Experience:

Driftwood Studios — Allelon

Aug 2025 – May 2026

Design Lead - Unreal Engine 5.6

  • Owned end-to-end level design for 2 levels from concept through playable builds, covering flow, conveyance, and narrative staging.

  • Authored annotated design documents that reduced cross-team revision cycles during sprint reviews.

  • Iterated layouts based on playtesting data, improving navigation clarity and player pacing per session review feedback.

Wanderlust Studios — Ravenous Sky

March 2026 – Present

Contract Level Designer - Unreal Engine 5.7

  • Worked on protype level, integrating mechanics & systems during active production.

  • Set dressing the levels to reflect destroyed state of the environments that also meet design goals and don’t disrupt gameplay.

Cloudweaver Studios — Pursuit of Knowledge

Apr 2025 – Aug 2025

Level Designer - Unity 2022.3.37f1 LTS

  • Led design of 3 interconnected exploration levels with puzzle integration from blockout to final pass.

  • Achieved target performance budgets via lighting bakes and geometry optimization, clearing QA with no critical issues.

Resume

Hello, my name is Cristian Butuceanu. I’m a Digital Media student at the University of Central Florida specializing in level design, with a strong passion for level design and worldbuilding. I love creating immersive, story driven environments where mechanics, atmosphere, and art work together to shape memorable player experiences.

I have experience with both Unity, Unreal Engine, and VR/AR development, and I’m actively expanding my skills through several ongoing projects so expect more work soon.

I’ve been making games since I was young, starting with simple stories in Scratch and later creating levels in Geometry Dash and Mario Maker. That early curiosity grew into a commitment to crafting meaningful, enjoyable experiences for players.

Mystic Die Studios — Reconnection

June 2026 – Present

Design Lead - Unreal Engine 5.7

Tools & Skills

Design Skills

  • Whiteboxing

  • Environmental Lighting

  • Iterative Design

  • Design Documentation

  • Set Dressing

  • Optimization

Tools & Engines

  • Unreal Engine 5

  • Blueprint Scripting

  • Unity

  • C#

  • Miro

  • Photoshop