GAME DESIGNER, ARTIST & ANIMATOR
Michael Vandermeer is a Game Designer, Artist and Animator with two decades professional experience based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Games
2D
3D
Animation
About
Michael is a creative, hard working, problem solving game designer, artist and animator how has worked on wide range of games including:
- 3rd person action adventure
- 2d platformer
- Tower defence
- Puzzle platformer
- Projector room
- Digital Choose your own adventure books
- Educational games (for coding, counting and mental health)
- Interactive children’s books (telling indigenous stories)
As a Game Designer his expertise includes:
- Game Design – development and documentation
- Level Design – layouts, art pass, puzzle and gameplay implementation
- User Interface Design – graphics, layouts and translations
- Gameplay Scripting – visual coding and script code
- Management – Art lead and Outsourcing
- Testing
He is also a talented Artist & Animator with a focus on game art skilled in:
- 3D – modeling, texturing, rigging and animating for characters and environments
- 2D – digital painting, concept art, storyboard, comics and animation
Michael’s professional experience includes working in studio, working from home and as a freelancer with studios such as:
He also contributed over 2 years to The Soulkeeper, a total conversion mod for the Unreal engine 2.
In 2004 he graduated from Freelance Art School (now Yoobee College) with the Diploma of Character Animation and was awarded “Best use of New Media” for his short film created to play in real time video game graphics using the Unreal game engine.
He has built up expertise in a wide range of software such as:
Game Engines:
2D:
3D:
Michael has built a reputation as a hard-working and self-starting creative in the game development, animation and art industries. A problem solver who can adapt to specific roles or take a wider “all hands on deck” generalist approach depending on the needs of your project. Michael has been fortunate to collaborate on many projects with indigenous storytellers, gaining a unique expertise in appropriately bringing indigenous cultures to digital mediums. More recently, he’s been involved in the Web3 NFT art scene as a creator and collector. He also aspires to create his own projects and IP as an independent game developer.