TRISTAN HEESE

Game Designer & Environment Artist

ABOUT ME

MY NAME IS
TRISTAN HEESE

I love games, seals, metal, and everything dark and creepy… or just cute.

I’ve specialized in Environment Art and Level Design but have also picked up various other skills, including scripting, narrative, and system design.

Currently, I am writing my bachelor's thesis on using PCG to set-dress levels in Unreal Engine 5, which I will complete in early May.

I am always eager to learn new things in game development and continuously strive to improve through various projects.

Before starting my bachelor's thesis, I worked at a small indie company, where I played a major role in shaping the adventure game Detective of the Dead.

VIEW ARTSTATION PAGE

Skills

Environment Art

Set-Dressing
Hard-Surface Modeling
Texturing
Lighting
Animation

Game Design

Level Design
Greyboxing
Scripting (Visual and Code)
System Design
Narrative Design
Writing GDDs

Other Skills

German (native)
English (fluent)
Proficient in using the UE5 PCG Framework
Traditional Painting Skills

Unreal Engine

Blender

Radiant

Unity

Substance Painter

Photoshop

Maya

ENVIRONMENT ART

GAME PROJECTS

PCG

ASSETS

ENVIRONMENT ART

A Forest Path

1/1

A FOREST PATH

Completed

This environment was made in order to learn new a workflow concerning compositing and terrain creation, which was made using Blender.

Goals

Learning a new method to create detailed terrain
Getting better at compositing

Other Learnings

Handling performance constraints better

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1/4

PICKMAN'S
MODEL

Work in Progress

Pickman's Model is one of my favorite stories by Lovecraft. With this project, I want to put my focus on an indoor envrionment and the creation of assets.

Goals

Getting better at indoor lighting/compositing
Creating required assets from scratch
Creating and working with modular assets

Other Learnings

Getting better at UV unwrapping
Using Substance to create custom materials

GAME PROJECTS

Detective of the Dead 1

Detective of the Dead 2

Detective of the Dead 4

Detective of the Dead 1

1/4

DETECTIVE OF THE DEAD

Actrio Studio - Release TBA

In this adventure game set in the mexican underworld you play Detective Alejandro, who has to solve variouse strange cases with the help of his magic dog Xolo.

My Roles

Game Designer
3D Artist

Learnings

Working as a part of a small Indie Team
Creating a comercial game
Designing mechanics for an adventure game
Narrative design
Using the Adventure Creator to create game systems
Creating styilzed assets

VIEW STEAM PAGE

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Screenshot 2023-10-21 190900

1/9

UNTITLED HORROR GAME

Solo - Completed 2023

In this short project, which is strongly inspired by the Amnesia games, I tried to create an atmospheric game experience.

Goals

Evoking emotions in players through visual design

Other Learnings

Guiding players through a level without HUD
Creating a game only using Blueprint

Waking Nightmare 1

Waking Nightmare 2

Waking Nightmare 7

Waking Nightmare 1

1/7

WAKING NIGHTMARE

Solo - Black Ops 3 Mod Tools - Work in Progress

This is a passion project for me, since I both love Black Ops 3 Zombies and lovecratian horror. My aim is to create a unique experience that adheres to the quallity standards of offical zombies maps.

After recently completing the blockout stage, I am now working on scripting the various mechanics I aim to implement.

Learnings

Working with a new engine
Creating game mechanics through scripting
Following game and art design principles

Exemplary Game Design Document - "Sanguine"

This document is an examination assignment for the module "Game Design Theory."

It demonstrates my ability to create clear and readable design documents and includes some combat and enemy design.

We were given the promt "push and pull", which I wanted to interpret in a more intresting way. For this I devised a game inspired by Castelvania and Blasphemous with a unique combat system that involves moving oneself and your enemeies around with your attacks.

Exemplary Reference Analysis and Combat Design - "Sanguine"

This document is an examination assignment for the module "Game Design Theory."

It demonstrates my ability to analyze various systems of an existing game and draw conclusions on how they might benefit a game in development. It also shows my ability to devise a combat system and calculate health and damage values.

Since Blasphemous was a major inspiration for me, I analyzed its combat system and adapted it to a faster pace with the unique "push and pull" mechanics integrated.