Avatar image
Avatar image
Avatar image

ALEX

ALEX

ALEX

KUTZA

KUTZA

KUTZA

Game Designer

Game Designer

SKILLS

Scripting: Unreal Engine, Unity

Narrative Design: Twine, Excel, FadeIn

Art + Animation: Blender, Photoshop, Maya

Sound Design: Ableton Live, FMOD

SKILLS

Scripting: Unreal Engine, Unity

Narrative Design: Twine, Excel, FadeIn

Art + Animation: Blender, Photoshop, Maya

Sound Design: Ableton Live, FMOD

Hello! I love games that thoughtfully link narrative and mechanics. Drawing from my background in science, I create interactive experiences inspired by the natural world. I bring curiosity and an open mind to all aspects of game development to understand how music, art, and mechanics interact to tell a story.

Hello! I love games that thoughtfully link narrative and mechanics. Drawing from my background in science, I create interactive experiences inspired by the natural world. I bring curiosity and an open mind to all aspects of game development to understand how music, art, and mechanics interact to tell a story.

Hello! I love games that thoughtfully link narrative and mechanics. Drawing from my background in science, I create interactive experiences inspired by the natural world. I bring curiosity and an open mind to all aspects of game development to understand how music, art, and mechanics interact to tell a story.
BREAK LOCK

BREAK LOCK

BREAK LOCK

Solo Project — 2 months
Solo Project — 2 months
Solo Project — 2 months
Ue5, Blender, Photoshop, Ableton
Ue5, Blender, Photoshop, Ableton

In this psychological interactive story, use every-day school objects to escape from a locker and learn why a bully trapped you inside. This game explores how we hide aspects of ourselves to fit in at the cost of our own mental health and freedom.

Environmental storytelling – by paying attention to dialogue, the player can gain access to a character's locker to learn a different side of their personality.


Optional text – collectible notes, books, and journal entries relate to overarching story themes.


Story-adaptive music – music is dissonant at first and resolves to more balanced melodies as characters embrace their true selves.


Narrative-informed mechanics – the player’s interaction system is limited to provoke the feeling of being trapped. Later, movement controls are restored as the player reclaims agency.

Environmental storytelling – by paying attention to dialogue, the player can gain access to a character's locker to learn a different side of their personality.


Optional text – collectible notes, books, and journal entries relate to overarching story themes.


Story-adaptive music – music is dissonant at first and resolves to more balanced melodies as characters embrace their true selves.


Narrative-informed mechanics – the player’s interaction system is limited to provoke the feeling of being trapped. Later, movement controls are restored as the player reclaims agency.

Spooky Station

Spooky Station

Spooky Station

4-Person Team — 1 month
4-Person Team — 1 month
4-Person Team — 1 month
Ren'Py, Photoshop
Ren'Py, Photoshop

A branching narrative visual novel developed for the Spooktober 7th Annual Visual Novel Jam. I worked with a partner to write and edit light-hearted comedic dialogue between Jackie (the player character), Bee (the gas station attendant), and an ensemble of talking Halloween candy.

Comedic + sincere tone – we worked to strike a balance between humorous exchanges and deeper character arcs, with themes of loneliness and friendship.


Artistic storytelling – I worked with our team of artists to make sure character personalities were represented in the visual design and that backgrounds reflected the tone of the story.


Visual novel programming – I implemented art, sound, and writing with appropriate transitions and timing to emphasize narrative beats.

Comedic + sincere tone – we worked to strike a balance between humorous exchanges and deeper character arcs, with themes of loneliness and friendship.


Artistic storytelling – I worked with our team of artists to make sure character personalities were represented in the visual design and that backgrounds reflected the tone of the story.


Visual novel programming – I implemented art, sound, and writing with appropriate transitions and timing to emphasize narrative beats.

Channel 9

Channel 9

Channel 9

Student Project — 4 months
Student Project — 4 months
Student Project — 4 months
Google Docs, Excel, Fade In
Google Docs, Excel, Fade In

An ex-military detective tries to stop a dystopian AI-run game show while battling PTSD and an emotionally-strained relationship.

I workshopped these scripts, designs, and outlines with peers in a Game Narrative class. I focused on nailing down setting details, creating compelling character arcs, and writing realistic dialogue. The nonverbal gameplay script was a fun challenge to move the story along without dialogue.

