DON POOLE

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Spatial & Level Designer | Large-Scale Real-Time 3D, VR/XR, Generative Spatial Systems

 

don@squidblackspatial.com | www.squidblackspatial.com | Kingston, WA

 

Spatial designer with 25 years building large-scale, real-time 3D environments, including AAA level and environment design at Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, and Kojima Productions, followed by a decade leading VR and XR design across consumer, enterprise, and live-service products. Shipped across three technology eras: console open worlds, immersive VR at millions-of-users scale, and now generative 3D. Currently directing independent research into how spatial and architectural knowledge is encoded in large multimodal models and how to make it addressable for 2D image and 3D world generation.

 

EXPERIENCE

 

Independent Researcher, Spatial AI Systems

QuidVicious LLC (Squid Black Spatial) | Dec 2025 to Present

 

- Developed Latent Space Archaeology, a repeatable methodology for surfacing domain-specific spatial, architectural, and cultural knowledge encoded in large multimodal models, and translating it into structured JSON "domain keys" that improve geometric and cultural accuracy in AI-generated images and 3D environments.

 

- Architected a multi-stage pipeline that researches historical and geographic domain knowledge for a target location and routes it into 2D image and 3D world generation, including Google Gemini image models and World Labs Marble, directing implementation through AI-assisted agentic coding workflows.

 

- Established a geo-anchored verification protocol pairing real-world aerial and ground reference imagery against generated output, producing documented case studies (Edinburgh's Moray Feu) that isolate model error at sub-regional precision.

 

Pod Captain & Game/Level Designer

Another Axiom | Mar 2023 to Nov 2025

 

With over 1 million daily players, Gorilla Tag is one of VR's largest live titles by concurrent users.

 

- Led cross-disciplinary pods ranging from 2 to 10 designers, artists, and engineers, shipping 5+ new levels plus core movement systems including swimming, gliding, and hoverboard traversal.

- Defined test criteria and directed QA leads on testing priorities across levels and movement systems, driving design iteration from structured playtest findings.

 

- Designed within hard real-time constraints on standalone mobile VR hardware, holding [frame target] on [platform] while balancing physics fidelity, spatial readability, and player comfort.

 

- Overhauled navigation and store architecture across the game's central hub, a live product serving [N] recurring users, [outcome or metric if available].

 

- Defined the visual and gameplay metrics governing how the environment communicates scale, distance, and depth to the player's body, the core perceptual problem in embodied spatial systems.

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Senior / Lead Designer 

WEVR | Nov 2019 to May 2022 (3 consecutive contracts)

 

- Web3 Metaverse Prototype (Lead Designer): designed UI, gameplay loops, and DeFi integration for a persistent multi-platform environment spanning mobile, PC, and MR/VR, establishing a shared spatial visual language across device classes.

 

- VR Simulator Prototype (Lead Designer): designed a 3-point input and full-body IK avatar system for real-time pose prediction, plus gesture-based interaction and calibration systems balancing embodiment against accessibility, creating an immersive, user-pose controlled VR experience.

 

- Gnomes & Goblins VR (Sr. Designer, Level and AI Interaction): orchestrated 20+ multi-agent behavioral events in Blueprint against an engineer-built AI system, directing NPCs to read as a living community performing collective tasks such as brewing and staging an outdoor festival. Designed goblin-scaled interiors for high-fidelity player interaction.

 

Title nominated for Best VR Experience, Venice Biennale/Film Festival 2020.

 

Mixed Reality Designer

Independent | Jul 2017 to Nov 2019

 

- Built a mixed-reality character framework in Unity using ARCore for real-time spatial awareness, with procedural non-verbal communication driving believable animation responses to user proximity and action.

 

- Simulated shadows and Real World occlusion. 

 

Lead Designer, VR/AR

Rascali / Studio Roqovan | Jan 2015 to Jul 2017

 

Studio Roqovan (formerly Reload Studio) and its non-gaming division Rascali, B2B Educational VR for Arts and Culture

 

- Early equity-holding hire during the studio's founding period. As Lead Designer at Rascali, I defined the creative product vision, UX strategy, and development roadmap for B2B educational VR applications.

 

- Improved customer ratings from 1.5 to 3.75 stars on a key Gear VR product through targeted design and interaction overhaul. 

 

- Directed production reviews with clients, including The American Experience, The Rubin Museum, and Boulevard VR.

 

- As Senior Designer, Studio Roqovan I designed and built multiplayer levels for World War Toons (PS VR) and pioneered diegetic 3D menu systems to resolve VR-specific UI challenges. 

 

Senior Game Designer

Kojima Productions | 2012 to 2014

 

- Led multiplayer map and environment design for Metal Gear Solid Online 3, designing competitive spaces for readability, flow, and balance under a stealth-systems ruleset.

 

-Led DLC (down loadable content) for post launch updates and additions to maintain customer retention.

 

-1 of a small team assigned with developing new IPs for future franchises.

 

Senior Environment / Mission Designer

Sucker Punch Productions | 2007 to 2011

 

- Open-world environment and mission design at city scale across inFamous and inFamous 2, building traversal-legible urban space for a vertically mobile player.

 

- Designed fully interactive environments that allowed users and NPCs to interact with and alter the game space creating memorable moments without using cutscenes.

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- Led small (4-12) cross-discipline teams of artists, programmers, animators, audio and QA setting vision, goals and roadmap for new content creation across the franchise.

 

- Participated in publisher-run lab-based playtesting at Sony (Foster City), including two-way-mirror observation and post-session participant interviews conducted blind to developer identity, and applied findings to level and mission direction.

 

- Ran comparative evaluations against shipped competitors using expert-panel review, moving assessment past "works as designed" toward whether a mechanic was best-in-market, to inform direction decisions.

 

Level Lead & Environment Artist

Naughty Dog | 2000 to 2007

 

- End-to-end level development across the Jak & Daxter and Uncharted franchises, owning levels from layout through art and final polish on fixed console hardware.

 

- 3D modeling of environments and other features in the game.

 

- Established a working practice with QA leads of authoring test criteria for my own designs and directing what got tested, a method carried forward across every studio since.

 

SKILLS

 

- Spatial & Level Design: large-scale environment and level design, open-world traversal and mission design, VR/XR spatial design and comfort, multi-agent behavior orchestration and legibility, gameplay metrics and spatial readability, architectural and geographic domain research.

- Small Team direction and leadership. 

 

- Testing & Evaluation: test criteria definition and testing prioritization with QA leads, structured playtest observation and iteration, lab-based playtesting and post-session participant interviews, comparative expert-panel evaluation against shipped products.

 

- Real-Time 3D & Engines: Unreal Engine 4/5, Unity 3D, Blueprint visual scripting, C# (design-side prototype scripting), Maya.

 

- Generative Spatial Systems: domain-knowledge prompt architecture, structured JSON prompting, multimodal grounding and verification, Gemini image models, World Labs Marble, Cesium ion, AI-assisted and agentic development workflows.

 

- Production: cross-disciplinary team leadership, live-service iteration, Git, Perforce, Adobe Creative Suite, Agile/Scrum.

 

EDUCATION

 

M.S. Engineering Technology | East Tennessee State University

Product design, industrial design, 3D modeling and animation. Alias/Wavefront Center of Excellence, one of a small number designated worldwide.

 

B.A.F.A. Fine Art Studio | University of New Mexico

Non-traditional photographic techniques and mixed media. Studied under Patrick Nagatani, Tom Barrow, and art historian Eugenia Parry Janis.