Pascal Luban - Creative Director & Game designer

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Biography

Pascal Luban is a freelance creative director and game designer. He is the founder and manager of The Game Design Studio.

Having worked in the game industry as game or level designer since 1995, Pascal has worked for major studios and publishers including, Activision, SCEE, Ubisoft and DICE. In particular he was Lead Level Designer on the world acclaimed “versus” multiplayer versions of both Splinter Cell – Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, Creative Director on Wanted – Weapons of Fate, and designer of CTF-Tornado, the leading multiplayer map of the UT3-Ageia Extreme PhysX mod. His current missions are heavily focused on freemium and mobile gaming.

Pascal also works on mobile platforms. His first mobile game, an action/RPG called The One Hope, published by the Irish publisher Gmedia, has received the Best In Gaming Award at the 2009 Digital Media Awards in Dublin, Ireland.

He also set up and managed the playtest structure of the Annecy Ubisoft studio where the “versus” multiplayer versions of Splinter Cell were developed.

Besides writing full game and level designs, Pascal is contracted by studios or publishers as a consultant to audit game and level designs, to work on game concepts or to give on-site classes and workshops.

Pascal is a regular contributor to Gamasutra where he has already published several papers.

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Expertise

Level design

  • How can I build the difficulty curve of my game?
  • How can I plan a great player’s experience thanks to my level design ?
  • I need a level design that takes advantage of the features in my game design

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Game design

  • I need a game design doc based on a licence or a high concept
  • How can I train my design team?
  • I need a multiplayer game design AND level design that will take advantage of each other
  • I need a design for my social game concept

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Game concept

  • I need a game concept
  • how can I turn my idea for a social game into a solid game concept ?

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Playtest coaching

  • How can I set up my internal playtests at a minimum cost?
  • How can I use playtest to tune my multiplayer game ?
  • How can I train one of my staff in playtest management ?
  • How can I make playtests relevant to my needs ?

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Design audit

  • I need to assess a game or a level design

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Creative vision

  • I need a concept that captures the essence of a license
  • I need a multiplayer high concept with a strong level design

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Free-to-play design

  • How can I adapt my game concept to the free-to-play business model ?
  • How can I tune a free-to-play game before I have any data?
  • I need the full game design for a free-to-play game

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References

City Life DS
Client(s) : - Monte Cristo
Platform(s) : - Nintendo DS
Game genre : City Builder
I did the concept for the adaptation to the DS of this successful PC game. The main challenges were to give it a wrapping suited to the DS audience and to adapt the interface.

Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow
Client(s) : - Ubisoft
Platform(s) : - Xbox - Windows - Playstation 2
Game genre : Multiplayer
I was lead level designer on the multiplayer version of the game and I also set up and managed the playtest facility at the Ubisoft studio of Annecy where this game mode was developped.

Alone In The Dark -The New Nightmare
Client(s) : - Darkworks - Atari
Platform(s) : - Playstation 1
Game genre : Action-adventure
I was lead game designer on the fourth title in the Alone In The Dark serie. One of my main challenges was to build a level design around the novel written by one of the founders of Darkworks, Antoine Villette.

Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory
Client(s) : - Ubisoft
Platform(s) : - Playstation 2 - Windows - Xbox
Game genre : Multiplayer
I was lead level designer on the multiplayer "versus" version of the game and I also managed the playtest facility at the Ubisoft studio of Annecy where this game mode was developped.

Battlefield - Bad Company
Client(s) : - DICE
Platform(s) : - XBOX 360
Game genre : Shooter
I did a level design audit of an early but playable version of the game. The audit included detailed suggestions for improvements for each combat zone.

UT3 Extrem PhysX mod
Client(s) : - UT3 Ageia - Gameco Graphics
Platform(s) : - Windows
Game genre : Multiplayer
I did the concept and the detailed design of CTF-Tornado, the leading map of the UT3-Ageia Extreme PhysX mod.

Wanted - Weapons Of Fate
Client(s) : - Grin
Platform(s) : - XBOX 360 - Windows
Game genre : Shooter
I was creative director on this game based on Wanted, the blockbuster movie. Beside making key choices at the concept stage, I invested myself a lot in the narrative dimension of the game.

AR Drone
Client(s) : - Parrot
Platform(s) : - iOS
Game genre : Augmented reality
I was the game design consultant from the start of the project to its completion. I assisted Parrot staff for key game design choices and managed playtests.

Adiboo And The Secret Of Paziral
Client(s) : - VU Games
Platform(s) : - Windows
Game genre : Action-adventure
I designed half of the game levels for this platformer aimed at young players.

Venise
Client(s) : - Cryo Networks
Platform(s) : - Windows
Game genre : MMORPG
I proposed to Cryo the original concept and design for this MMO of trade, negotiations, political intrigues ... and conspiracies.

