Nathan Stroomberg - Technical Game Designer
Welcome to my portfolio page! Click the projects to read more about them in detail.During my time as a game design student at HKU, I've discovered my love for Combat & 3C's Design, as reflected in my highlighted projects.
Highlights
Swordcaster
2
A punishing but fair Souls-inspired boss battle, created as an exercise in root motion animation-based combat and level design, and the pipelines associated with them.
What I did:
- Thorough pre-production and project work breakdown
- Creating a pipeline and Godot tool for animation iteration
- Surveying player expectations and preferences
- Top-down map and level greybox
- Iterating boss enemy behaviour
- Designing an animation-based, third person player character
- Working in a small Scrum team
Team Portomaxx
19
A project I initiated and led with 19 students, a first for HKU. We practiced industry standard pipelines and workflows to create a magical girl themed FPS.
What I did:
- Managing a big development team
- Working in (and facilitating) a professional Scrum environment
- Creating and playtesting two 3C's prototypes in UE Blueprints
- Owning and fine tuning the final player character
- Writing feature specs for developers
Stratoforce (W.I.P.)
1
My current passion project, inspired by the Ace Combat series. I'm using it to hone my combat design skills, and to take take the time to broaden my skillset with narrative and visual development.
What I did so far:
- Prototyping enemy pathfinding
- Building a Godot tool to speed up development
- Fine tuning an engaging aerial combat environment
- Writing the game's narrative
- Developing the game's visual style
Projects
Thrust Factor
1
A challenging, movement-based arcade shooter, a study-turned-passion project, with my primary focus on creating a fluid player controller and balancing difficulty and progression.
What I did:
- Producing a game from concept to release
- Designing a player character
- Designing enemy behaviour
- Designing a fluid combat system
- Balancing the game loop
- Polishing & game feel
- FMOD Integration, music, sound design
- Unity Development
De Rechtlijn
1
A satirical audio-based game played entirely on a smartphone dial screen. My goal was to design a socially conscious, meaningful experience about the rise of AI and the loss of interpersonal contact.
What I did:
- Designing and pacing a maze-like narrative
- Translating my fascination to concrete game mechanics
- Designing satisfying exploration
- Sound design
- Development for Android in Unity
Virtual Encounters
1
An absurdist narrative experience exploring three different experimental games, each questioning a unique aspect of play itself.
What I did:
- Concepting and prototyping
- Writing an engaging, absurdist narrative
- Designing four 3D environments
- Usability testing and targeted playtesting
- Godot Development
Stealth Recon Xtreme
1
A tacticool board game where two players, who can't see each others pieces, fight to collect artefacts, trying not to give their positions away in the process.
What I did:
- Rapid prototyping and iteration
- Live playtesting
- Designing and iterating a tabletop game board
- Creating a trailer video and box art
Side projects and game jams
Pop
2025
A short narrative game made in one hour for the "60 minute jam"
What's in the box?
2025
An experimental "tiny game", where I explored narrative interactions with a cube
The Ice Crime Man
2025
Made together with a game art student for the 3-hour jam
Woud (demo)
2024
Made in a team of two, my focus was on systems, level design, coding and audio
Politiek Spel
2024
A (Dutch) satirical parody of politics in the Netherlands, made solo for my HKU Game Design application
A (Dutch) satirical parody of politics in the Netherlands, made solo for my HKU Game Design application