Designer · games and digital products

Hi, I'm Alejandro Melian.
Let's build something together.

My design philosophy focuses around questions and iterations. I like to be able to answer why I make every design choice, and I make my choices around users, data, and experience. When designing I like thinking on the present and the future, how does it feel when something is new, and how does it feel when its the 100th time you do an action.

01 — Work & projects

Work & projects

Shipped titles, playable prototypes and jam games. Filter by the skills you care about — everything else drops out.

Filter by skill
16 projects
TransmuTowers trailer still
Steam · Edenic Era

TransmuTowers

Choose your alchemist from a magical coven. Explore a hand-painted, post-apocalyptic fantasy world. Fend off hordes of magical beasts in this roguelite tower defense and survival game. Play solo or in co-op with up to 3 friends. Strategize and adapt in tower defense × survival × bullet heaven.

ShippedCombat designEncounter designAI behaviourSystems design
Lylyland key art
Released · Lyly Interactive

Lylyland

A gamified app that uses games to guide people to real world locations and keep them engaged. Alongside one programmer and one artist I built over eight casual games, all built on skill and repetition, plus a narrative quest layer that sends users to real places to take pictures or read the space for clues to a riddle.

ShippedSystems designUX/UINarrative
Bugs 'N Guns trailer still
Steam · Blink Shot

Bugs 'N Guns

Bugs N' Guns is a cooperative third person shooter. Player will need to combine their weapons firepower to eliminate enemies and obstacles as players try to protect a train called MARC - OS from hostile flora and fauna.

ShippedCombat designEncounter designLevel designNarrative
Cusco Paradox trailer still
itch.io · Indaga Studios

Cusco Paradox

Cusco Paradox is an LGBTQ+ narrative puzzle game about a fox being trapped in the Incan netherworld. A journey of forlorn love and discovery, Atoq the Fox has lost his memories and must delve deep into this world to recover both his memories and his boyfriend. Move the blocks to build a path through the shrines and travel the nether.

ShippedCombat designLevel designAI behaviourUX/UI
Escuela Kadabra trailer still
Released · Innova

Escuela Kadabra

A child arrives at a magic school where every teacher has been turned into an animal. To turn them back he has to find the source of magic and the evil wizard behind it. A heavily narrative 2D platformer for children aged 9–12, built around minigames that train reading comprehension and vocabulary, and a creature taming system where the creatures help you rather than fight for you.

ShippedUX/UILevel designSystems designNarrative
Shipped · TrainingIT · Spain

TrainingIT soft skills

A new course line that teaches soft skills to IT professionals by anchoring every lesson in the hard skills they already work with. I ran the pipeline end to end: interviews with IT professionals, HR and company heads to rank the pain points, then the course format, the curriculums, the teachers, and four courses out for soft launch.

ShippedProduct designProduct managementUX/UI
The Calling trailer still
Trailer · Indaga Studios

The Calling

A game about unlocking your vocational profile. Play different minigames to generate a profile — a top down hand drawn game heavily focused on narrative elements, filled with a range of different activities and an in-depth choice system. Every action has a consequence.

ShippedCombat designEncounter design
Mini Rogue key art
Playable build

Mini Rogue

A minimalist tabletop roguelike in portrait. Four hero classes descend through a growing multi-biome grid where combat is dice you can nudge with Focus, weapons wear out and evolve, and the body of your last run is waiting on the floor where you died.

PrototypeSystems designEconomy & progressionCombat design
Caravan Defense key art
Playable build

Caravan Defense

The thing you defend is also the thing that moves. Gather out in the field, steer the caravan away from the mesas, and spend what you carried on engineering or magic before the next wave lands.

PrototypeSystems designEncounter designEconomy & progression
QTE Combat key art
Playable build

QTE Combat

Reaction inside a turn structure. Attacks and defences resolve on an isometric grid, but every exchange opens a timed input window — the fight keeps asking for your attention between decisions.

PrototypeCombat designEncounter designUX/UI
The Last Piece key art
Playable build

The Last Piece

A king alone on a 5×8 board, climbing. Chess movement supplies the tactics, a d6 against defence supplies the risk, and Focus lets you buy a second chance at the moment it matters.

PrototypeSystems designCombat design
Gnome Garden key art
Playable build

Gnome Garden

Tower defence where the towers are crops. A gnome plants, waters and harvests while bugs march on the house — and every plant is both a weapon and part of the economy that pays for the next one.

PrototypeSystems designEconomy & progressionTools & editors
Sonar Salvage key art
Playable build

Sonar Salvage

You never see the trench — only what the claw's lamp reaches. Drive a crane down 2,400 metres of dark on a two-minute battery, and the battery is also the light.

PrototypeSystems designUX/UI
Playable build

Cozy Meadow

A garden that grows into a habitat. Plant, water and harvest a meadow while unlocks, hybrids and wildlife arrive on their own schedule — progression you tend rather than grind.

PrototypeSystems designEconomy & progression
Neon Red trailer still
Game jam · itch.io

Neon Red

Neon Red is a platformer for speedrunners. By utilizing the red line connecting your arm and hand, you'll need to use momentum and swings to reach the goal as quickly as possible. Defeat enemies and strive to improve your times.

Game jamCombat designEncounter design
Super Transform trailer still
Game jam · itch.io

Super Transform

Super transform is a first person puzzle videogame based on transforming different objects to traverse the rooftops. You will embody an interdimensional guard that has the mission to save the city of Madrid in a fractured reality which has been flooded (yes, now it has a beach) and is under the vengeful attack of the squids.

Game jamLevel designSystems design
02 — About

Who am I?

Dedicated and passionate about the world of gaming. Game designer and producer with over 6 years of experience across gameplay systems, encounter design and player experience on 2D and 3D titles for mobile and PC.

I have led teams of 6 to 16 people across design, engineering and content, and owned end-to-end product development from concept through balancing, production and launch. Hands-on in Unity and Unreal Engine, with a Master's in Game and Interactive Media Design from U-tad, Madrid, and a Bachelor's in Industrial & Product Design from SCAD.

Experience as a game designer focused on combat design, enemy and boss design, encounter design and game balancing. I have additional experience across multiple areas of game development — UX/UI, pixel art, animation, prototyping, gameplay, production, product management and research — and I taught game design fundamentals as a professor at UTAD.

I understand the pipeline of most departments in games, and I use that knowledge to respect the complexity and necessity of teamwork and cooperation in game development.

6+
Years of experience
6
Shipped products
7
Working prototypes
Combat designEnemy & boss designEncounter designGame balancingUX/UIPixel artAnimationPrototypingGameplayProductionProduct managementResearchTeaching
Contact
alejandro.melian.r@gmail.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/a-melian
Currently
Gameplay & systems designer at Edenic Era
Languages
Spanish / English (bilingual)
Teaching
Professor, Game Design Fundamentals — U-tad, Madrid
Open to
Game design (systems) · combat & gameplay design
CV
Download CV (PDF)
03 — Companion

Dress the slime

Most pieces are locked. Explore the portfolio to earn them — every locked swatch tells you what it wants.

Body
Face
Eyes

Click a locked piece to see how to unlock it.

Available for game design roles

Let's build
the game.

Emailalejandro.melian.r@gmail.comCopy → LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/a-melianOpen ↗
Based inMenorca, Spain · remote-friendly · EN / ES
Alejandro Melian · Game design portfolio · 2026