Melissa Issaoun - Game Designer Portfolio
Game Designer
- systems design specialisation
- technical background
- used to unity and godot
Excellence Program Student
- at Fontys IT Game Design
- graduates in 2.5 years
- two mandatory internships
Real Passion and Initiative
- founded 100+ member game dev club
- gives workshops in game design
- involved in the community
Hands-on approach
- works iteratively
- places focus on player feedback
- implements and tests
Choose Your Character
Alchemist - Major Project I
Experimenting with RPGs
Skills Used: Systems Design, Combat Design, User Testing, Godot/GDscript
Project I: Aurum
Innovating on existing genres, testing and iterating.
You are an alchemist in a beautiful but dangerous medieval fantasy world. Your powers are wondrous, but hold keys to boxes you aren't ready to open.
It can seem like a risk to include horror in a cozy game. But when we think of "cozy", what comes to mind?
A cup of hot chocolate on a cold day.
A relaxing bath.
These examples, and many others, imply a state of stress or discomfort prior to relief. In a similar fashion, alternating between a safe, cozy atmosphere and tense, difficult combat enhances both experiences.
The player performs alchemy in their comfortable home, making items which can be used in combat, as well as for customization and as NPC gifts.
The player explores and makes connections with NPCs, gather ingredients to craft more, and finds questlines and bosses. The player fights bosses.
Fights are scary and challenging. Putting the player through real stress enables them to feel real relief once they return home.
Combat is turn-based, but is heavily item-focused.
The player has basic options: attack, or guard.
Attacking does next to no damage, forcing the player to turn to their stash of items to help them overcome a boss. Each boss has its own gimmick and requires creative combinations of items used in the correct order to be beaten.
AURUM has been prototyped and user tested and is prepared for the possible development of a demo.
Fighter - Major Project II
Leaves a striking impression
Skills Used: Systems Design, Visual Design, Godot/GDscript
Project II: Dogfight!!
Translating real company needs into a game format.
DOGFIGHT!! is a project for the Fontys Game Design teachers' game company, Dogfood Studios.
It is intended to help introduce team members of the studio to the public by playing as them in a fighting game.
The feel and visuals of each character are molded to fit each team member's personality.
This game is designed to be a casual button masher which can easily be played both on the website and at events.
The systems are simplified for accessibility and a strong character emphasis.
An early version of Dogfight!! is playable on itch.io.
Warlock - Minor Project
A pact with the unknown
Skills Used: Level Design, Systems Design, Unity/C#
Mini Project: The Third Day
Experimentation, iteration, and design around a core vision.
THE THIRD DAY is a bloody and difficult dungeon crawler whose textures are made entirely of real life photographs.
You play as a dead man, and navigate a hell of your own memories where enemies in a sensory and warped adventure to earn your own redemption.
This game implements sensory design and physical mouse movements to create a sensory and disturbing experience.
The photos used in game relate to the protagonist's memories, contributing to a strong sense of environmental storytelling.
The first prototype set the stage for the visual style, but used an FPS-like control scheme where the player moves the camera looking for enemies and clicking to attack.
In the second prototype, the player must physically move the cursor forward to stab the enemy.
The third prototype takes this sensory design a step further by binding crime and attacks to mouse movements and controlling the camera with the Q and E keys.
Every texture is a photo - even the dialogue boxes are stop-motion.
Druid - Stakeholder Work
Shifting to support the team
Skills Used: Teamwork, External Projects, Systems Design, Cinematic Design, Unity, Godot
Stakeholder Work
External company projects whose teams I contributed to.
PARTY MORPH
Party Morph is a Dogfood Studios game about wacky aliens who transform during presidential elections in the form of a reality show.
I have worked on the improvement of the demo for this project, along with 4 other people.
My work has centered on designing connective cutscenes to complete the game loop, as well as rebuilding systems.
ARTIFACT ESCAPE
Artifact Escape is a prototype made on request of Eindhoven's in-house installation design studio.
The challenge was to make a game where half the players were in VR, and half were on devices outside of VR - hence allowing visitors uncomfortable with virtual reality to still participate.
Artifact Escape tackles this problem by having VR players stealthily navigate a maze to find an artifact. The non-VR players must attempt to track them down and get in their way by spawning various traps and obstacles.
I worked on this project with 4 other participants, focusing on systems design and implementation for testing.
Barbarian - More Design Work
Smashes through design problems
Skills Used: Work with Constraints, Systems Design, Python, Godot/GDscript
Miscellaneous Projects
Various small game experiments and prototypes.
INTERACTIVE SCREEN GAMES
Several pixel games were developed for a giant 40' x 60' screen.
These games integrate webcam tracking to bring the player into gameplay with the one above being able to jump around.
Other creations include a rendition of Happy Bird where the player's head is the bird and they have to squat to go "through pipes", and a version of Atari Breakout where the paddle is attached to the player and they must run back and forth to play.
LEGROOM
Legroom was a submission for the Loot Goblins Game Jam. The theme was "One Room Wonder", and in this game, the room "expands" the longer you stay in it.
The player must clean up their room while kicking away a hoard of increasingly absurd intruders.
Legroom is playable at:
https://melinteractive.itch.io/legroom
KIDZBOPIFY
KIDZBOPIFY is a gag board game developed around the concept of how "Kidz Bop" takes popular music tracks and makes them child-friendly, usually by censoring and rerecording them.
However, Kidzbop's censorship tends to be completely unnecessary, or end up highlighting more of the song entirely by censoring and rerecording them.
This game plays on this observation by having 4 players compete in several KidzBop censorship-related rounds.
Bard - About Me
A creative mind, a friendly tune
Qualities: Empathetic, Enthusiastic, Resourceful, Energetic
About Me
My name is Melissa Issaoun.
I am 23 years old and a student at Fontys ICT in Eindhoven. There, I specialize in game design and pursue my passion for it as part of the Delta Excellence Program.
I've long been an avid consumer of games (my favourites being RPGs, narrative games, niche horror titles and cozy games). Once I came into contact with making them, it was love at first sight. For me, games are the perfect merging ground for my technical and artistic sides.
Besides my projects, I also have given Game Design workshops at Fontys, as well as started a club for game design enthusiasts ("The Loot Goblins") which currently stands at a proud 100+ goblin members.
I'm known to be bursting with energy and enthusiasm, much to the exhaustion of my teachers (kidding). I love to try new things, push boundaries, and surprise others and myself.
In need of some bardic (design) inspiration?
Game designer merging technical and artistic
(TT)RPG, narrative, adventure lover
Fontys ICT | Delta Excellence Program | Loot Goblins Game Dev Club Founder
Find me on LinkedIn