Szymon Garczynski
GAME DESIGNER, LEVEL DESIGNER
BA (Hons) Games Art and Design
About Me
I am a dedicated game designer driven by a passion for innovation and excellence. My expertise lies in Unreal Engine 5, where I specialize in game design, level design, and technical problem-solving. I possess a robust and varied skillset, complemented by a strong foundation in mathematics and programming, as well as a love for teamwork. This combination enables me to have a broad technical understanding of games and work effectively within teams. I am continuously engrossed in studying game design, striving to develop my dynamic yet specialized skillset. My aspiration is to carry on contributing to the gaming industry by creating outstanding and well-designed experiences which will bring joy and happiness to players across the globe.
MY PORTFOLIO
Unreleased TimeSplitters Project, Free Radical Design (2023)
Role: Junior Game Designer
Working as a Junior Game Designer for slightly under a year on a new TimeSplitters project, I was responsible for many parts of the project and mainly focused on Level Design, Hands-On Implementation of game features, new mechanics and worked with the design team to take the game forward and make it the best it could be for our players.
5 Month Solo Project
Role: Solo Developer with 3D and Concept Collaboration
Barum 383 is a Solo Prototype Project of a turn based Strategy Game with real time elements. This project is a technical demo and prototype which aims to show my experience and experimentation with the development of strategy games.
It has taught me many skills and allowed me to really develop my knowledge and understanding of games in this genre and the way that strategy games are built, it has also helped me understand what sort of difficulties one might face when designing them.
This was a huge project and although the vast majority of the project is built myself. I did collaborate with concept artists and a 3D Artist for a few spaceship models/concepts. The project aims to be a prototype game experience - really focused around basic strategy game systems. I have used AI to generate placeholder thumbnails for many artworks in the game to try and really replicate the feeling of a finished strategy game and further enhance the prototype.
Global Game Jam 2024 - Group Project
Role: Technical Designer, Lead programming, Level Designer
Nine to Thrive is a game made in 48 hours with a team of 4. The game is about keeping up company morale by cheering up your co-workers!
The theme for the global game jam was "Make Me Laugh". For this project I was the lead programmer of the project and created modular tools for my teammates to help setup the game visually. I was also the technical designer and level designer for the project.
I personally loved creating the AI behaviours and building editable state trees for the NPCs. I also enjoyed setting up interactable objects as a system so that my teammates could create game objects seamlessly. Finnaly, I really enjoyed setting up the office level and making an interesting environment to communicate the satire and fun of the game theme.
Global Game Jam 2022 - Group Project
Role: Core Programmer, Tools Programmer, Game Design, Technical UI
Dice or Die is a retro, rouge-like dice rolling game made in 48 hours. It is based around the theme of "Roots". The game features dice rolling in tabletop style combat which is inspired by the tabletop roots of modern video game RPGs. This game was made in a team of 5
Game Pitch - Group Project
Role: Games Design, Level Designer, Animator
Grimternship is a 3 person group prototype project built in a week as a game pitch for a publisher. The game is a momentum-based twitch platformer which aims to be challenging. The player controls a Grimtern who must kill plagued villagers and avoid healthy ones. Once the player rams into all the targets they have completed the level.
