I've had the opportunity to write about, teach and give several Game Developer Conference presentations on games and design. Here are some of the highlights.
Game Level Design (Charles River Media, 2006)
I wrote Game Level Design when books dedicated to level design specifically were few and far between. CRM contacted me to see if I'd be interested in writing a book for beginners and I thought... sure. Six months of frantic writing later and it was done. I constructed the book with novices in mind, beginning with chapters on the origins of level design, the architecture of games and levels, and how game teams are set up. Then, after covering the fundamentals of ideation, planning and construction I dedicated a chapter to walking through building a simple game environment in UnrealEd. Interspersed were interviews with notable level designers of the time (and still notable today). While the industry has moved on considerably it was a very enlightening project for me and helped me really understand the craft of making game levels.
Lectures and Presentations
One of the highlights of my career was helping found the Level Design in a Day workshop with a group of fantastic level design friends. The workshop has run continuously since its first year in 2010 with a rotating panel of top designers, and I was a speaker from 2010 - 2012. Additionally I've guest lectured at DigiPen, and given talks to aspiring designers at the Redmond Digital Art Festival. Here are links to some of the presentation decks: