Manifesto & Trajectory

Background & Intent

A discipline grounded in the belief that spatial architecture and kinetic player mechanics must operate as a unified, considered system.

Designing spaces where movement creates meaning.

I am Alex Ferraz, a level designer focused on crafting clear, breathable game environments. Over eight years of greybox authoring and level scripting, my practice has centered on balancing player autonomy with deliberate architectural composition.

Whether structuring multi-route stealth complexes in Unreal Engine 5 or pacing high-tempo multiplayer arenas in Unity, I approach each map as a living machine. Every threshold, light well, and sightline serves a specific mechanical purpose before aesthetic dressing begins.

Technical Environments & Tooling
Unreal Engine 5.4 Unity 6 C# Spatial Pacing Metrics Whitebox Geometry Kits

Trajectory & Roles

Senior Level Designer2021 — PRESENT

Unreal Engine 5 greybox prototyping, encounter pacing systems, and vertical navigation flows.

Level & Technical Designer2018 — 2021

Unity 6 blockouts, environmental readability metrics, and modular architectural whitebox kits.

Junior Spatial Designer2016 — 2018

Multiplayer combat sightlines, combat arena layout geometry, and topological flow scripting.

Traversal & Friction01 / 03
1. Kinetic Player Verbs
Spaces must be built around the player's core locomotion budget—jump arcs, mantle thresholds, and slide distances.

Geometry is not static decoration; it is a mechanical dialogue. Every ledge height, corridor turn angle, and slope gradient is calibrated to reward momentum and communicate traversal choices within milliseconds without intrusive UI markers.

Core Field Directives
  • Always establish vertical anchor landmarks before defining intermediate cover nodes.
  • Lock traversal jump-distance metrics into whitebox kit presets prior to encounter blocking.
  • Structure combat spaces with at least two distinct sightline breaks per primary approach angle.
Design Note #04: The Greybox Rule

“If a level does not feel satisfying and readable when rendered in flat untextured greybox primitives, no fidelity pass can rescue the experience. Mechanical fun must be built directly into the geometry.”

Production History & Studio Practice

Experience & Milestones

Chronological track record of shipped titles, studio roles, and level design responsibilities spanning early spatial greyboxing through release certification.

Vanguard Interactive/Remote / Montreal, QC

Senior Level Designer

2022 — Present
Project Sylvan: Tactical Incursion
Tactical Extraction Shooter

Key Technical Deliverables & Method

  • Authored 4 non-linear sandbox raid districts from whitebox greybox spatial prototyping to shipping lock.
  • Engineered traversal flow loops balancing 4-player sightline occlusion against long-range ballistic sight corridors.
  • Constructed modular combat encounter triggers and dynamic objective logic using Unreal Blueprints.
  • Supervised weekly cross-disciplinary playtests with biometric pacing logs and heat-map sightline analysis.
Engine & Production Tooling
Unreal Engine 5.3LumenBlueprintsPerforceMantisBT
Output Metric:4 Shipped Maps | 98.4% Spatial Bug Free at Gold
Verified Gold Release
NorthPine Games/Vancouver, BC

Level Designer

2020 — 2022
Verdant Echoes
Narrative Action-Adventure

Key Technical Deliverables & Method

  • Designed and whiteboxed 6 campaign chapters featuring organic climbing surfaces and physics puzzles.
  • Partnered with environment art to preserve 60 FPS occlusion boundaries while retaining vista readability.
  • Authored comprehensive Level Design Documents (LDDs) outlining enemy spawn wave budgets and pacing curves.
  • Triaged over 340 spatial collision, mantle geometry, and pathfinding navmesh defects prior to certification.
Engine & Production Tooling
Unreal Engine 4.27Houdini EngineC++ IntegrationJiraGit LFS
Output Metric:6 Campaign Levels | Nominated for Best Level Pacing (IndieX 2022)
Verified Gold Release
Aetherial Works/Austin, TX

Associate Level & Systems Designer

2018 — 2020
Rift Warden: Protocol
Sci-Fi Cooperative Roguelite

Key Technical Deliverables & Method

  • Built over 45 procedural room tilesets adhering to strict grid dimensions and metric doorway tolerances.
  • Scripted arena lock-in encounter logic, hazard state machines, and environmental reward drops.
  • Facilitated 60+ internal playtest sessions and synthesized qualitative player telemetry into actionable level revisions.
  • Established initial greybox blockout asset libraries for rapid design team iteration.
Engine & Production Tooling
Unity 2019 LTSC# ScriptingProBuilderFMODShotGrid
Output Metric:45 Modular Tiles | 1.2M Units Distributed
Verified Gold Release

Explore Shipped Level Breakdowns

Review playable greybox builds, design documentation, and encounter flows in the Selected Work index.