About me
Bonjour,
I'm Damien LAURENT, a video game environment art designer with 20+ years of professional experience
Here’s a bit about me
What started as a hobby — designing Half-Life 1 levels — led to winning contests like Epic’s Make Something Unreal and Ubisoft’s mapping competitions, which gave me the opportunity to work on the Splinter Cell series
Nearly 20 years ago, I joined Arkane Studios Lyon, where I contributed to Dishonored 1 & 2 as Lead Level Architect, Assistant Art Director, and Lead Lighting Artist, helping shape both the environment art and level design of those games
I’ve also worked on titles like Bioshock 2, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Lately, I have served as Level Art Director at Arkane Studios Lyon, working first on Deathloop and now on Marvel’s Blade
My areas of expertise cover
Environmental art direction: maintaining high-quality standards, modularity, consistency, stylization, good performance, and gameplay compatibility in content creation
Level architecture & layout creation: developing a logical and intuitive flow for players while offering high flexibility in terms of circulation options for mission designers
Urban planning & world-building: creating a coherent and iconic urban foundation, drawing inspiration from real cities and blending them with powerful fictional elements
Lighting: magnifying the game's content, helping to guide the player passively, and highlighting important gameplay elements
Environmental storytelling: telling a story and infusing it with soul and his own spirit, with the key focus on conveying the dramas of the inhabitants and presenting the right point of view
Visuals for marketing: showcasing the game at its best, using the game engine as well as actual content
Team workflows: aligning efforts where needed and encouraging interdisciplinary synergy, fostering a productive, transparent, and stimulating atmosphere for the teams