WSAD - Move || Look - Mouse || Interact - E
Level & Environmental Designer
Find Yourself
Chrysalis was created in just four days for the Winter Game Jam 2024, and even now, it’s still one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on. I collaborated with three incredibly talented teammates—Aaron, who handled game design and writing, Vicky, our 2D artist, and Jared, our gameplay programmer. Together, we built something that felt polished, strange, and deeply atmospheric.
I was responsible for the level and environmental design, as well as all the 3D modeling and texturing. The game features nearly 150 unique, hand-made models, each built to match the tone and world we were crafting. Every prop, surface, and visual detail was created with the goal of supporting the narrative and gameplay flow, without overcomplicating the experience.
Chrysalis blends quiet storytelling with exploration and visual discovery, and it was the first time I truly felt like the world I built was an active part of how the player understood the game.
My Progress
Chrysalis wasn’t just a game jam project. It became a turning point for me as a developer. At the time, I was deep into work on Vessyl, which had its own systems, engine, and demands. Even though Chrysalis was built in a completely different toolset, it ended up teaching me a lot that carried back into my main project.
This jam gave me the space to sharpen my skills in Blender. Lighting, modeling, composition. All in a smaller, more focused setting. It let me experiment, make fast decisions, and push my process without the pressure of a long pipeline. While the assets I created were simple, the techniques I practiced directly improved my workflow back on Vessyl. It reminded me that no learning is ever wasted, even when the context shifts.
More than that, Chrysalis honestly just cheered me up. It was one of those projects that reminded me why I do this. I don’t make games just because it’s my career. I do it because I love it. It’s something I’d be doing even if no one asked me to. Sure, breaks are important and burnout is real, but at the end of the day, if I had the choice, I’d spend my time building worlds, telling stories, and learning how to do it better.
That’s what this jam gave me. A little reset, a lot of growth, and a reminder of why I started in the first place.
