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TECHNICAL TRAINING GAMES

Release: 2023
Role: Lead Level Designer/Level Design Manager

Company: Level Ex

Engine: Unity3D

WARNING

This section contains screenshots and video of graphic surgical procedures. 

Level Ex has a training platform for training where multiple users can join a session and be able to manipulate objects on screen using interactions like pull, push, twist and rotate. The job of the level design team was to learn all the details of a procedure to help clients storyboard the training sequence then break down what they wanted into a series of interactions. Then we would greybox the experience and polish it as the art was created. â€‹

It was a great experience working with so many leaders in the medical field and every day posed a unique challenge

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Achievements

  • Grew the company’s new level design department from two level designers to a highly skilled team of eight

  • Led several prototyping teams of designers, artists and programmers to create quick demos to sell ideas to clients

  • Used game mechanics to create medical simulation experiences played on mobile and web using the Unity 3D engine

  • Designed interactions and gameplay to translate real world surgical procedures to  something playable by the layman on a computer or touch screen

  • Created interactive experiences that could be played by multiple participants at the same time in the same session

  • Paired game design and instructional design to teach the user medical knowledge

  • Worked closely with doctors to translate the complexities of their procedures into games that respected the complexities of their work but was playable by a novice

  • Worked closely with clients, artists, producers and programmers to create a product that matched the vision of the client

Technical Details

Read on for more details about my work on Technical Training Games

The biggest design challenge making these training games was balancing realism with the need for simple interactions. We would be asked to take a complicated procedure and boil it down to simple interactions while respecting the content. Doctors are very particular and when they see their work in pixels it represents their life's work and their dedication to the field. At the same time the procedures had to make sense to everyone from nurses to pharmaceutical reps.

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My most interesting project was simulating kidney nerve ablation. In order to combat high blood pressure, a wire with an electrode is threaded through the veins of the kidney and at certain key locations an electric current was applied to kill the nerves. I created an interface where players would tap and hold an interaction handle and could thread the wire through out the kidney and were rewarded if they ablated the correct location. I feel like at this point I could scrub in and do the procedure myself 

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