Shooter Sky
2D Shoot-'Em-Up

While working on Shooter Sky, I learned to design levels for a 2D auto scrolling shoot-em up. This was something I had never done before, but learning to design levels for a game of this genre was a challenge I was glad to take on. Some of the biggest challenges came from accounting for the auto scrolling camera (tuning camera speed and pacing of enemies). After many iterations and learning moments, I was able to finally nail down a pacing that feels right for a 2D shoot ‘em up level. This project is currently shelved but I hope to return to it to design more levels soon.

• Project Page

A.Z.R.A's Invasion of Pinemist Forest
Fortnite CTF Map

This is a 3v3 Capture the Flag map made in Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). The gentle Woodland Creatures that reside in the Pinemist Forest are thrown headfirst into conflict when the artificial intelligence known as A.Z.R.A invades their forest. The Woodland Creatures must now rally together to defend their home from the AI plaguing their forest. For this level I started with a greybox, then moved onto the kitbashing phase.

• Level Design Document

Boxy's Rescue at the Cobra Temple
3D Platformer Level

Boxy's Rescue at the Cobra Temple is a 3D Platformer level made in Unity using the Boxy package. Boxy has travelled to the Tangled Jungle in search of his lost brother Cubey who has gone missing on an expedition to explore the Cobra Temple. This level is only a greybox so I was focusing on nailing the metrics and teaching mechanics to the player in a digestible way.

• Level Design Document

• Architectural LDD

The Tale of Lady Masako
Ghost of Tsushima Level Analysis

This level design analysis looks at The Tale of Lady Masako from Ghost of Tsushima. The focus for this analysis was to analyze how the level uses architectural principles in the context of level design. I was especially inspired to choose this level because of its beautiful composition and aesthetics. The Golden Temple area’s use of lighting, form, and space made it a notable level to analyze.

Mount Ormond Resort
Dead By Daylight Level Analysis

The intention of this level analysis was to act as a case study. If I were to be creating a new Dead by Daylight map, what would I take away from Mount Ormond to successfully inform my design? This case study also examines the map’s programmatic requirements and in-game lore. In addition to being a favorite among the community, Mount Ormond is one one of my personal favorite maps so it seemed to be a fitting choice.

• Level Case Study

Dusk Falls

Dusk Falls is a hack ‘n’ slash, tower defense game which I worked on as the Narrative Designer. You play as a Hero defending the small town of Dusk Falls from nefarious creatures every night. For this project I wanted to mainly focus on my character writing skills.
I created 5 distinct characters, the residents of Dusk Falls, and wrote numerous dialogue interactions and barks for each of them. This project is still in development.

• Project Page

Paws and Politics

Paws and Politics is a narrative project I developed alone as part of my Narrative class during my first year of Game Design. The goal was to create a non-linear narrative game that had different endings the player could receive. In Paws and Politics, play as the newly elected mayor of a suburban small town. Help civilians with problems as you balance variables like your public image and the city’s wellbeing. I programmed the dialogue system myself in Unity and wrote the script for various branching paths. Play now on itch.io!

• Pitch Deck
• Script
• itch.io

Unpacking Narrative Review

This is a narrative review of the 2021 puzzle game Unpacking which I submitted to the GDC Narrative Review Competition in 2024. I chose this title because of its unique method of conveying narrative through environmental storytelling. By telling a story through the lens of the things we unpack, indie developer WitchBeam creates a heartwarming emotional journey spanning over 20 years, without using a single line of dialogue.

• Narrative Analysis
• Slideshow

Hey! I’m Gil Carter.A game, level & narrative designer who is passionate about creating game experiences with unique mechanics and captivating narratives. I am from Toronto, Ontario and I am currently in my 3rd year of Sheridan’s Honours Bachelor of Game Design program.When I'm not making games, I like to review movies and play pickleball. I also run the social media accounts for my campus radio station.Whether I was making levels in Mario Maker or designing D&D campaigns, I’ve been making games in one way or another for my whole life. I was always fascinated with how games were used as the next step in expanding some of my favorite IPs (Marvel, Star Wars, Disney). Check out some of my favorite games below that continue to inspire me to make games.

