Joining only in January of this year, Hardy LeBel, former lead designer and consultant for Bungie-helmed FPS series Halo, is now director of gameplay of Redwood-based Tomb Raider dev team. Wow-worthy credentials follow.
In 2000, LeBel was design lead at Bungie Studios for Halo: Combat Evolved; he determined development strategy and “provided creative vision” for the game’s multiplayer mode. Fresh off dev duties for his first Halo game, he was appointed as design director of Microsoft Game Studios where he “oversaw a portfolio of multiple internal and external titles” and evaluated “prospective external development houses including process, culture and tools.”
LeBel would come back to Bungie upon request in 2003, but this time as design consultant for Halo 2. After the one-year development cycle, he joined Zipper Interactive where he served as creative director for two titles, SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo.
LeBel would then join Gas Powered Games as lead designer for Microsoft Game Studios-published Dungeon Siege II. Before joining Team Lara in 2010, LeBel was involved with Ubisoft as multiplayer creative consultant for Far Cry 2 (pictured; in-depth interview with LeBel for Far Cry 2 here, courtesy of Gamasutra; video interview here, courtesy of IGN).
Currently, aside from “overseeing a game development team of 70+ artists, designers and programmers” as gameplay director at Crystal Dynamics, LeBel is also CEO of Tyrant Studios, a game development team formed in 2008.
As gameplay director of a still-under-wraps game at Redwood HQ, LeBel’s responsibility is “to internalize the high level goals for our games and translate that vision into production steps and on-screen deliverables.” In simpler terms, he determines “how we’re gonna make it happen and to make sure it’s fun when we’re done!”
Now excuse us while we browse through a dictionary for the definition of “fun”. Nothing wrong with hoping we’re all literally on the same page, yes?
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