Hello!

I’m Wyatt Brandstatter, an aspiring level designer that wants to take their next step in their professional journey.

Background

I’m an individual who has worn many different hats over the years as I adapt to what the project needs of me. I have experience in programming, level design, implementation, and bug testing for for several projects, some of which were my own. I graduated from Northern Arizona University with a degree in Technology Management while fostering a game development skillset during my studies. After my studies, I became certified by PMI as both a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)^® and Disciplined Agile^® Scrum Master (DASM) Certification.

As a newer developer on the block, I’ve grown familiar with both Unity and Unreal 4/5 so I can be up to speed quickly on any project that I join. This was further helped by my experience in community college as I got my Associate’s degree in IT with a specialty for programming (C#/C++). While I don’t have a degree in game design specifically, I’ve chosen paths that help bolster my skills in that field as game development is my true passion. I have been playing games for 25 years as it was my go to past time and it paired well with my other hobby of reading. I have a fascination with storytelling as I’ve been a reader all my life and watching stories unfold in video games in a very visual, but personal experience as the player is one of the greatest feelings I have encountered and I have a desire to share that feeling with others by creating my own games.

When I’m not working on a project, I typically either do official/personal game jams, personal development, or playing games for both studying the everchanging industry as well as my own personal enjoyment.

I’m looking to join a new team that is either starting on a project or one in progress. If you find yourself in need of a dedicated, hardworking individual or just have questions, please get in contact with me!

Email: brandstatter.wyatt@gmail.com

Skills

Projects

Current Project: WaxHeart

Website Link: https://waxheart.info

Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2381630/WaxHeart/

WaxHeart is a volunteer project that I joined in the first quarter of 2025 as a Level Designer and features a boy made of wax waking up in the tundra to a dying world. The game features stealth, puzzles, and platforming while making your way to a tower that is prominently seen throughout the game to find out what has happened. The game is slated for a 2027 release on Steam.

The team is run completely online and in a studio format with multiple teams, team leads, sprints, etc and usually sits around 50 active team members as a whole.

My Responsibilities:

• Design puzzles for multiple areas of the game that follow our game mechanic and ideation document.
• Implement approved puzzles and locations into the game engine as blockout pieces and carry them through to a more refined greybox pass that is ready to be handed off to the art team for set dressing.
• Implement feedback and fixes into the areas as feedback from both internal and external tests come in.
• Attend playtest sessions when able to see how both internal and external play testers think and feel while playing the game to further refine the game.

My Contributions:

The entire “Warehouse” area is my main focus as I have gone through all phases of development with it from just thoughts about the space on paper to puzzle designs with mechanics to blockout/greyboxing to eventual finished state. As of the start of 2026, greyboxing is nearly finished and I am waiting on art assets to come out of the pipeline to better populate the space.

• Features
  • 3 distinct sub-areas
  • 12 puzzles with introduction to mechanics/ideas, idea reinforcement, and intermediate idea mastery sections
  • Platforming including a balance beam section, jumping across boxes, and climbing both up and down
  • Parkour
  • In game cutscene
• Below are images of my work through various stages of development for this area

Please keep in mind that the area is still being refined and any videos following this message might have minor hiccups in gameplay and camera movement as they are still being refined.

One of my other larger contributions is for a section called Shrine Hill Exterior 2 that is in the later half of one of the larger puzzle areas of our second level “Dark Forest.” The idea for this space was to combine both the puzzle elements in the 1st half in Interior 1 with the monster introduced in the interim area before this section. This was a long journey as several other designers made attempts at this that didn’t feel right and I took my shot at it and after a few false starts, we found something that would work while also working within the limitations of the monster’s abilities.

My work on this section occurred during the middle of the warehouse’s development as I was pivoted to this area to meet a milestone goal the team had due to the unexpected departure of 2 people from the level design team during the summer of 2025.

The area was shrunk down for scope from a 2 puzzle area to a single puzzle one due to how late I was moved over to the area vs the deadline.

Features:

• Shrine Hill Box mechanics taught in part 1 such as powering on the boxes and columns with the limited power sources.
• Obstruction taught in the beginning of the game as a core mechanic to avoid enemies.
• Wallcrawler Monster

Below is a few pictures of early design and blockout of the puzzles as well as a gameplay video.

Other contributions have been done on smaller scale such as fixes and updates to previous areas in the game as time allows when issues crop up.

Paused Project: Bike Game (2025)

The bike game is in its GDD phase and a google docs link to its progress so far is provided below:

Quick Summary:

Inspired by a video of a biker going down a dangerous path at night, I felt I can make several nature and urban based maps for players to race to get the best times in dimly lit scenarios.

Bike Game GDD

Unlike the former projects, this game is planned to eventually go to steam when I feel it is ready.

Former Projects

No Rats In Alberta! (2022)

No Rats in Alberta was intended as a short display of what I could do at the time as well as gaining familiarity of the new camera that was added to Unity. It is a short level filled with NPCs with specific pathing that you as the rat must avoid in an effort to escape.

The level contains multiple rooms to dodge security guards and multiple escape options if seen in the orange indicator that initiates a chase command. Player will experience death upon the small red circle around the security guard’s feet.

The player is able to jump on objects and get on the desks for a quicker but more noticeable path to the elevator. The rat is faster than a security guard that is walking normally, but not when in chase mode so breaking line of sight is a must to survive.

Project Features

• Playable Character that can jump
• Navigable Terrain
• NPCs
• Kill Screen
• Victory Screen
• Dynamic AI behavior

Video

Images

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Implementation Demo (2022)

An early job interview I had was in regards to Unity implementation of systems and puzzles for an upcoming game. This project was also single level and focused more on my ability to take completed code/systems and use tools to create puzzles and hook them up with their functionality and trigger events.

Controls: WASD to move, E to pick up, Tab to close Inventory, Left click to open doors

The puzzles featured are:

• Reading a code off a piece of paper to enter in the door
• Gathering objects to open a safe and inserting cubes into slots in the correct order based off a clue on the whiteboard
• Math puzzle via binary levers to select which levers are needed to open the door into the final room.
• Finding the last door to finish the level

Other notable features in this demo are:

• Interactable objects
• Invisible triggers to create events based on player’s progress in the map
• Working inventory system

Video:

Images

Unnamed Project

The project was mainly focused on early creation of a level layout in a cave-like fantasy setting and some level lighting as I was playing around in Unreal to refresh my memory.