Assassin's Creed Black Flag
Quest and Level Designer at Ubisoft Barcelona
My role combined quest design, level design, gameplay implementation, worldbuilding, environmental storytelling, player guidance, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
I contributed to playable content from its early design stages through scripting, implementation, testing, iteration, debugging, and final polish.
What I did
Main Quest Design
I designed and implemented main quest content, integrating narrative objectives with gameplay structure, spatial progression, encounters, traversal, cinematic moments, and environmental elements.
My work involved translating narrative intentions into playable sequences, defining objectives and quest logic, scripting gameplay events, communicating player goals, and ensuring that each section maintained its intended rhythm and emotional progression.
I collaborated with Narrative, Cinematics, Animation, Programming, Level Art, Audio, Production, and Quality Assurance to bring each sequence together and adapt it to technical, artistic, and production requirements.
Level and World Design
I contributed to the design and development of locations, islands, gameplay spaces, routes, points of interest, and exploration opportunities within the open world.
My work considered navigation, readability, traversal, player guidance, gameplay flow, pacing, visual composition, environmental storytelling, and the relationship between each location and the wider world.
I aimed to create spaces that were not only functional, but also believable, memorable, and connected to the fantasy of exploring a living pirate world.
Gameplay Implementation
I implemented and iterated on gameplay content directly within the project’s tools.
This included quest logic, objectives, triggers, conditions, interactions, encounter setups, environmental events, progression requirements, debugging, and content validation.
I supported features throughout production, responding to playtest feedback and solving issues that emerged from the interaction between narrative, level design, gameplay systems, and technical constraints.
Environmental Storytelling
Environmental storytelling was an important part of my work.
I used spatial composition, props, visual details, location context, interactions, and exploration rewards to communicate stories without relying exclusively on dialogue or cinematics.
These elements helped locations feel inhabited and gave players opportunities to interpret the world through observation and discovery.
Small World Interactions
I also created smaller optional interactions intended to reward curiosity and strengthen the player’s emotional connection with the environment.
One example was a chair with a sit interaction that I placed at a scenic viewpoint on an island. The idea was simple: to let players sit down, pause, and enjoy the landscape.
Seeing streamer IlloJuan unexpectedly discover the chair and react with genuine delight was a memorable reminder that even a small design detail can become meaningful when it appears in the right place.
Player Experience
Across quests, levels, and world content, my focus was always on the player’s experience.
I considered what information players had at each moment, where their attention would naturally go, how clearly the environment communicated their options, and how gameplay, narrative, and space could support one another.
My goal was to create content that felt clear without becoming mechanical, cinematic without removing player agency, and rich in detail without distracting from the intended experience.
Collaboration and Iteration
Developing this content required close collaboration across multiple disciplines.
I regularly reviewed feedback, communicated design intentions, documented features, investigated issues, and adapted content according to gameplay, narrative, technical, artistic, accessibility, and production needs.
I remained involved throughout the iterative process, from early concepts and blockouts to implementation, playtesting, debugging, and polish.
Selected Responsibilities
- Main quest design and implementation
- Level and world design
- Open-world content
- Gameplay scripting
- Objective and progression design
- Player guidance and readability
- Exploration and traversal
- Encounter integration
- Environmental storytelling
- World interactions
- Documentation and cross-disciplinary communication
- Playtesting, debugging, iteration, and polish
