Zakaria Elbahi
Game Design
Portfolio 2025
Hey, thanks for checking out my portfolio! I’m a game designer who specializes in stealth gameplay, complex puzzles, and systemic gameplay. I love creating experiences that challenge players to think strategically and engage with the game world in unique ways. Whether it’s designing clever stealth mechanics, intricate puzzles, or systems that interact in dynamic ways, I focus on crafting immersive and rewarding gameplay.
Thermal Vision
As part of my responsibilities on this project I designed and setup the player's thermal vision feature.
​
The feature was designed to allow the player to see enemies through walls and plan their approach. It pulled from the same resource as the player's energy throwables and jump pack - forcing players to plan and keep their limited resources in mind.
​
This system worked by overlaying a textured skeletal mesh synced to the same animation graph. The system was extremely customisable, and allowed us to use the overlay mesh to mislead the player depending on the level's need.
​
ie. during one section towards the start of the game the player can scan to see a small child behind a locked door - once opened the enemy reveals itself as a grotesque monster from the void.
​
Player Action Matrix
A key highlight of my responsibilities was developing and maintaining the player’s action matrix.
This involved refining the player’s crouched movement and animations, implementing core functionality, and ensuring balanced gameplay. A standout achievement within this scope was designing and integrating the 'sticky walls' feature, enabling players to wall run and evade enemies during high-intensity moments.
​
The introduction of this mechanic initially presented unforeseen challenges. Upon implementation, players were able to run on all walls, leading to significant clipping and movement issues, particularly in narrow stealth-focused areas. To address this, I implemented a tag-filtering system to designate which walls could be used for wall running. Additionally, I developed a clear visual language to help players quickly identify runnable walls in fast-paced scenarios, ensuring smooth gameplay and intuitive navigation.
Cat and Mouse AI Behaviour
Designing and implementing AI behavior for horror enemies was a key part of my work, focused on building an immersive and tense gameplay experience. I created an AI system that could track and hunt the player's last known location, using randomized search patterns to keep players guessing.
The AI was programmed to investigate potential hiding spots, adding an element of suspense and making players think twice before staying hidden for too long. I also added a feature where the AI takes control of the player's camera during the kill sequence, forcing them to face the enemy’s final move and enhancing the overall horror effect.
Generator and Power Systems
As part of my work on Above, I developed a flexible and robust system designed for quick iteration and customizable puzzle mechanics, all centred around a generator-style power system.
​
Active Power System: Controls door and light access throughout the environment, enabling dynamic interaction and environmental changes.
Customizable Unlocking Options: Allows players to unlock shortcuts and alternate routes, enhancing the puzzle-solving experience and exploration.
Motion-Warped Animations: Implemented 'punchy' activation animations to create a more engaging and responsive user experience, adding impact to key interactions.
Gameplay Designer
ABOVE
Trainee Systems Designer
Squadron 42
Trainee Systems Designer
Star Citizen
Interactions
As part of my role within the core gameplay systems and tech design teams, I was responsible for establishing complex interactions involving buttons, screens, door panels, dialogue, and cross-entity interactions with carriable fuses and key cards that slot into specific item ports.
Integrating these diverse elements into Squadron 42 presented significant challenges, particularly in ensuring seamless data flow across various interaction streams and adapting new bespoke setups tailored to the single-player experience.
Combat and Stealth
One of the most compelling aspects of my role was developing a sophisticated AI perception system to enhance stealth and combat gameplay. Previous iterations had primarily focused on FPS and ship combat, with minimal emphasis on stealth mechanics.
​
Working closely with senior designers, I helped create a multi-layered perception system capable of dynamically adjusting the AI’s awareness levels.
The AI’s field of vision and audio detection range expanded as their alertness increased, allowing them to respond to various in-game cues such as discovering bodies, hearing thrown distractions, detecting gunfire, or taking damage. This system provided real-time updates to AI behaviour, enabling designers to iterate quickly and integrate new perception states as we evolved the levels and gameplay loops.
