Leighton Hess

Seattle-based game designer that specializes in systems and progression design.

I'm passionate about system and progression design. I have participated and led various solo and group projects since starting my journey in game design; I have worked on UI, AI state machines, animations, and everything in between. As a graduate of Full Sail University's Bachelor of Science program in Game Design, I look forward to planting myself within a field that I can continue as not only a lifelong student but where I can nurture and input knowledge I've gained throughout my studies and experience thus far.

Experience

Temple of Treasure

Board Game
Game Designer

April 2021

Used physical medium to prototype main gameplay loop
Used QA processes to iterate on the core gameplay loop
Used online tools to create the board game in a digital environment
Maintained a GDD throughout the design process

Cliffside Town

Level Design

Team Jadeite
Level Designer

September 2021 - October 2021

Used Unreal Engine's design environment to block out the level
Used Unreal Engine Blueprints to prototype basic mechanics for the player to interact with
Worked in teams using Perforce to integrate levels into one game

League of Forgotten

Senior Project
Team LFG

Systems Designer

August 2022 - December 2022

Used Unreal Blueprints to design the HUD and UI
Used Unreal Sequencer to animate the HUD and UI elements.
Used Unreal Blueprints to create a scalable state machine for the abilities of the main character
Created states that were easily customizable by other designers and easy to integrate into the state machine
Used Unreal Engine Animation State Machines to animate characters that were supplied by our artist