Daniel Hiley
Systems and Level Designer
Welcome to my game design portfolio! On this page you will find the featured projects I've completed during the past several years. I specialize in level design and systems design, and have worked on multiple team-based and solo projects. My projects include DigiPen coursework with conditions meant to emulate the industry as well as personal projects made from the ground up.
Featured Projects
Pokemon RPG Early Generations
Systems Designer
Combat Designer
January 2024 - Present
Pokémon RPG Early Generations is a comprehensive multiplayer online RPG fangame where I was the systems designer in a team of four, focusing on designing and implementing the core gameplay systems, mechanics, and overall structure of the game.
Bridgemaster
Level Designer
January 2024-Present
BridgeMaster is a tile-based puzzle game where players take on the role of a magician tasked with saving a village that’s collapsing. As the level designer and a key contributor to game systems, I focused on creating paper prototype levels and gameplay scenarios that both challenged the player and provided replayability. My role centered on balancing puzzle difficulty and player satisfaction.
Full
Metal Alchemist
Solo Passion Project
January 2019-September 2023
Full Metal Alchemist is a mod of Warcraft 3, adapting a popular anime series of the same name. It is an asymmetrical MOBA genre game, featuring a playable cast of 38 characters each with 5+ abilities. Over the course of its development, it has been played by a Discord server of 200 people. Today it continues with a cult following.
Chuckles
DigiPen Team Project
Level Designer Systems Designer
September 2022-April 2023
In the side scrolling run and gun game, Chuckles, players encounter several clown/circus themed opponents for challenging boss fights. As the sole game designer in a team of four on this project, I designed all of the bosses and levels for this game. I also programmed a good deal and worked with the scripts of the programmers.
EFO: Escape from Outerworld
DigiPen Team Project
Level Designer
Systems Designer
September 2020-April 2021
In EFO, players race against the clock to reach their spaceship before time runs out in a side scrolling platformer. I worked on the systems design of getting the player movement and telekinesis to be fun and satisfying to use, and designed the full 10-minute length level.