TYLER MAITLAND - Portfolio
Hi, my name is Tyler Maitland. With over 13 years of experience in the 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 below:
“…inventive gameplay, charming visual style, and brilliant level design…”
33bits
“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 designed a fan-based mechanic interacting with a bubble status effect: when the player is affected by the bubble state, fans exert directional force.
FINAL GAMEPLAY
The second room introduces similar gameplay but with more challenges and risks.
Level Prototyping Examples
After pitching the concept and making sure the new mechanic had enough gameplay value, I then moved into a deeper look at how to introduce the mechanic to the player.
FINAL GAMEPLAY
I then begin to evolve or twist the new mechanic as the player becomes more comfortable. This can be done in any number of ways such as increasing difficulty, combining it with other previous mechanics, or by trying to incorporate a surprise for the player.
FINAL GAMEPLAY