Classified: France ‘44

Classified: France '44, a historical turn-based tactics game, is the first game made by Absolutely Games, released on March 5th 2024. Taking charge of a team of Allied Commandos and French Resistance fighters, the player is tasked with leading them on sabotage missions behind enemy lines in occupied France during the run-up to D-Day. You can find further details on the game on its Steam Page. I worked on the game for almost three years, as both QA Lead and Level Designer.

Design Responsibilities

• Taking ownership of mission content for Classified: France 44, crafting it based on the design pillars of the game and iterating upon feedback from the team as well as external partners.

• Crafting gameplay scenarios to create exciting and engaging combat spaces based around ‘fix and flank’ tactics, that fit both the story requirements and the ludonarrative themes of the game.

• Using custom visual scripting tools to implement objectives and script mission progression logic that accounted for all possible win and fail states that could occur during gameplay.

• Drafting key mission dialogues and interactions to help deliver the narrative of Classified: France 44 as well as representing the authentic voices of the characters and the time period the game takes place in.

• Writing Design documentation for key features such as Accessibility and User Generated Content to break down concepts and concisely condense relevant information for other parties outside the Design team.

• Engaging with the Design team to refine game balance and establish a progression curve that was rewarding as well as providing a varied level of challenge to players of all skill types.

• Collaborating with other stakeholders on the team in order to refine core gameplay features to meet the Design vision for Classified: France 44, allowing for a dynamic play style that would appeal to a diverse range of player types.

As my first professional role in the industry, I learned a great deal during my time on the Design team for Classified: France ‘44. I’m grateful for the trust placed in me by Absolutely Games leadership through promoting me from QA, as it allowed me to have a hands-on role in shaping the creative vision of the game.

I am incredibly proud of the work I have contributed to the project and I have learnt a great deal, which has allowed me to continue to develop my Design skills further and expand my knowledge base of what is possible, along with the bounds and constraints that need to be applied to create a viable product. Learning from direct feedback on my work along with the guidance and experience provided by other members of the Design team has been invaluable in allowing me to quickly mature my perspective and critically evaluate my work and the work of my peers in a constructive manner that leads to a better final product.

Being able to submit a mission proposal draft and see it through production to final submission was incredibly exciting and I hope to take this knowledge I have gained forward into future roles and be a strong collaborative creative partner for my co-workers.

Though I iterated on many areas of the game during development, I was largely responsible for the following levels in the game:

Recce Birds

Infiltrate a German airfield to sabotage and destroy enemy aircraft as well as steal flight plan intel.

Lancet

Infiltrate a German V2 production facility and eliminate the production unit constructing the weapons.