with whom I can joke around. I do not even feel like I am at work. I feel like every day I am just getting paid to build amazing spaces and it is fantastic. I absolutely love my job and would not change it for the world.
Oh, that's amazing. Thank you so much.
Daedra Christopher, photo courtesy of the subject
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