Resume of
Jeffrey Kung

San Rafael, California
Cell: 415-706-4071
Email: pinecone.jeff@gmail.com
Resume PDF
LinkedIn
Portfolio

SUMMARY

With 27 years of experience and 18 shipped titles, I have led level design teams, full design groups, and directed full teams. I also had the privilege of mentoring many designers as well as people in other disciplines. Furthermore, I worked in a wide range of game genres including AAA titles, 1st and 3rd person shooters, flight action games, MMORPGs, and children's titles. I was most recently the Lead Level Designer on a AAA initiative to create standardized design tools at Lost Boys Interactive.

EXPERIENCE

Lost Boys Interactive - 100% remote - May 2022 - January 2024

Lead Level Designer - Central Design Tools - August 2023 - Current

• Led a team of Level Designers in an initiative to create a suite of level design tools for rapid prototyping for the studio

• Researched Unreal Engine 5's out-of-the-box level design tools and determined shortfalls that would require engineering assistance

• Led a team of Level Designers in a mock level project to document needs as they arise

• Coordinated Level Design needs with Technical Design Lead for tools, interactive objects, and character setups

• Looked at foundational mechanics for the types of games the studio needed

• Created standardized and flexible block out tool kits for new projects to ramp up quickly

Lead Level Designer/Pod Lead - Unannounced 3rd Person Adventure as part of a First Person Shooter - Console/PC - March 2023 - August 2023

• Led a team of Designers, Engineers, and Artists to create a world that the player will transition to and from the first-person shooter world into a 3rd person game

• Led the Level Design team with weekly sprint tasks, working in close conjunction with producers on scheduling

• Develop Level Design best practices and documentation

• Documentation of zone details, narrative beats, points of interests, and all zone dependencies

• Reviewed Level Design work on a weekly basis with play tests focusing on specific or recently worked on features

• Initiated constant communication with other disciplines on intersecting areas of the narrative, levels, animation, art, lighting, and progression via Discord platform

• Mentoring and reviewing not only the Level Designer's work but with Technical Design, Art, and Engineering as they pertain to the 3rd person world

Lead Level Designer – Unannounced First Person Shooter, Console/PC - May 2022 - March 2023

• Led level design team in block out, landscape sculpting, gameplay scripting, & gameplay flow

• In charge of refining the level design pipeline and process

• Led the Level Design team with weekly sprint tasks, working in close conjunction with producers on scheduling

• Developed level design best practices and documentation

• Worked closely with Art, Engineering, and Production to facilitate smooth transfer of content authorship between disciplines

• Worked closely with the Environment Art team and attended bi-weekly art reviews to ensure level design/art coordination efforts

• Mentored and reviewed Level Designers' work and career progress

Jam City - Culver City, CA (100% remote) - August 2021 - May 2022

Lead Level Designer - Avatar Mobile Game, iOS, Android

• Led the Level Design team to prepare for dozens of bespoke levels

• In charge of developing the Level Design pipeline for pre-launch

• Defined Level Design and scripting best practices for Level Design and Narrative Design

• Worked closely with multiple disciplines to produce engaging and visually stunning levels

• Mentorship of not only the level designers but also the rest of the design team

• Integrated Product Management and Level Design goals for spenders and non-spenders

EA/Glu Mobile – Foster City, CA (100% remote/pandemic) - February 2019 – August 2021

Lead 3D Level Designer – Deer Hunter World, iOS, Android

• Led the Level Design team in creating 100s of mission (hunt) designs

• In charge of developing the design pipeline for pre-launch & live-ops weekly schedule

• Defined level design and scripting best practices

• Worked closely with multiple disciplines to produce engaging content

• Level design – PvE and PvP missions, event mission content, tuning (including live tuning)

• Mentorship and career guidance of the designers on the team

NetEase Games - San Francisco, CA - September 2018 - January 2019

Senior Level Designer - Mage Supreme (unreleased battle royale brawler), iOS, Android

• In charge of developing the design pipeline for live-ops schedule and 100s of levels

• Level Design - PvE missions, bi-weekly event mission content, and gameplay tuning

• Mentored junior designers

KIXEYE – San Francisco, CA - November 2017 – September 2018

Designer – Battle Pirates, PC/Facebook

• Mission design – Event missions, bi-weekly mission content, and tuning (including live tuning).

• Content design – Monthly events, tuning ship hull designs, weapons, and special equipment.

• Assist on creating best practices in level design, processes, and leveraging my experience in supporting design goals.

Zynga/NaturalMotion – San Francisco, CA - November 2013 – November 2017

Senior Designer – Dawn of Titans, NaturalMotion London, iOS/Android

• Mission and PvP design – 9 event missions, 120 PvP maps, retooling of over 200 PvE missions.

• Feature specification writing – Placeable Defenses, Weekly Campaign Events.

• Identified areas of improvement based on live player data and feedback and created new content.

Senior Designer – Empires & Allies, iOS/Android

• Game feature and event specifications written for engineering and art teams.

• Mission design – Over 150 missions authored.

• Fiction written for overall narrative and character background/personalities.

• Identified areas of improvement based on live player data and feedback and created new content.

