Character Design & Animation
Helped design the game’s pixel-art characters and created frame-by-frame animations for movement, abilities, and other gameplay states.
Interactive experiences
Strategy with a
neon pulse.
A synthwave roguelike deckbuilder where tactical positioning meets fast-paced card combat.
The project
A vibrant neon world inspired by ’80s action films and cyberpunk, built around deckbuilding and grid-based tactical movement.
- Role
- Co-Founder · Senior Designer
- Timeline
- 2020 — 2022
- Company
- Wildboy Studios
- Publisher
- tinyBuild
- Domain
- Video Games
- Platforms
- PC · macOS · Steam
- Website
- Visit Nitro Kid
- Steam reviews
- Very Positive (413 reviews)
My responsibilities
2D VFX
Designed 2D visual effects for abilities, impacts, and gameplay feedback, while implementing frame-by-frame character animations and their states.
Level Design & Storytelling
Contributed to level and card design while creating illustrations for in-game events, helping support the game’s tactical systems, progression, and visual storytelling.
UI Interaction & Animation
Designed UI interactions and animations that communicated player actions, card interactions, transitions, feedback, and changing game states throughout the experience.
Gameplay preview
The work at a glance
A neon-soaked
corporate dystopia.
Three agents fight through INFINITY tower, combining cards, positioning and environmental interactions to rescue children caught in the corporation’s experiments.
- 01Heroes
- 02Enemies
- 03Environments
- 04UI
- 05VFX
- 06Story
Character design & animation
Three agents.
Three ways to fight.
I helped design the characters and created frame-by-frame pixel animations that translated their personalities and combat styles into movement.
Enemy design & animation
Every floor tells
another part of the story.
Enemy design carries the player from INFINITY’s corporate face through its technology and into the consequences of experimentation.
- 01Business / Corporation
- 02Mech / Technology
- 03Mutant / Experimentation
Business
Business floor
Human, professional and controlled, with the exaggerated personality of an ’80s action movie.
Mech
Mech floor
Mechanical silhouettes and heavier movement reveal the tower’s weaponised technology.
Mutant
Mutant floor
Distorted, unpredictable characters expose the consequences of INFINITY’s experiments.
Finding the visual style
From early exploration
to a stronger identity.
We refined shapes, contrast and environmental details to strengthen visual identity and gameplay readability.
Environment design & animation
Three floors.
A changing world.
I contributed environmental assets, room layouts, animation and implementation, giving each floor its own identity within the same retro-futuristic world.
INFINITY’s clean, neon-lit offices give way to industrial machinery on the Mech floor, then organic growth and contamination in the Mutant labs. Each floor reveals a little more of what lies beneath the corporation’s polished surface, while sharing the same pixel-art language.
UI design & animation
Tactical information.
Clear at a glance.
Cards, movement, enemy intentions and abilities share the combat space. My UI and interaction work focused on clear actions and feedback without overwhelming play.
The interface should support the fight, not compete with it.
VFX design & animation
Make every hit
feel like it landed.
I created 2D effects that communicate damage, abilities and impact. Anticipation, timing and follow-through make combat more readable and energetic.
- 01Anticipation
- 02Impact
- 03Response
Story & narrative
An ’80s action movie
you can fight through.
Three CINDER agents infiltrate INFINITY to rescue children being used in experiments with Nitro. I contributed to the world, characters, events and narrative moments that support that premise.
Characters, environments, events and progression all helped tell the story.
- 01Enter INFINITY
- 02Meet its people
- 03Discover technology
- 04Uncover experiments
- 05Rescue the children
- 06Reach the creator
Reception
What people said
about Nitro Kid.
Released in 2022 with tinyBuild, Nitro Kid brought together tactical combat, pixel animation and a synthwave-soaked world.
What I learned
A second game.
A different set of questions.
ATONE taught us how to make a game. Nitro Kid challenged us to build a systems-heavy roguelike where animation and visual design communicate mechanics as well as personality.
Visual design isn’t only how a digital experience looks. It is also how the system communicates.
- 01Character / How should it move?
- 02Gameplay / What does it communicate?
- 03Feedback / How is the result understood?
- 04System / How does it connect?