Project Overview

Ilima High School is a level built for Gears of War 3: RAAM's Shadow — the story-driven DLC campaign following Zeta Squad through the days before the events of Gears of War. In Chapter 3: Hide and Seek, players navigate the abandoned school grounds while searching Ilima City for survivors and hunting for Dr. Wisen, a scientist running an orphanage. The level sequence includes the dark entrance and locker-barricaded hallways, an atmospheric power-out corridor sequence, a basement Wretch ambush, and a courtyard battle against Locust snipers armed with One Shots.

Role

My work on Ilima High School focused on lighting and kitbashing — composing the classroom and interior spaces from a mix of new pieces and existing assets from Gears of War 3 and previous Gears titles. The goal was to build a school interior that felt distinctly civilian and lived-in against the broader industrial-military aesthetic of the Gears universe, while supporting the tense scripted encounters of the campaign beats.

Key Contributions

• Lit the classroom and interior school spaces across the Chapter 3: Hide and Seek sequence, including the power-out darkness beat and the ambush scenes
• Kitbashed set-dressing compositions using assets from Gears of War 3 and prior Gears titles to build a cohesive school environment
• Supported the mood and pacing of the DLC's scripted narrative beats through lighting design and environmental storytelling
• Tuned lighting and asset density to fit the Xbox 360 performance targets of the RAAM's Shadow release