Richard "Levelord" Gray
Veteran Level Designer, Owner, Ritual Entertainment
Born in New Haven,
Connecticut on November 15, 1957 and there lived for 10 years. Spent 5 years
in New Canaan, Connecticut. Went to high school in State College,
Pennsylvania.
Joined the Navy in 1976 and served as a Boatswain's Mate
for a year aboard the U.S.S. Detroit. Then served as an Ocean Systems
Technician for three years listening for nuclear and diesel Soviet submarines
in Adak, Alaska and Norfolk, Virginia. Discharged in 1980 and moved to Los
Angeles.
Received a technical degree for business-oriented
programming in 1981 and worked for three years at Kirkhill Rubber Company in
Brea, California. Went to night school for a year while at Kirkhill, then quit
and attended community college for two more years in Santa Monica, California.
Accepted at UCLA as engineering undergraduate and received
degree in computer engineering in 1990. Became homesick for the East Coast in
1990. Manhattan was first, for a year of graduate computer graphics study at
NYU, then Connecticut to work for three years at Bauer Aerospace as the
supervisor of software engineering. Accepted at University of Connecticut's
Master of Business program.
Started level designing in February of 1994 by creating
GrayDOOM, an amateur 4-level pack including The Swamp, Imp Skull, Bad Water,
and The Gauntlet. Hired to do contract levels for BLOOD with the Q Studios team
and Apogee/3D Realms in September of 1994.
Hired full-time by Apogee/3D Realms in March of 1995 and
designed half of the levels for DUKE NUKEM 3D (The Abyss, Incubator, Warp
Factor, Spin Cycle, Lunatic Fringe, Raw Meat, Bank Roll, Flood Zone, L.A.
Rumble, The Movie Set, Rabid Transit, Fahrenheit, Hotel Hell, and Tier Drops).
Joined the Ritual Entertainment Tribe in August of 1996 and
released of the Scourge of Armagon add-on pack for Quake in 1997 which included
the first suspended platform deathmatch level called HIPDM1. Next released was
SiN in 1998 which included the first professional rat-sized player deathmatch
level called Spry. Next released Heavy Metal's FAKK2 in 2000. Have also
helped with Rogue's Alice and EA's James Bond: Agent Under Fire.
A list of games worked on:
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Quake
- SiN
- Heavy Metal:FAKK2
- American McGees Alice
- Star Trek:Elite Forces II
- James Bond:Agent Under Fire
- Blackhawk Down:Team Sabre
- Counter Strike:Condition Zero