Canon Coker
Game Designer
Phone:
216-551-7661
Email:
LinkedIn:
PDF Resume
Skills
Game Design Skills
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Level White-Boxing
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Systems Tuning
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Combat Design
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Design Documentation Writing
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Pre-Production Workflow
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Encounter Design
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Content Design
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Environmental Storytelling
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Environmental Puzzle Design
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Technical Design
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Rapid Prototyping
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Emergent Storytelling
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UI Wireframing
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Gameplay Testing
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Metrics Collection and Analysis
Technical Skills
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C#
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Blueprints (Unreal Engine)
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Bolt Visual Scripting (Unity)
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GD Script
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Editor Tooling
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Runtime Tooling
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Commenting and Documentation
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Debugging
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Pairs Programming
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Code Reviews
Production Skills
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Agile
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Scrum
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Waterfall
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Task Tracking
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Milestone Planning
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Sprint Planning
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Problem Solving
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Conflict Resolution
Proficient Software
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Figma
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Miro
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Blender
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Autodesk Maya
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Scythe (Unreal Engine Plugin)
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Microsoft Excel / Word / Powerpoint / etc.
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Google Sheets / Docs / Slides / etc.
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Unreal Engine 5
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Unreal Engine 4
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Unity
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Godot
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Perforce
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GitHub
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GitLab
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Tortoise SVN
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Visual Studio
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VS Code
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NotePad++
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Jira
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Fork
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ClickUp
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Monday.com
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Asana
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Trello
Teacher's Assistant
DigiPen Institute of Technology
January 2025 - Present
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Worked with DigiPen Institute of Technology design department staff to assist professors and students in narrative design and level design education.
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Mentored 100+ students undergoing level design courses ranging from introductory to advanced levels.
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Mentored 40 students undergoing advanced narrative design courses, providing them with design for storytelling through perspective switching or leveraging narrative tools for exposition.
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Provided level design students with guidance for projects focusing on 2D and 3D level design, exploring concepts of level rhythms, evolutions and expansions, skill themes, Kishōtenketsu act structures, narrative beats, level-white boxing, environmental storytelling, encounter design, and puzzle design.
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Assisted in iterating on course curriculums to better support intended learning outcomes and prepare students for professional careers.
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Provided technical assistance for writing gameplay and interfacing with engine features and tools in Unreal Engine 5.
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Maintained confidentiality of private student records regarding grades and other institutionally protected student information.
Student Mentor
DigiPen Institute of Technology
August 2025 - April 2026
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Mentored a multidisciplinary class of 180 student game developers on game design, gameplay programming, tools programming, and production.
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Worked with instructors to develop break out talks regarding technical level design considerations, scope management, career development, and gaining familiarity of the features of Unreal Engine 5.
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Facilitated team building and conflict resolution between students to help them identify common struggles and goals and learn how to best work together towards realizing milestones targets as a team.
Chronicler Software
Unannounced Title
June 2025 - July 2025
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Collaborated with a multi-disciplinary team of 5 industry veterans to plan, document, block out, and iterate on level content using the Scythe engine plugin for Unreal Engine 5.
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Worked with Art and Design Directors to develop visual style and motifs to guide design decisions by drawing thumbnail sketches and building on level draw overs from my team.
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Maintained confidentiality while working under a non-disclosure agreement.
Work Experience
Lead Game Designer
Radical Dreamers LLC
Radical Dreams (Working Title)
November 2022 - February 2026
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Lead development of vertical slice from conception to completion.
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Illustrated design pillars to drive design decision making and outline how to design game elements and content.
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Wrote design bible exploring the titles narrative direction and how that should be explored across all elements of the works design, content, art, and sound.
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Designed core game systems to emulate an intended play experience based on identified design pillars with interlocking game mechanics and emergent storytelling opportunities.
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Whiteboxed and iterated on 3D level spaces that prompt environmental and emergent storytelling using cinematography and player psychology.
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Collaborating with artists and sound designers to create cohesive level aesthetics and matching play experience.
ADMIS
SHUTTLEFALL
January 2025 - Present
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Collaborated with ex-Navy artist and 2 color deficient programmers to design and implement a diegetic and accessible status indication lights system for players who experience red-green color blindness.
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Designed 5 game systems to solve playtesting identified design problems. Used design pillars to iterate on game elements to incentivize intended play and produce the intended emotional experience.
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Collaborated with multi-disciplinary team to create 3 levels that incentivize game flow and an implicit tutorialization
Independent Projects
Personal Project
November 2023 - March 2023
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Narrative Design / Design Analysis Project.
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Analyzed the narrative design of FromSoftware’s Bloodborne exploring the use of ludonarrative, emergent, and diagetic storytelling elements used to present themes, world building, and characters in the game.
