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Reel Run is a 3D arcade hack-and-slash where players star in popular movie archetypes, fighting hordes across three levels (Western, Horror, Romance). Each level is styled after its film genre and era, with its own playable character and destructible environments.
This page focuses on how I built my levels, from the first 2D map to the shipped game, and the design documentation I wrote along the way.
Western Act 1 · The Saloon
The saloon was the first level I built for Reel Run and our first real test of the game. Every level after it followed the same process.
Sep 14-18, 2024
I start every level as a top-down map on a grid, with a legend for scale, cover, and where the player and enemies spawn. The saloon went through several versions in four days, opening up the floor so waves of enemies had room to come at the player.
Sep 15, 2024
I shared each version in our level design channel. Teammates marked up the map with notes on flow and combat zones, and I folded that feedback into the next revision.
Sep 18, 2024
Next I blocked the map out in 3D with simple shapes to test scale, sightlines, and how combat actually felt in the space before any art was made.
Oct-Nov 2024
Once the layout was locked, the art team built over the whitebox and I worked on lighting to set the mood and keep combat readable.
Feb 2025
Once the foundation was solid, I handed the level off to other designers with clear documentation. That handoff became the standard for every level that followed.
Western Act 2
Three train cars, each with its own group of enemies: passenger, storage, and luxury. Players fight through each car and follow a critical path to the door at the end of the luxury car.
Romance Level · All three acts
I designed the whole Romance level, a telenovela set on a cruise ship. Each act went through two rounds of maps before I whiteboxed it.
Waves of enemies on the deck. Power boxes turn on spotlights that pull enemies into pose zones, where they freeze mid-pose.
Narrow aisles between round tables turn the room into a maze. Enemies dressed as chefs come in waves.
The boss, Ignacio, copies the player's moves while the dance floor lights up tiles in sequence. Lit tiles are electrified.
Creative Director
As creative director, I developed our design documentation so an 11-person team could build from the same plan. These are excerpts from the GDD and our team channels.
Systems, combat and combo design, scoring, controls, UI, characters, and act-by-act breakdowns of every level with maps.
Read the GDD
Cut Content
A sci-fi level I mapped and whiteboxed in June 2025. It spans three floors with objectives like a fuel pod and computer terminals. It was cut and never made it into the game, but it shows the same map-to-whitebox process on a vertical, multi-floor space.
Reel Run was my most hands-on project, as both creative director and level designer. I kept asking myself whether each design fit the vision, whether other people could repeat it, and whether it made sense in the film's context.
