TYLER MAITLAND - Portfolio
Hi, my name is Tyler Maitland. With over 13 years of experience in the games industry, I’ve worn many hats—from animator to game designer to level designer. What began as a personal passion project, Seafrog, evolved into a full-time endeavor after securing a publisher, ultimately leading to the incredible milestone of shipping my own game. Now, with that lifelong dream realized, I’m excited to bring both creative vision and hands-on production experience to new projects and collaborations.
Seafrog is a 2.5D action-puzzle-platformer mixed with movement that was inspired by skateboarding. It was primarily built by myself and a colleague with help from contractors along the way. My responsibilities were directing, game design, art, animation, rigging, modeling, shaders, and level design.
Check out what reviewers said about the level designs of Seafrog below:
“…inventive gameplay, charming visual style, and brilliant level design…”
“The most brilliant part of the game is its level design.”
Himekawa Yoshino - Steam Review
“...the core gameplay places high demands on level design. Fortunately, the developer absolutely nailed it…”
Torch_of_Distress - Steam Review
Idea Generation & Sketching
I begin by identifying the objective of the space—such as introducing a new gameplay mechanic, highlighting a piece of environmental storytelling, giving a new upgrade, etc.
In this case I wanted to introduce a new mechanic. A fan that would exert directional force on the player, but only if they had the bubble status effect applied.
FINAL GAMEPLAY
The second room introduces similar gameplay but with more challenges and risks.
Teaching A New Mechanic Through Level Design
After pitching the concept and making sure the new mechanic had enough gameplay value, I then look at how to introduce the mechanic to the player.
Design Principles
Here are a few design principles I used in Seafrog.
FINAL GAMEPLAY
Thirteen years ago animation brought me into game development and with over 15 years of professional experience animating it’s still one of my favorite aspects of making a game.
And companies I’ve worked with:
