Connor Adamson
Game Designer, Comic book fan, Accessibility Advocate

Contents

Elusive Core: Zero Trace
ECZT is a stealth-platformer, initially conceives to during the DES 315: Professional project Module at Abertay University
to address a brief from Gary @ Pocket Sized Hands. The team proceeded with the project and took it to the finals of DARE Academy 2025. As of 26/03/2026 ECZT has been submitted to BAFTA
EZCT was commended for it's initial elevator pitch: Metal Gear Sonic
It features Fast momentum-based gameplay and quick reaction based gameplay abilities combined with puzzle orientated stealth gameplay.

During development I acted as the Lead Designer working alongside our Systems Programmer and Gameplay Programmer to design the movement, enemy and puzzle mechanics.
One of my primary responsibilities was Level Design, designing maps in Inkscape and building them in-engine using Unity's Tilemap system.
Alongside this work, I organised and carried out playtesting, taking notes and passing on feedback where necessary across disciplines. To help work within the inter-disciplinary team,
Project Takeaways
Elusive core was one of my longest projects, iterating across 18 weeks to suit external client needs and feedback. While challenging, the experience pushed me to learn new workflows and tools on the fly and ended with some of my proudest work. I showcased this project at Abertay Open Days and at the DCA Drop in and Play event, networking with other game devs and presenting the project to members of the public.
Keywords
Discipline Lead
Level Design
Systems
Mechanics
Balancing
Teamwork
Retro-Inspired
Unity

Cyclone Designs

As a Freelance Designer for Cyclone Designs, I have worked to create, update and maintain documentation surrounding mechanics, features and implementation of Minecraft Bedrock Store Addons and Worlds.
While I cannot discuss all the projects I have worked on, I have designed abilities and environment mechanics along with balancing item drops and writing dialogue for NPCs
Project Takeaways
Working with Cyclone has helped me learn new workflows for GDD and documentation, learning shortcuts and preferred layouts for large inter-disciplinary teams.
Keywords
Mechanics
Systems
Multi-Discipline
Documentation

R* Mod Jam 2025/26
The R*Mod Jam was an event hosted by the Abertay Game Development Society in Collaboration with Rockstar Games
I worked in a small 2-person team as the primary designer to create 2 mods using the FiveM tools for GTAV to meet Game Jam style Briefs given by rockstar
After a short development time, Members of rockstar reviewed the submissions with our Mod's being chosen for group showcase at both opportunities
Development tasked me with using tools I had never used before and as such reviewing and learning documentation. This meant creating clear and concise Design Documentation to communicate across disciplines to communicate my vision, using Google Docs and Figma.
I also built the Itch.io pages for both submissions working with basic HTML and CSS to make the pages stand out, While also researching and developing a colour palette for use in marketing materials.
Project Takeaways
This was my first time using Five M and while some aspects of the framework proved frustrating, the experience pushed me to work on my foundational skills, being able to design out of engine and communicate that design to the team working on the code. I got to pull heavily from inspiration in other media and this shows in the final release.
Keywords
Narrative
Scripting
Level Design
Mechanics
Systems
Multi-Discipline
FiveM
Marketing Materials
Documentation