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Awarded Gold Prize in Game Narrative Review Essay Competition, and invited to speak at the 2023 Game Developers Conference.
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Presented findings in a GDC talk as part of the Game Narrative Review panel accompanied by a poster detailing the synthesized thoughts of the original paper.
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GDC Talk publicly available on the GDC Vault.
DigiPen Institute of Technology
September 2022 - April 2023
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Multidisciplinary Team Project (6 Members). Served as Creative Director, Level Designer, System Designer, Narrative Designer, and Gameplay Programmer.
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Identified thematic direction to guide the player fantasy that design decisions would be made based on.
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Designed encounters to articulate an evolving player fantasy based on the progression system of the game.
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Designed and iterated upon environmental puzzle designs to emphasize thematic motifs.
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Researched and developed non-linear metroidvania style level design to provide opportunities for the reframing of previous rooms based on the growing arsenal of player abilities acquired throughout the game.
Personal Project
September 2025 - December 2025
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White Boxed 5 short levels using Unreal Engine 5 under a strict 2-hour time limit to practice level design skills and decision making in a time sensitive context.
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Tested and developed new level design practices to achieve faster minimum viable product level passes.
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Iterated on my process for creating minimum viable product levels to produce quicker playtest ready results.
DigiPen Institute of Technology
September 2023 - October 2023
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Level Design / Narrative Design Project.
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Developed thematic motif for informing the design of both the level and narrative elements of the game to promote consistent ludonarrative cohesion between gameplay and story.
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Outlined five act storyline around exploring and developing upon the thematic direction established to then be explored through the level design white-box.
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Utilized environmental storytelling techniques such as set dressing, changing environments, pacing, and lighting to bring the world outlined to life and guide the player through the progression of the plot in a digestible manner.
DigiPen Institute of Technology
October 2023 - November 2023
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Level Design / Encounter Design Project.
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Designed encounter progression to emulate the combat feel of DOOM (2016) with an evolving level of content challenge using the DOOM (2016) level editor. Used 4 multi wave encounters to introduce, expand on, and recontextualize combat scenarios to create unique and engaging gameplay moments.
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Researched and constructed metroidvania map to emulate the level styles of DOOM (1993) and DOOM II. Made use of lock and key systems to guide the player through a linear experience in a non-linear feeling map that grows in scale as it progresses.
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Playtested content to fine tune difficulty curves, player engagement, and player guidance through the level and encounter design.
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Released level publicly to DOOM (2016) at the level code: URBQYAYK
DigiPen Institute of Technology
November 2023 - December 2023
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Level Design / Puzzle Design Project.
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Designed five Portal 2 test chamber maps using the Portal 2 level editor around a consistent skill theme with each level expanding upon ideas from previous levels.
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Gained experience designing content to match the feel of an existing IP.
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Conducted playtesting to iterate on test chamber designs to improve player guidance and concept tutorialization through the series of levels.
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Received a 5-star rating on Steam for a test chamber, reviewed by over 500 players.
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Published Levels to Steam Workshop.
DigiPen Institute of Technology
September 2024 - May 2025
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Multidisciplinary Team Project (30 Members). Served as Co-Producer, Level Designer, Combat Designer, Gameplay Programmer, and Tools Programmer.
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Collaborated with environment team to develop environmental storytelling rich level designs utilizing interactions and encounters to reinforce the character relationships and overarching narrative of the work.
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Revised combat system design to better reflect the narrative direction of the playable characters and improve upon player engagement. Created a more intimate combat experience with actions and emergent choices designed to reflect the characterization of the protagonists and their relationship to the enemies in the game.
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Designed encounters to utilize the combat system to create storytelling opportunities reflecting the power struggle of the protagonist characters and emphasizing the changing presence of the threats against them at different locations throughout the world.
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Worked on post production publication team to polish the title for release on Steam by optimizing gameplay, level design, lighting, and UI programing implementations.
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Title Shipped on Steam.
DigiPen Institute of Technology
September 2025 - December 2025
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Level Design / Quest Design / Mission Design Project.
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Designed and polished 3 levels using Unreal Editor for Fortnite following provided quest instructions to emulate a narrative design to level design development pipeline.
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Observed a pre-production workflow for each level, creating top-down maps based on notes from provided narrative design documentation. Laid out encounters using the top-down map based on gameplay intentions and enemy selection to match the story.
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Created flow maps and timeline charts based on the top-down layouts and encounters to determine where to cut or add additional encounters to craft a consistently engaging play experience.
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Iterated on level designs based on regular playtesting feedback.
Personal / Educational Projects
Education
Bachelor's of Arts in Game Design
DigiPen Institute of Technology
April 2026
High School Diploma
Cleveland Heights High School
May 2021