The One Hope
Client(s) : - Gmedia - Digital Media Awards
Platform(s) : - Mobile
Game genre : Action-adventure
I wrote the original concept, story, full game and level design for this game that received the Best In Gaming award at the Digital Media Awards 2009.

David Douillet Judo
Client(s) : - 10Tacle
Platform(s) : - Playstation 2
Game genre : Action-adventure
I trained and coached the internal playtest manager on this unique judo simulation.

24 The Game
Client(s) : - SCEE
Platform(s) : - Playstation 2
Game genre : Shooter
I did a full game and level design audit targeted at pinpointing the strengths and weaknesses of this dense title.

Treasure Madness
Client(s) : - Ooblada
Platform(s) : - Facebook
Game genre : Social games
zSlide commissioned me to suggest and design improvements to expand the already successful Treasure Madness.

M&M's The Match
Client(s) : - Proximity BBDO
Platform(s) : - Windows
Game genre : Advergaming
I was commissioned as design consultant to audit the original game concept, to development the full game design, to manage the playtests and to finalize the tuning of the game.

Design audits of Free-to-Play games
Client(s) : - Metaboli
Platform(s) : - Windows
Game genre : Social games
I did several game design audits of Free-to-Play games that were between alpha and beta stages.

Fighters Uncaged
Client(s) : - Ubisoft - AMA Studios
Platform(s) : - XBOX 360 - Kinect
Game genre : Motion gaming
I was lead game designer on this first combat game for Kinect. I also managed the playtests.

Self-Defense Training Camp
Client(s) : - AMA Studios - Ubisoft
Platform(s) : - Kinect - XBOX 360
Game genre : Motion gaming
I coached and trained the newly hired playtests manager at AMA Studios and followed the entire playtest campaign.

Kartoon
Client(s) : - Kadank
Platform(s) : - Facebook
Game genre : Social games
I participated in the game design of this social game currently under development. That included its core concepts, the player progression tree and the associated game pacing.

Cabela's Hunting Expeditions 2012
Client(s) : - Fun Labs - Activision
Platform(s) : - PS3 - XBOX 360
Game genre : Shooter
I was commissioned by Activision to work on the level design of this shooter game. Cabela's Hunting Expeditions features a real tactical depth since the player must plan his approach and arbitrage between stealthy approaches and long distance shots.

Crazy Cars - Hit The Road
Client(s) : - Anuman - Little Worlds Studio
Platform(s) : - Windows - iOS
Game genre : Racing
I was commissioned by Anuman to work on the title along the development team to improve the player's experience and the reward system.

F2P - Undisclosed title
Client(s) : - Remal IT
Platform(s) : - Facebook
Game genre : Undisclosed

Mobile app - Undisclosed title
Client(s) : - Black Sheep
Platform(s) : - iOS
Game genre : Undisclosed

iPAD app - Undisclosed title
Client(s) : - Black Sheep
Platform(s) : - iPad
Game genre : Undisclosed

Mobile app - Undisclosed title
Client(s) : - Konami Mobile
Platform(s) : - iOS
Game genre : Undisclosed

F2P - Undisclosed title
Client(s) : - Anuman
Platform(s) : - Facebook
Game genre : Undisclosed

F2P - Undisclosed title
Client(s) : - Magic Pockets
Platform(s) : - iOS
Game genre :

Social game - Undisclosed title
Client(s) : - AMA Publishing
Platform(s) : - Facebook
Game genre : Undisclosed

Trainings

Level Design

  • Multiplayer level design - The golden rules :

    Multiplayer level design is especially demanding because the same map will be played tens of thousands of time. If it is not robust and fun enough, players will turn away from it.

     

    The objective of the class is to give practical guidelines on how to implement  the design for a multiplayer map that meets the three design objectives of multiplayer level design:

     

    • Map robustness
    • Map navigation
    • Fun and gameplay depth

     

  • A concrete step-by-step method to plan a great player's experience :

    The construction of a level design starts by the definition of what the player's experience will be made of.

     

    The object of this seminar is to describe in details the six golden rules of level design and to allow students to implement them in their own game project during the workshop.

Playtest

  • Playtest - Setting up and managing your own playtest structure :

    Having your own playtest facility next door to your development team is an invaluable way to ensure that playtests will meet the demands of your team and offer the reactivity needed by a fast-paced development.

     

    The objectives of this class are:

     

    • To brief management on what it takes to run an internal playtest structure, to fit playtest in their workflow and to get the most out of them
    • To train the studio playtest manager on setting up and running playtest sessions.

Game design

  • The game design process :
    This seminar covers all the aspects of game design and is targeted at students with little or no knowledge of that field. The following topics are covered:
    • Introduction to the role and position of the game designer in today’s game studios
    • The fundamentals of gameplay common to most games
    • The definition of a concept: A method to define a concept that matches a publisher’s expectations
    • The construction of the gameplay mechanisms thought the prototyping of the level design.
    • The various documents needed for a game development
    • The level design
    • The main pitfalls along the road to a successful game.