I am a professional level designer based in the West Midlands, UK. I love games, both for the creative challenges of creating them and for just playing them. I really can’t see how you could work in this industry if you didn’t have a passion for them.
I started my career in games as a graphic artist and over the years I’ve naturally made the transition to that of level designer. My experience and skills gained as a 3D modeller have greatly benefited my work as a level designer. I am able to quickly create concept environments which contain enough detail for other members of the production team to easily visualise and understand.
I have always worked with a relatively small design team so I’ve naturally developed a multi-disciplined skill set within the area of game design. My current skills and experience enable me to take on numerous tasks across game design including high level game design, creating concept presentations, all stages of level design and concept prototyping and visualisation.
Throughout my career I have worked on a wide range of genres – racing, action strategy, first person shooters and third person action, although through most recently my professional focus has predominately been on racing titles I still feel that first/third person action shooters is the genre that I feel most at home with.
Colin Nicholls - Level/Game designer 