Maxim Chernyshenko

Senior Level Designer / Level Artist

Moscow, Russia

hootindahood@gmail.com

Summary

Maxim Chernyshenko

Senior Level Designer / Level Artist

Email: hootindahood@gmail.com
Telegram: @hootindahood
Itch.io: hootindahood.itch.io

SUMMARY

World Builder specializing in gameplay spaces, environmental storytelling, and visual composition. I take levels from initial concept and blockout through final implementation, visual polish, and optimization.

EXPERIENCE

HELIO GAMES
June 2024 – Present
Senior Level Designer / Level Artist

As the studio's only Level Designer and Level Artist, responsible for full-cycle level design and level art across the studio portfolio, from initial prototypes and blockouts to final implementation, visual polish, and optimization.

Amikin Survival

• Joined the project at an early production stage, when only three locations existed, rebuilt all three, and created seven additional major locations — bringing the total to 10 major locations created or rebuilt.
• Owned the full production cycle of every major location from a blank canvas: references, concept, blockout, terrain, level design, environment dressing, vegetation, prefab setup, lighting, polish, and implementation.
• Created additional sub-locations and a dedicated dungeon/cave, and coordinated a freelance Level Artist responsible for additional secondary cave locations.
• Worked with the Art Director to establish visual direction and asset requirements while independently executing Level Design and Level Art. As production progressed, took increasing visual ownership, including texture matching, color and tonal consistency, and overall visual cohesion.
• Collaborated with Tech Art to overhaul the location production pipeline, replacing a rigid Houdini-based workflow with flexible in-engine tools that significantly increased iteration speed and gave me much greater autonomy over Level Design and Level Art.
• Proactively coordinated with 3D artists to adapt and modify props, reducing production bottlenecks. Delivered work ahead of schedule, providing blockouts early enough for assets, textures, and materials to be produced in parallel, and never missed a deadline.

Westland Survival — Mini-Games Update

• Created the complete level art and environment dressing for six competitive mini-games, including Shooting Range, Hunting, Fishing, Racing, and other activities, each built around its own challenge, scoring, leaderboard, and reward systems.
• Repurposed the existing asset library to build cohesive environments for first- and third-person camera perspectives, working around assets designed primarily for the game's standard isometric view without significant new asset production.
• Delivered the environments under strict mobile performance constraints while maintaining visual quality, composition, and gameplay readability.

Mutiny: Pirate Survival — New Action-Arcade Ship Mode

• Designed and created the full environment for a new arcade-style ship mode, building a Caribbean-inspired open-water world with 60 individual islands and detailed underwater terrain.
• Owned the full level art process from terrain generation to final implementation, creating and dressing the islands and seabed in Gaea, optimizing and chunking geometry in Blender, and assembling the environment in Unity. Selected and repurposed existing and purchased assets, including texture matching and visual composition.
• Worked directly with the Producer, Game Designer, and Tech Artist to develop the mode's visual presentation. Provided visual feedback throughout the water system's development and optimization, then independently fine-tuned its color, wave direction, transparency, and reflections.
• Proposed three gameplay mechanics to the Producer that were supported by the Game Designer and ultimately implemented in the final mode.

Internal Studio R&D & AI-Assisted Prototyping

• Researched and tested practical applications of AI and procedural tools for rapid Level Design and Level Art prototyping, combining AI-generated references and assets with procedural terrain generation in Gaea and final assembly in Unity.
• Built a playable environment from scratch within a single working day for an internal studio hackathon, using an AI-assisted workflow with Gaea and AI-generated 3D assets and materials.

PANORAMIK GAMES
July 2023 – May 2024
Level Designer / Level Artist

Radiance

Joined the project to support the Senior Level Designer during an early production stage, working on both level design and level art.

• Worked alongside the Senior Level Designer on the full production of 15 game locations, sharing ownership of level design and level art from initial blockout through final implementation.
• Worked with the project's existing 2D tile-based workflow, then identified its limitations with the Senior Level Designer and pushed for a transition to Unity Terrain as a faster, more flexible, and visually stronger solution.
• Created and sculpted gameplay terrain directly in Unity, shaping terrain and painting surfaces to support gameplay layouts and visual composition.
• Owned the full level art process for assigned locations, including terrain, environment dressing, vegetation, prop placement, composition, and later lighting.
• Developed a strong focus on visual composition and environmental presentation, creating art solutions that were reused and adapted across other areas of the project.
• Identified the need for a fading object shader to solve readability issues caused by the fixed isometric camera, where dense environments could obscure the player, enemies, paths, props, and loot. Worked with Tech Art to push the feature through despite concerns about production cost and complexity.
• Contributed to the project's Technical Launch, which reached 100K+ downloads before development was discontinued due to budget constraints.

GAME JAM PROJECTS

Witchfire
Gamebox Jam
April – May 2023
Solo-developed a complete playable game in 5 days, covering the entire development process from concept to final build.

• Designed the core concept, gameplay mechanics, plot, script, and dialogues.
• Implemented gameplay logic and scripting in Unity.
• Designed UX/UI and created all visual content.
• Created the musical theme and selected sound effects.
• Ranked 7th out of 107 projects at Gamebox Jam.
• Playable version: [Play on itch.io]

Horizon
VK Game Jam
February – March 2023
Game Designer / Team Lead

• Developed the game concept, core mechanics, and gameplay logic.
• Contributed to gameplay balancing and UX/UI design.
• Created and maintained technical specifications for the development team, following tasks through to completion.
• Coordinated the production of game art, music, and sound.
• Worked closely with the team throughout all stages of development.

Erebos
XYZ Game Jam
September 2022 – January 2023
Game Designer / Level Artist

• Developed the concept, mechanics, balance, plot, script, and dialogues.
• Designed the level structure and visual direction.
• Created UX/UI and technical specifications for programmers, artists, and sound designers.
• Coordinated the production of game art, music, and sound while maintaining overall content quality.
• Led the project from initial concept through final playable version.
• Ranked 3rd overall at XYZ Game Jam.
• Playable version: [Play on itch.io]

EDUCATION

XYZ School
Game Designer
2022 – 2023

• Game and concept documentation
• Technical specifications and development planning
• Prototyping in Unreal Engine and Unity
• Visual scripting
• Vertical slice development
• Narrative and quest design
• Level design and blockout

KEY SKILLS

• Level Design: Blockout, Whitebox, Gameplay Layout, Level Structure, Full-Cycle Level Production
• Level Art: Terrain, Environment Dressing, Vegetation, Prop Placement, Composition, Lighting, Visual Polish
• Environment Production: Unity Terrain, Procedural Terrain Generation, Performance-Conscious Level Design, Mobile Performance Optimization, Asset Integration
• Game Development: Unity, Unreal Engine, Visual Scripting, Gameplay Prototyping
• Tools: Blender, Gaea, Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, Aseprite
• Collaboration: Git, Miro, YouTrack, Asana, Google Workspace
• Documentation: GDD, Concept Documents, Technical Specifications

LANGUAGES

• Russian — Native
• English — B2