Twine Projects

Twine Projects

Twine Projects

Quicksand — Solo student project
Quicksand — Solo student project
Quicksand — Solo student project

In this game, the player must let go of personal items to avoid sinking in quicksand. It revolves around an inventory system where the player can drop 8 items (corresponding to different core values) in any order, challenging them to decide what matters most.

Worlbuilding – I used descriptions of important items to convey details about character backstory in this apocalyptic future.


Cryptid Hunter — Group student project
Cryptid Hunter — Group student project
Cryptid Hunter — Group student project

This game tasks the player with researching, identifying, and capturing legendary creatures.

Puzzle mechanics – we designed photo-taking, note-taking, and capturing mechanics that allow the player to piece together information on their own, creating an engaging gameplay loop.


Rigorous editing – I edited the writing of myself and two collaborators to form a cohesive style and tone.


Marine Merge

Marine Merge

Marine Merge

Mini Jame Gam #43 — 3 days
Mini Jame Gam #43 — 3 days
Mini Jame Gam #43 — 3 days

A relaxing puzzle game where you strategically merge fish together in an aquarium to prevent the tank from overflowing. On a two person team, I was responsible for designing:

A brush powerup mechanic that allowed the fish to be jostled around at random. This creates satisfying moments where fish collide, and gives the player more influence over the otherwise random physics.


Creating relaxing music and sound effects that don't become repetative over longer playtimes.


Balancing parameters and mechanics such as collision velocity, powerup duration, and fish size so that the game is challenging but rewarding.

Arctic Station

Arctic Station

Arctic Station

Solo Project — 3 months
Solo Project — 3 months
Solo Project — 3 months

In this choice-based isometric game, a secret agent works together with a journalist to uncover a mysterious arctic research project.

After writing over 300 pages of script, I designed an interactive proof-of-concept level as a vertical slice. I implemented a choice-based dialogue system, combining gameplay in the isometric rooms with visual-novel style dialogue selection.

Ecology Simulations

Ecology Simulations

Ecology Simulations

Solo Project — 1 Week
Solo Project — 1 Week
Solo Project — 1 Week

A futuristic courtyard. In this scene, I explored the contrast between nature and technology.


Two young girls with very different upbringings prepare for a dystopian exam. When writing this opening scene I tried to incorporate worldbuilding naturally, create mystery, and capture a childish but robotic tone in dialogue.


> Cinematic Script

Supervised Project — 5 Months
Supervised Project — 5 Months
Supervised Project — 5 Months

Using DNA puzzle pieces, the player creates mutated creatures, accompanied by adaptive evolving music using Ue5 Metasounds.


I took inspiration from real-world plants, animals, and fungi to imagine an alien terrarium. I created original electronic music in Ableton using software synthesizers.


> Electronic music album

Superposition

Superposition

Superposition

GMTK Game Jam 2025 — 4 days
GMTK Game Jam 2025 — 4 days
GMTK Game Jam 2025 — 4 days
Unity, Photoshop
Unity, Photoshop

A memory puzzle game where you cycle through rooms and observe changes in background props as items switch between parallel dimensions.

In the environment design, I chose objects that highlighted the character’s failures and inadequacies. Dialogue lines all relate to a theme of dealing with doubts about oneself. By reversing these objects back to normal, the player metaphorically overcomes these doubts.

Elephant Walk Cycle

Elephant Walk Cycle

Elephant Walk Cycle

Student Project — 2 weeks
Student Project — 2 weeks
Student Project — 2 weeks
Maya
Maya

An animation of an elephant walking through a desert at sunset.

I focused on capturing realistic movements based on reference video, and incorporating secondary action in the trunk.

Science Communication

Science Communication

Science Communication

Student Projects — 3 years
Student Projects — 3 years
Student Projects — 3 years

Posters I designed for scientific projects.

I creating graphs and diagrams to represent expriments and make information visually appealing and easy to follow to different audiences.

A guide to reading academic papers.

I condensed practical advice into a guidebook to help incoming student researchers, which I presented during a 2-hour workshop.


> Science Guidebook

A published scientific paper

I researched, co-wrote, and designed maps, diagrams, and data tables for this published scientific paper under mentorship of graduate students and IU faculty.


> Scientific Paper

Let's Get in Touch!

This fall I'll be continuing to level up my skills as a student at the Indiana University Media School, but I'm looking for work in Los Angeles starting January 2026.
This fall I'll be continuing to level up my skills as a student at the Indiana University Media School, but I'm looking for work in Los Angeles starting January 2026.