Hi, I’m Andrea
I am a passionate and experienced game designer and developer.
I work in the AAA industry (Rockstar Games) and as a freelancer for indie studios.
My goal is to create entertaining and meaningful game experiences that enrich people’s lives.
I moved this website to a new host here: andreaortino.com
Skillset
Game Design
Content & System Design
2D & 3D Level Design
Enemy & Combat Design
RPG Design
Balancing
Puzzle Design
Documentation
Programming & Software
C#, Visual Scripting
Rapid Prototyping
Unity, Unreal Engine 5
Adobe Suit
Autodesk Maya
Perforce, Git
Production
Agile, Lean, Scrum
Trello
Figma, Notion,
Confluence
Spreadsheet
Project Leading
Recent Projects
Rockstar Games
Summary: I am working as a content designer for Rockstar North. Details under NDA.
Role: Content Designer
Time-frame: November 2021 – Ongoing
SH1-RO – Tier 21
Summary: I have been working on SH1-RO as a level designer. I focused on improving the level design workflow, I made extensive research and planning, mind-mapping of level layouts, sketches, maps, and in-editor layouts using Unity Tilemap. I also gave general feedback and designed enemies. I can share more of the design process privately on request.
Roles: Game Designer, Level Designer, Enemy Designer, Consultant
Time-frame: September 2021 – November 2021
Steam page
Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus – Squid Shock Studio
Summary: I was the level designer consultant on Bō, a 2D Metroidvania inspired by Japanese culture. I helped the team to improve and design parts of the games such as level layouts and navigation, enemy and challenge design, and players’ learning curve. I used Figma/Figjam to provide documentation and structure to the team.
Role: Level Designer Consultant
Time-frame: March 2022 – April 2022
Kickstarter page
2.5D Puzzle-Platform Level Prototype – Personal Project
Summary: I have made a 2.5D puzzle-platform level prototype based on the game INSIDE (Playdead). The level is intended to be placed in the first part of the game when all the basic mechanics have been already introduced.
Roles: Level Designer, Puzzle Designer, Gameplay Scripter
Time-frame: 30 May 2021 – 9 June 2021 (about 30 hours).
Design Document | Play
Mystery Match Village – Outplay Entertainment
Summary: I worked remotely on Mystery Match Village as a part of the design team. My main duties include making levels for the Match-3 puzzle part of the game as well as design documentation, levels review, and balancing. I have made hundreds of levels and still creating them on a weekly basis.
Roles: Level Designer, Game Designer
Time-frame: January 2021 – November 2021
Stranded Eternity – Freelance
Summary: Stranded Eternity is an upcoming 2D twin-stick shooter roguelike game. I covered various duties in the project including the design of a boss fight, general feedback to improve the game, equipment (stones), powerups, and scenario challenges (events). The game is in alpha. You can watch the video on the left (1:41 to see a boss I designed “Killer Rose”).
Roles: Game Designer, Enemy Designer, System Designer, Consultant
Time-frame: November 2020 – May 2021
Level Design Dissertation – Edinburgh Napier University
Summary: This dissertation investigates the effects of design patterns and principles on players’ navigation in 3D action-adventure games. Two levels have been designed for this project to conduct A/B testing on a pool of 20 participants in order to evaluate the efficacy of the design choices and level layout in influencing players’ decisions. This dissertation has been awarded the first prize of the Lawrence Ho Student Prize, presented as the best student thesis relating to gaming technologies or computer game research and/or development.
Roles: Researcher, Level Designer, Programmer, Writer
Team Size: Solo
Time-frame: January 2020 – December 2020
Read more
Puzzle Game – Lucid Labs Ltd, Freelance
Summary: I worked as a main-level designer at Lucid Labs for a game in the puzzle genre. I have made a total of 74 levels, planned the learning and difficulty curve of the game, given feedback/suggestions on mechanics and rules, and iterated my work based on feedback.
Roles: Level Designer, Game Designer, Consultant
Time-frame: July 2020 – December 2020
Level Design Workshop – Design Oriented
Summary: The Mario Maker Workshop (MMW) was organized by an online game design school, Design Oriented, that operates as a community. We used Super Mario Maker 2 as a platform to rapidly test and share ideas. During the workshop, I learned more about level design and game design through lessons and by creating levels in respect of Nintendo’s design principles and techniques.
Roles: Researcher, Level Designer
Team Size: Solo and Team Projects
Time-frame: July 2019 – December 2019
Design Process
Discover my services
Do you want to discuss a project or have more information about my services?
Andrea Ortino 