Aaron Barber

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Aaron Barber
Biographical information
Born	February 20
Place of birth	San Francisco, California
Title(s)	Level Designer 3D Artist Game Designer Animator
Time period	1999 – Present
Nickname(s)	The Animal

 

Aaron Barber is a level designer and a 3D artist who works at Valve.

Work for Half-Life 2

• Arctic regions
• Borealis (cut ship)
• Canals
• Citadel
• City 17
• City 17 Trainstation
• The Coast
• Combine Factories
• Kleiner's Lab
• Manhack Arcade
• Ravenholm
• Skyscraper
• Vance Headquarters

Selected gameography

• Half-Life 2 (2004)
• Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (2005)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
• Portal (2007)
• Portal 2 (2011)
• Half-Life: Alyx (2020)

Company biographies

• August 6, 2002 (archived)

Aaron Barber - Game Designer/Animator

After briefly studying music at the University of Oregon, Aaron left school to work as a full-time musician. Playing drums and percussion steadily for about 6 years, he quickly tired of all the travel. His music career brought him to California where he ended up going back to school to study Engineering and Computer Science at UCLA. During his Senior year, he got a job in the UCLA Medical Center developing websites, building virtual worlds, and displaying medical data in 3d using VRML and Java. At that same time, he became obsessed with playing games and building levels for Duke Nukem and Quake. During late night hours, he built many popular single-player levels and worked with several Internet groups doing mods. His late night hobby turned into a career overnight when he accepted a job at Xatrix Entertainment, working on titles such as the Redneck Rampage series, Quake 2 mission pack, and Kingpin. Upon joining Valve in 1999, Aaron returns home to the Northwest where he currently attends architecture and design classes in his spare time.

• August 7, 2005 (archived)

Aaron Barber - Level Designer/3D artist

While studying engineering at UCLA, Aaron got his first experience building 3d environments while constructing VRML websites for the University. During this time he was also actively involved in designing levels for Quake and Duke Nukem 3D with several internet mod groups. His level design eventually got him a position at Xatrix Entertainment working on titles such as Redneck Rampage, Quake 2, and Kingpin. After completing Kingpin, he took a senior design position at EA working on James Bond before coming to Valve. Outside the world of game and level design, Aaron also enjoys playing music locally around Seattle.

nineteen5.com

• September 5, 2011 (archived)

Aaron Barber

Aaron got his first taste of 3D environments when he was studying engineering at UCLA. He was building VRML websites for the university, and also designing levels for Quake and Duke Nukem 3D with several Internet mod groups. His level design skills landed him a job at Xatrix Entertainment where he worked on Redneck Rampage, Quake 2, and Kingpin. After Kingpin, he took a senior design position at Electronic Arts where he worked on James Bond before coming to Valve. Outside the world of game and level design, Aaron likes playing music around Seattle.

nineteen5.com.