FROM VISION TO REALITY

AAA Game Designer based in Melbourne, Australia (previously Montreal, Canada).

13+ years industry experience at some of the top studios in North America and Australia.

Lead Game Designer on Shadow Of The Tomb Raider.

Full-cycle Consulting Services. Mentor at CG Spectrum Online.

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ABOUT

My passions are management, leadership, mentoring and direction. Through roles such as Lead Game Designer (Shadow Of The Tomb Raider), Game Design Mentor (CG Spectrum) and Design Director (Consulting), I have provided the design direction, tools and methods for others to succeed.

As a manager, my strong collaborative, interdepartmental communication and mentoring skills ensure features are embraced by all departments and designers become the best they can be. I am also highly proactive at identifying issues before they occur.

As a designer, I am always striving for excellence in three core areas – the creativity to look beyond cliché but keep the audience in mind, excellent communication and the attention to detail to see features through to the end.

My joy is seeing a vision embraced – defining it, sharing it, empowering the team to make it better – and celebrating when they do. In this way it has often been possible in my career to reach that holy grail of game development – teams which almost make games ‘by themselves’.

I strongly believe in passionate, collaborative discourse and checking ego at the door to make the best games possible.

TESTIMONIALS

 

“An undeniable force for any team looking for a hard working innovator and true game enthusiast.”

Jean-Francois Mignault – Senior Art Director, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He’s extremely hardworking, intuitive, and a master at his craft. But more importantly, he’s a joy to work with and makes every day and great one.”

Ben Stanton – Principal Lead Animator, Shadow & Rise Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He is detail oriented in his design philosophies, communicates his team’s intentions well and still isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty when needed.”

Wilson Mui – Animation Director, Shadow & Rise Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He is an incredibly energetic individual and not only applies this energy into his tasks but also beyond. He would be thinking two steps ahead, do research and catch balls before they drop.”

Arne Oehme – Level Design Director, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He would see ideas through to execution and be always ready to push the envelope. His proactive style and quick thinking was inspiring and a huge benefit to the teams he worked with.”

Arne Oehme – Level Design Director, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He was consistently able to bind teams together and unlock the potential of people around him. Quick wit and charisma combined with a strong sense of focus and purpose allowed teams around him to stay unified even in rough weather.”

Arne Oehme – Level Design Director, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Heath is an extremely driven, talented game designer, who is passionate about his work and takes his responsibilities very seriously. His dedication to continually developing his skills and knowledge is inspiring.”

Stuart Wheeler – Senior Game Designer, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He’s an excellent leader who sets well-defined goals, and dedicates time to ensure his teammates can do their best work. Heath’s likable and gregarious personality… helps him forge strong relationships with his colleagues.”

Stuart Wheeler – Senior Game Designer, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Heath is an excellent collaborator… He is a great communicator and designer and was able to handle the difficult task of working remotely extremely well.”

Grant Parker – Game Designer, Shadow & Rise Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Heath is also extremely good at listening. When I had questions or concerns or didn’t understand something about the project, I could go to Heath and ask those questions, knowing I would get a well thought out answer.”

Grant Parker – Game Designer, Shadow & Rise Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“I have no doubt that the quality of (Shadow Of The Tomb Raider) wouldn’t be the same without his presence. Every day, Heath worked diligently and with passion to bring out the best game possible.”

Daniel Drapeau – Gameplay Director, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Heath has a very strong design sense. I saw him being able to go from creative to pragmatic depending on the situation.”

Daniel Drapeau – Gameplay Director, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Always keeping both the player and the team in mind, his creativity and optimism are a boon in both the good and the tough times of the development cycle.”

Jill Murray – Lead Writer, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He’s smart and ambitious and understands the process of making AAA games, producing excellent results.”

Guillermo Dupinet – Art Director Animation, The Amazing Spider-Man

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“(Heath) very quickly became a reference on how to achieve AAA quality material… (he) is simply the best game analyst I’ve ever worked with.”

Benjamin Schirtz – Lead Narrative Designer, The Amazing Spider-Man

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“His internal reviews combined with his sharp problem solving skills and attitude helped everyone from other designers to programmers to raise the quality of (TASM)”

Benjamin Schirtz – Lead Narrative Designer, The Amazing Spider-Man

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“…not only did each time he touched something it magically worked perfectly, but he proved he has great leadership skills: planning tasks, helping and teaching juniors and intermediates, never stressed and always the right attitude.”

Gerard Lehainy – Creative Director, The Amazing Spider-Man

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He was inspiring to people around him, motivating people with his behavior, a team player, always coming up with the solutions, working with others’ ideas and giving a soul and consistency to everything he worked on within the production constraints.”

Gerard Lehainy – Creative Director, The Amazing Spider-Man

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Heath is an outstanding designer. Every feature which makes Cricket 2010 shine over its predecessor can be directly attributed to him. Not only are his ideas well thought out, Heath has the tenacity to see them through until the end.”

Matt Delbosc – Lead Programmer, International Cricket 2010

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Heath has the ability to get people around him on board with his ideas, and motivate them to get them implemented. His leadership made some of the most innovative features in Cricket 2010 see the light of day, such as the immersive batsman camera.”

Matt Delbosc – Lead Programmer, International Cricket 2010

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Heath has one of the best attitudes of anyone I’ve ever worked with. He will do whatever it takes to support his systems, explain his designs, help his fellow team members, and generally focus everyone on a common goal.”

Cam Dunn – Studio Technical Director, Transmission Games

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“He has excellent communication skills and unquestionable initiative and loyalty. He did a great job of ensuring the project maintained the highest quality through his insightful proposals and excellent documentation.”

Sean Holmesby – Programmer, Ashes Cricket 2009

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“All sorts of adjectives come to mind – enthusiastic, passionate, professional, insightful, thorough… but probably the best description I can give is that Heath just wants to make kick-ass games, and he’s really quite good at it!”

Adrian Hofman – Lead Programmer, Transmission Games

 

TESTIMONIALS

 

“Great communicator, totally ego-less, astonishingly productive, and impatient – in a good way, the sort of impatience that gets results from the rest of us.”

Adrian Hofman – Lead Programmer, Transmission Games

 

KEY FACTS

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Nationalities

  • Australian (birth)
  • Canadian (citizen by naturalization)

Industry Experience

  • 13+ years

Key Roles

  • Design Director
  • Lead Game Designer
  • Game Design Mentor

Specialties

  • Management & Direction
  • Leadership & Mentorship
  • AAA Vision setting
  • Clear & Vibrant Communication
  • Rational Systems Design
  • SP & MP Level Design
  • Combat Systems & Encounter Design
  • Puzzle Systems & Level Design
  • Meta-game & Economy Design
  • Agile Scheduling and Production

 

Companies

  • Square-Enix
  • Eidos
  • Activision
  • Codemasters
  • CG Spectrum
  • Mighty Serious

Notable IP

  • Tomb Raider
  • Hitman
  • Spider-Man
  • Codemasters Cricket
  • Frank Miller’s Sin City

Education

  • Adv. Diploma of Prof. Game Dev. (Software Dev.)
    – AIE Melbourne (2006)
  • Bachelor Of Applied Science.
    (Software Eng.)
    – RMIT Melbourne (2000)

Mentoring Experience

  • CG Spectrum