NaturalMotion Games – San Francisco, CA - Acquired by Zynga in 2014

Lead Designer – Unannounced iOS Mobile Game  

• Defined core audience and core gameplay mechanics for this audience.

• Wrote game design specifications.

• Lead prototype efforts for the team.

• Drove design tools creation.

CCP North America – Greater Atlanta Area, GA - April 2013 – November 2013

World Gameplay Director – World of Darkness, Massively Multiplayer Online Game

• Lead an experienced team of writers, level and systems designers in integrating the World of Darkness IP into a new MMO.

• Provided training, mentoring, and direction to the designers in the World Gameplay group.

Creative Manager

• Managed design teams (level, systems, and writers) as well as the animation team.

• Hiring/interview duties.

• Ensured cross-discipline communication between teams.

Nihilistic Software, Inc. – Novato, CA - April 2010 – December 2012

Senior Designer – Call of Duty – Black Ops: Declassified Playstation Vita, Activision - 2012

• Responsible for 2 Spec Ops style levels (10 total levels) and one multiplayer map.

• Supervised and mentored junior designers and design interns.

Senior Designer – Resistance: Burning Skies, Playstation Vita, Sony - 2012

• Responsible for the last level and boss encounter of the game (6 total levels).

• Supervised and mentored junior designer who had one of the 6 levels.

Senior Designer – Playstation Move Heroes, Playstation 3 Move, Sony - 2011

• Responsible for designing and implementing 5 missions.

• Wrote and maintained systems documents for melee abilities.

Sega Studios San Francisco – San Francisco, CA March - March 2009 – March 2010|

Senior Mission Designer – Iron Man 2, Xbox 360 & Playstation 3, Sega - 2010

• Responsible for designing and implementing 5 of the 11 missions.

• Worked closely with the tools programmers in designing “Kismet” style scripting tools.

• Worked closely with 3D environment artist for mission layouts.

Planet Moon Studios – San Francisco, CA - October 2008 – March 2009

Senior Level Designer – Unpublished, Xbox 360 – Kinect, Microsoft - 2009

• Responsible for multiple levels, coordinating between level artists, programmers, and concept artists to bring each level from isometric sketch to playable state to a final gameplay demo.

Totally Games – Novato, CA - February 2006 – October 2008

Design Director 2007 – 2008

• Supervised and mentored design team on multiple projects.

• Coordinated design, engineering, and art departments with gameplay implementation.

Lead Designer – Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Mermaids, PS2, Nickelodeon/Take2 - 2007

• Worked closely with the publisher and licensor on the project’s particulars regarding the Dora IP.

• Implemented 1/3 of the levels and lead the design team, programmers, artists, and animators.

Senior Designer – Alien Syndrome, Wii & PSP, Sega - 2007

• Lead the design team and supervised each designer’s levels and mini-games.

• Coordinated level development between the designers and the art and programming teams.

Planet Moon Studios – San Francisco, CA - October 2004 – February 2006

Lead Designer – Infected, PSP, Majesco - 2006

LucasArts Entertainment Company – San Rafael, CA - November 1996 – October 2004
Senior Systems Designer – Star Wars: Republic Commando, Xbox & PC - 2003-2004
Lead Level Designer – Armed and Dangerous, Xbox & PC - 2003
Senior Level Designer – Full Throttle 2 (unpublished), Playstation 2 & PC - 2003
Senior Level Designer – RTX: Red Rock, Playstation 2 - 2003
Level Designer – Star Wars, Episode I: Obi-Wan, X-Box - 2002
Level Designer – Rogue Squadron, Nintendo 64 - 1998
Associate Level Designer – Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, PC - 1998
Associate Level Designer – Outlaws: Handful of Missions, PC - 1997
Quality Assurance Tester – X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, PC - 1997
Quality Assurance Tester – Outlaws, PC - 1996–1997

SKILLS SUMMARY

Software Skills

• Unity

•  Unreal Editor 3/4/5, Kismet, Matinee, Blueprint

•  Source SDK - Hammer

•  Several proprietary level design tools

• Maya, 3DStudio Max, Photoshop, Perforce, Source Safe, Google Suite, Word, Excel, Powerpoint    

Platforms Of Shipped Titles
     •    iOS, Android
     •    Xbox, Xbox 360
     •    Playstation 2, 3, Playstation Move
     •    Playstation Vita, Playstation Portable
     •    Wii
     •    PC

EDUCATION

California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco 1990 - 1997
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program, Ph.D. Winter 1997 (advanced to candidacy, ABD)
Emphasis: Child/Adolescent Psychotherapy and Expressive Arts Therapy, Student Member of the
International Sandplay Society and Sandplay Therapists of America.

Internship experience: included five years of internships seeing patients between the ages of 3 and 55,
children with ADHD, AIDS patients, severely mentally ill patients (both in institutions and halfway homes),
substance abuse, teenage runaways/gang members, patients with mild organic brain disorders, and
abused children and their families.

Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto Fall 1989 - Summer 1990
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program, Ph.D.

University of California, Berkeley, May 1988
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology

INTERESTS

Video games, photography, marine biology (reef ecology), hiking/backpacking, outdoor life, music (violin
and guitar), movies, and most importantly, my family.

REFERENCES

Available upon request.