Ships and Turrets
A small part of my role as a trainee system designer was working closely with the tech design teams. I worked to implement features and bug fixes with Star Citizens turret system, refining and balancing fire speed, difficulty tokens, rotation and tracking.
​
This work included effecting player manned multiplayer turrets and enemy AI turrets that can engage with up to 4 players in open space.
Interactions
As part of my role with the core gameplay systems and tech design teams I was responsible for setting up complex interactions with buttons, screens, door panels, dialogue, and cross entity interactions with carriable fuses, and key cards that slot into specific item ports.
​
They where typically divided into two types; Bespoke and Systemic interactions - that required either general interactions point, UI and interaction functionality whilst Bespoke interactions required work with the animation team to set up specific sequences that triggered state changes in each of the carried / effected items.
​
ie. a keycard that slots into the door for a single use, the interaction on the door triggers the animation on the player who detaches form the keyacrd after finishing the animation sequence > the keycard then changes states to become unusable whilst also trigger the door to open, then eject the card, and close again.
AI Behaviour
One of my favourite responsibilities was implementing new AI perception that could work with Stealth and Combat gameplay. The team had previously focused on FPS an ship combat without much time going into stealth options.
I worked closely with Senior designers to build a layered perception system that updates and changes the AI's state as it increases or decreases.
The cone of view and audio perception range would widen as they become more alerted. Alerts could be triggered by finding bodies, distractions being thrown, gunfire, or damage. The system we built allowed the AI behaviour to be updated in real time and allowed designers to iterate and build with new perception states as we continued development on the individual levels and gameplay loops.
MFD's and Resource Network
I worked to implement and design new MultiFeatureDisplays for every ship in the game via a MFD system overall.The player can control all elements of the ship via their control displays at the pilot and co-pilot seats. With these setup the player can now pull power from their shields to increase their firepower, quantum travel speed, comms, or even aircon to boost their shield recharge rate, or vice versa in any number of combinations.
My work was primarily with the player input side of development, working in close co-ordination with the resource network system and technical designers setting up each ship's power thresholds. i.e some ships had the potential to fire 4 guns at once and therefore needed increased firepower energy capabilities with perhaps lower maximum quantum travel speed.
2D Physics Based combat
Designing and implementing 2D boss fighting mechanics for Deal Breaker presented a range of challenges, particularly in replicating the fast-paced, precise nature of 2D fighting game combat. One of the key difficulties was ensuring correct implementation of hitboxes, which had to be finely tuned to accurately register collisions between the boss, the player, and any projectile attacks.
Additionally, managing physical knockbacks, while maintaining fluidity in the fight, required careful balancing to ensure that each hit had the appropriate impact and feedback. Perfectly timed animations and VFX were essential for creating a satisfying and dynamic experience, demanding a high level of synchronization between combat actions and visual effects to enhance the sense of power and timing in each attack.
Abilities and Unlockables
Designing and implementing unlockable special attacks for Deal Breaker involved creating a system that allowed abilities to recharge over time, offering players strategic choices in combat. Each ability was designed to have a unique impact on gameplay, such as a shield for defensive protection, the ability to slow down time for tactical advantage, and time manipulation to either speed up or slow down the pace of combat.
Additionally, I incorporated damage-over-time abilities to pressure enemies and a healing ability to balance risk and reward. The challenge was to ensure these abilities felt impactful, with smooth recharge mechanics and intuitive integration into the overall gameplay loop.
Zak is an accomplished game designer with a strong foundation in film production, backed by over six years of high-level experience in the creative industries. Making a strategic shift from film to game development, Zak has worked to combine his storytelling experience and visual production expertise to craft compelling interactive experiences.
​
Zak’s versatile background includes collaborations on globally acclaimed multimedia projects such as the award-winning Royal Variety Performers: The Black Blues Brothers. His short films have earned award nominations and garnered positive press coverage, showcasing his broad creative capabilities and commitment to excellence.
