HODL Studio / Dutch Game Studio

Lead Game Designer
Dutch Game Studio & Hodle Studio (Feb 2022 – Dec 2024)

Spearheaded the creative vision for an unannounced multi-year project, leading a multidisciplinary team in designing gameplay systems and narrative mechanics.
Established clear deadlines and project plans, ensuring alignment with client expectations and team deliverables.
Expanded role to include 2D rigging for facial animations, environment set dressing, and the production of marketing content.
Leveraged iterative design processes and playtesting to refine mechanics and enhance player engagement.

Key Skills:

Game Design: Systems Design, Combat Design, Narrative Design, Level Design

Leadership: Team Management, Client Communication, Deadline Planning

Tools: Unity, Unreal Engine, Live2D, Vtube Studio and more

Team Ninobi

Itch.io Link: Link

Engine: Unity

Team Size: 3

Project length: 1 year

My Role: Technical Design, System Design, Narrative design

During the last year of BUAS I worked together with 2 other designer students on team Ninobi.

We made 3 different games. 2 games with 4 months development time and one 1 week gamejam.

The first game we created was ASORA ( a series of rude awakenings ) A combat heavy 2D platformer
The second one was our game jam game Family Ties. A 3D platforming puzzle game. This game served as a prototype for our final game called Firekeeper. A more story heavy 3D platformer.

With no programmers on the team, I had a much bigger focus on technical design in these projects.

Kari
Stranded on the shores of Vanaheim

Steam Link: Link

Genre: Adventure puzzle

Engine: Unreal

Team size: 29 people. 11 designers, 12 artists, 6 programmers

Development time: 1 school year

My Role: 50% system design, 50% level design

When the concept for Kari was created our team was a lot smaller. (only 10 people) We wanted to keep it simple so the core concept was an adventure game where you have to manage your inventory.

Throughout the year our team grew as members from other teams decided to join us. This caused my role within the team to shift as well and steer away from system design and more into level design since we got more programmers and less need for technical support from designers.

I ended up creating a lot of the mechanics on paper while later on in the project focusing on the flow of the levels and eventually shaping and set-dressing them in the engine itself with the biggest focus on the mountain level.(see pictures below)

Max Velocity

Genre: -Endless- Runner

Engine: Unreal

Team size: 8 people. 4 designers, 2 artists, 2 programmers

Development time: 8 weeks

My Role: 50% system design, 50% level design

While the genre is endless runner, the game isn't really endless. We were tasked to make levels by hand from the assignment that was given. The game itself has 4 levels each about 1-2 minutes long with increasing difficulty making it hard to complete on the first try.

The game is all about high speed dodging. Your ship follows the track automatically with glowing obstacles coming your way. The game is played with a controller, by default the ship flies in the center of the road. you then have 5 directions you can go in by flying to the left or right, jumping or combining those commands.

At the start of the project we were only a team of 4 people (2 designers, 1 artist, 1 programmer). We had to prove that we could come up with a concept that would then be green-lit by teachers who take up the role as stakeholders. After the initial 2 weeks, half the projects were not approved, forcing those teams to be absorbed by the approved teams. This doubled the size of our team. Once we had the basic gameplay down, each designer was tasked with creating their own level drawing the track and hand-placing the obstacles.

Reptoads

Genre: Rogue-like Multiplayer Card Game

Engine: Tomorrow engine (Custom)

Team size: 20 people

Development time: 8 weeks

My role: 50% system design, 50% audio design

The engine of this game was created by a team of programming students that based its functionality on the game Runescape Chronicles. After 8 weeks of building the engine, artists and designers were taken into the team and continued to build on it from there. We quickly had paper prototypes running of the game, as well as beautiful assets. However the game in the end was not in a fully playable state due to the difficulties we had with the custom engine.

The idea of the game was that together you have to make it through 4 different boss fights using your class based deck. The goal of the game was to have the other player die somewhere along the fights while you survive to defeat the rest of the bosses. you could do this by making use of cards that deal damage to the boss as well as your fellow player making it look like 'collateral damage'. If you kill your opponent too fast you will have a hard time defeating the bosses on your own but if you let him finish with enough health he might take you down in the end.

My role within this project was 50% system design and 50% audio design. At the start of the project I spent my time making paper prototypes of the game to the point were we had a fully functioning game made on paper. Once that was finished I turned my focus on creating sound effects and ambiance.

Encased

Genre: AR Asymmetric multiplayer Puzzle Game

Engine: Unity3D

Teamsize: 5 (4 designers 1 producer)

Production time: 8 weeks

My role: System design

Encased is an outsource project given to us by Thermofisher and created in Unity 3D using the Hololens and PC creating a asymmetrical multiplayer experience.

We (a team of 4 designers and 1 producer) were tasked to create a prototype of a system that could potentially train foreign mechanics by laying a virtual reality on top of real reality. Since the mechanics they are in contact with most of the time are Chinese we were also tasked to have no language besides signs in it at all.

During this project my role was a system designer. I created the basic concept of the game and the way that the puzzles work. This also meant that before it got implemented into the artificial reality I created prototypes of each puzzle in Unity as a proof of concept.

Cat-O-Mancer

Genre: Tower Defense

Engine: Unity3D

Teamsize: 4 (1 designer, 2 artist, 1 programmer)

Production time: 2 days

My role: General Designer / Producer

This game was created during the Global Game Jam 2020. Global Game Jam is a world wide event where small teams of developers come together to create a game within one weekend accompanied with loads of pizza and little sleep.

The theme of the Game Jam was Repair. We took this and decided to make a tower defense game where you repair crushed towers to defeat the incoming waves of cats.

With each kill you get some mana that you can use to pick up the corpses and resurrect them. Once resurrected you can put them in a tower, if you have enough of the right types of cats in a tower it will be repaired and help you defend your home.

Cosmic Crunch

Genre: On-Rail flying

Engine: Unreal 4

Teamsize: 10 (3 designer, 2 programmers, 4 artists, 1 producer)

Production time: 3 weeks

My role: System Designer/Level Designer

This game was created during what we call a Marmalade. (A wordplay on game Jam but longer) In the short period of just 3 weeks we were expected to create a game using a custom controller.

We used a construction helmet, a gyroscope and a strap around your chin to create our custom controller. The goal of the game is to navigate the cyborg fish through the level by dodging big obstacles. You can regain health by opening your mouth and pulling on the string making the fish open his mouth as well, then navigate the fish to an obstacle small enough to eat.