Connor Adamson

Game Designer, Comic book fan, Accessibility Advocate

A photo of Connor Adamson from a DARE Academy photoshoot

Emira, the main robot from elusive core, She has a tall rectangular gray head with a singular tall rectangular green eye and an antenna coming off the top of her head

Elusive Core: Zero Trace

ECZT is a stealth-platformer, initially conceives to during the DES 315: Professional project Module at Abertay University
to address a brief from Gary @ Pocket Sized Hands. The team proceeded with the project and took it to the finals of DARE Academy 2025.

EZCT was commended for it's initial elevator pitch: Metal Gear Sonic

It features Fast momentum-based gameplay and quick reaction based gameplay abilities combined with puzzle orientated stealth gameplay.

A combination of the Metal Gear and Sonic logos used for a pitch

During development I acted as the Lead Designer working alongside our Systems Programmer and Gameplay Programmer to design the movement, enemy and puzzle mechanics.

One of my primary responsibilities was Level Design, designing maps in Inkscape and building them in-engine using Unity's Tilemap system.

Alongside this work, I organised and carried out playtesting, taking notes and passing on feedback where necessary across disciplines. To help work within the inter-disciplinary team,

Project Takeaways

Elusive core was one of my longest projects, iterating across 18 weeks to suit external client needs and feedback. While challenging, the experience pushed me to learn new workflows and tools on the fly and ended with some of my proudest work. I showcased this project at Abertay Open Days and at the DCA Drop in and Play event, networking with other game devs and presenting the project to members of the public.

Keywords

Discipline Lead

Level Design

Systems

Mechanics

Balancing

Teamwork

Retro-Inspired

Unity


Honours Project

My honours project is a first-person simulator game built in Unity, authentically representing lived experience of disabled people. With a focus on disability that affects navigating public space

The game features a limited character controller that represents how certain environments become obstacles that those without disability may not notice.

The game aims to show how designers across disciplines need to incorporate inclusive practices to service the diverse audience their designs service.

During development I will be working across numerous roles, scripting and building level elements within Unity, designing and implementing UI across menus and gameplay and iterating on gameplay mechanics.

I will be designing maps using classic paper and figma while also using figma to plan and prototype UI elements.

Project Takeaways

At it's current state in development the project as encouraged me to engage with resources from the Accessible Games Initiative, something I would like to bring to all my projects from this point onwards. The project has boosted my skills with Vector-based design software and given me practical experience with grayboxing 3D environments.

I have developed my Scripting in Unity's C# and designing interconnected systems.

Keywords

Accessibility

Scripting

Level Design

Mechanics

Systems

Audio

Multi-Discipline

Unity

Documentation


R* Mod Jam 2025/26

The R*Mod Jam was an event hosted by the Abertay Game Development Society in Collaboration with Rockstar Games

I worked in a small 2-person team as the primary designer to create 2 mods using the FiveM tools for GTAV to meet Game Jam style Briefs given by rockstar

After a short development time, Members of rockstar reviewed the submissions with our Mod's being chosen for group showcase at both opportunities

Development tasked me with using tools I had never used before and as such reviewing and learning documentation. This meant creating clear and concise Design Documentation to communicate across disciplines to communicate my vision, using Google Docs and Figma.

I also built the Itch.io pages for both submissions working with basic HTML and CSS to make the pages stand out, While also researching and developing a colour palette for use in marketing materials.

Project Takeaways

This was my first time using Five M and while some aspects of the framework proved frustrating, the experience pushed me to work on my foundational skills, being able to design out of engine and communicate that design to the team working on the code. I got to pull heavily from inspiration in other media and this shows in the final release.

Keywords

Narrative

Scripting

Level Design

Mechanics

Systems

Multi-Discipline

FiveM

Marketing Materials

Documentation