Contact Me

[email protected]

• Resume

Project Description

Shooter Sky is a passion project developed by myself and a close friend over the course of a couple months. The gameplay is inspired by retro 2D shoot-'em-ups known for their charm and wacky visuals. The goals of the project were to create a portfolio piece that showcased the range of skills we were learning in our classes (project management, programming, level & mechanic design, etc). We had originally planned for 5 levels, each with distinct themes & mechanics. This project has been shelved for the time being but we both hope to continue working on it one day.

Roles

Design Process

Throughout the development of this project we learned lots about project management and properly scoping. We constantly found ourselves in positions of revaluation, assessing what was working and what wasn’t. We found a good rhythm of having whiteboard meetings to illustrate big-picture ideas and then uploading those notes to Miro for a more organized workspace. We used Unity as our game engine, programmed in Visual Studio using C#, used GitHub for Version Control, and managed workflow through Jira.

Project Description

Dusk Falls is an ongoing project I am working on. My sole role for this project is the Narrative Designer, but I am collaborating with 2 other students for the programming and art respectively. The game concept is a town defense & horde battler with strong narrative elements. It’s a short experience that takes place over 3 days and 3 nights.During nights, you defend the town of Dusk Falls from mysterious creatures that have been attacking. During the day, you can explore the town and talk to the NPCs that reside there; learning more about the town, building relationships, and even recruiting them to fight with you during the night.

• Narrative Pitch Deck

Software Used

• Miro Board

Design Process

My personal goal for this project was to develop my character writing ability. When creating the 5 residents of Dusk Falls, I wanted to make sure they felt distinct and each had a unique voice. If you heard a line of dialogue out of context, ideally you’d instantly be able to tell which of the characters it belonged to.Since the game takes place over 3 days, I am aiming to write 2-3 conversations per day for each character. Additionally, I am writing combat barks and event conversations (conditional interactions depending on game states).I plan and write all dialogue conversations in Miro. I find it’s where I can format and organize my work most effectively. Once I am ready to import in-engine, I then import the dialogue into the Yarnspinner files and add any technical requirements I had noted for myself (conditional dialogue, dialogue options, or any formatting).

Project Description

Snow Eh! was created as part of a Design Week, a week-long game jam run by the Sheridan Game Design program. Our challenge was to create a short 30 second experience that fit the constraints of a MicroMix-style game (Wario Ware, Rhythm Heaven, 1-2-Switch, etc). It needed to be quick, memorable, and most of all fun. After a couple of rounds of ideation, our team landed on Snow Eh!, a two player competitive minigame where you play as rival neighbors clearing the snow off their driveway (inspired by the Canadian weather we were all too familiar with). The player with the least amount of snow at the end wins!

Roles

Design Process

Much of the design process for this project was research into successful microgames and figuring out how we can make a 30 second experience memorable and packed with as much gameplay as possible. We also had to ensure our Unity build fit the technical requirements of the MicroMix game cabinet. This meant our team completed multiple rounds of playtesting and compliance testing. The videos to the right shows Snow Eh! being played on the MicroMix cabinet and in-engine.

Project Description

Kaimana (working title) is a project I am actively working on as a Game Designer and Level Designer. It is a 3D rail-shooter & rogue-lite that tackles the issue of sea turtles’ habitat loss. Players control a sea-turtle trying to get back home and must dodge obstacles while swimming through the ocean. This transformative game aims to educate our players on the causes and effects of sea turtle habitat loss. This game and its levels are being developed in Unreal Engine 5.

• Design Proposal

Roles

Design Process

I am currently in the process of developing the 6 small levels that will be apart of the Coral Reef Region (our vertical slice). Since the game is a 3D rail-shooter, the level design is similar to what I did with Shooter Sky. Those skills I learned transfer over to this project with the new twist of the 3rd dimension. The team even joked this project was pretty much just “Shooter Sky 64”. The levels are currently in development and I will update this page as I make progress.