Michael Bellipanni
A Level Design and Game Development Portfolio.

Job Experience:

2007: Cinema Scripter
Midway Studios - Austin
I worked as a Cinema Scripter on Area 51: Blacksite using the Unreal 3 Engine and Kismet. This is the first major game title that I have worked on.

2005 - Current: Camp Coordinator
Gamecamp!
Gamecamp! is a summer camp for kids who want to learn about game development. I work as a Lab Leader, Level Design Lecturer, and the Camp Coordinator.

2005 – 2007
President and Founder
Press Start: Game Developers of Texas State University
Press Start was Texas State's video game development club. The club focused on preparing its members for careers in the game industry through discussion and game development. Press Start is now defunct, but I felt that it was somewhat successful, and we even managed to get some of our members into classes and jobs in the game industry.

2005 – 2006
Level Designer
Ultimate Community Map Pack Development Team
I worked as a level designer and scripter on volumes One and Two of the UCMP map pack, contributing “DM-UCMP-The Pits” and “DOM-UCMP2-1on1-Smelter.” I also assisted other level designers on the team with dynamic level design elements. The success of our first map pack was a huge surprise to our team. I feel like I have learned more here as a level designer than anywhere else because of my chance to work with this wonderful community development team.

2005: Level Design Intern
Critical Mass Interactive
While at Critical Mass, I did level and game design work on a game in preproduction. I was lucky enough to be given a lot of creative control, even though I was just an intern.

2003 - 2004: Game Development Intern
Digital Media Collaboratory, part of the IC² Institute at The University of Texas at Austin
I got my start in game development at the DMC during my senior year of high school. My partner Daniel Abrego and I develop several projects using the Unreal Engine. The two of the projects we developed, Allied CTF and DM-Coliseum, both received awards from Nvidia’s Million Dollar Make Something Unreal Contest.

Program Experience:

Unreal Engine 3.0:
I used Unreal Engine 3.0 while working on Area 51: Blacksite as a cinema scripter. Most of my experience in this version of the engine is with the Unreal Ed Level Editor and the Kismet Scripting Tool.

Unreal Engine 2.0:
I have completed several community based projects using Unreal Engine 2.0. I have extensive experience using the Unreal Ed Level Editor to design and build levels and mods, with expertise in working with dynamic elements such as movers, emitters, and scripted sequences. I have experience using the Unrealscript programming language. I also have experience teaching students how to use Unreal Ed at the Gamecamp! Summer Camp.

Source Engine:
I have experience using the Hammer Level Editor in the Source SDK. My work so far has focused on level design for Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2. You can see my current work in progress, a level for Team Fortress 2, in the Source Engine Portfolio section of the website.

C / C++ Programming Languages:
I am currently a Computer Science Major at Texas State University in San Marcos, where I have been mostly using C and C++ for my academic projects. While I am a competent programmer, I am more experience with the theoretical aspects of computer science.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 / InDesign CS3 / Dreamweaver CS 3:
I have some experience using various versions of Photoshop, InDesign, and Dreamweaver.