My First Steps in Game Development
I first downloaded Unreal Engine back in 2019, curious to see if I could bring my own ideas to life. A year later, for a university project called Something Old, Something New, I created my very first short game. It was based on Anne of Green Gables, where players could explore a small area around Anne’s house, interact with a book in her bedroom that gave quests, and complete simple tasks like tidying the kitchen, collecting items, or finding a lake inspired by the movie.
That little project may have been simple, but it gave me my first real taste of building quest systems, exploration, and interactivity.
Crayta
Not long after, I discovered Crayta — and it opened the door to a whole new way of creating and sharing games. Through Crayta, I built bigger worlds, learned faster by experimenting, and connected with an amazing community of creators. My time there opened incredible doors — I was even featured in a Facebook Gaming launch video with Mark Zuckerberg, and later selected for Crayta’s Lift Off program, with the opportunity to sign a contract to take my creations further.
But then Crayta was shut down. Overnight, the platform — and the future I was building on it — was gone. It was heartbreaking, but it also lit a fire in me. I realized I didn’t want my dreams to depend on a platform that could disappear. I wanted to prove to myself, and to others, that it’s possible to create a complete game independently.
That determination grew into Chronicles Reborn. I’m building it solo in Unreal Engine — every mechanic, every line of lore, every collectible. It’s more than a survival crafting RPG with magic, exploration, and story; it’s my statement that even after setbacks, passion and persistence can create something lasting. Unlike Crayta, no one can shut this down. This is my world, built for players who love to gather, craft, discover, and create their own story within it.
Before moving back into Unreal, my Crayta journey was filled with unforgettable experiences, community recognition, and multiple awards celebrating my creations. Along the way, I learned skills that continue to shape how I design and build games today:
Creative problem-solving: turning platform limits (like making spaceships “fly” with swimming mechanics) into gameplay.
Voxel world building: designing modular, immersive environments.
Lua scripting: building crafting, combat, portals, and game logic.
UI integration: connecting scripts to health bars, inventories, and quest trackers.
Collaboration: rapid prototyping in jams and short deadlines.
Optimization: balancing visuals with performance in voxel-based worlds.
Overall, Crayta was my foundation — a place where I grew, experimented, and earned multiple community awards. Every lesson I learned there continues to shape the worlds I build today.
Here’s the full list of my Crayta honors and achievements:
Silver Spark Award Oct 2021
Mega Mallet Mania
Mega Mallet Mania was a fast-paced party game set high above the city skyline. Players raced across towering skyscrapers to collect glowing neon voxel cubes, each worth a different number of points (1, 3, or 5). Armed with oversized hammers, they could smash opponents to steal their points and knock them off the rooftops.
But the real twist was the Mega Mallet — a rare power-up hidden on the map that let players steal 50% of another player’s points with a single hit. Of course, there was a catch: fall off the roof and die, and you’d lose the Mega Mallet along with your shot at glory!
As the match progressed, skyscrapers collapsed in timed phases, shrinking the arena and forcing players into ever-tighter spaces. Eventually, all that remained was a central rooftop arena where the final showdown took place. In this last frantic clash, players battled to seize as many points as possible before the round ended. The player with the highest score emerged victorious.
Mega Mallet Mania was more than just my first solo-developed game in Crayta — it also earned a Silver Award in the very first Spark program, part of Crayta’s monthly Creators program celebrating outstanding games and creations. Winning this award as a rising star among incredible packages, brand-new ideas, and well-maintained projects was a huge milestone in my journey as a game developer. It was also featured and played multiple times on the Crayta Community Play Along livestreams on YouTube, where it received fantastic feedback from the Crayta creators themselves.
Gold Spark Award – Dec 2021
Elf Squad
Jump on a memory lane with me and see what voxel sculpting was like in Crayta! Watch as I shape the terrain and build the magical village for Elf Squad.
Step into Santa’s magical village and choose your side: Team Santa or Team Mrs. Claus. Inspired by The Christmas Chronicles, Elf Squad drops players into a festive world filled with candy canes, gingerbread men, and holiday cheer.
Your mission? Become the best elf by crafting toys for children around the world. To do that, players must first help a clumsy elf who accidentally lost letters to Santa — some blown away by the wind and now scattered throughout the village. Collect these missing letters and exchange them in Santa’s grotto for candies.
Candies and gingerbread men act as currency to trade for resources in the village’s shops. With those, you can craft different toys, wrap them up, and send them off to children. Each toy is worth a different number of points, and the more you make, the higher you climb on the leaderboard.
The mix of cozy holiday vibes, scavenger hunts, and competitive toy-making turned Elf Squad into a fan favorite — and it earned me the Gold Spark Award in December 2021.
From Awards to Ignition:
The Next Chapter in My Crayta Journey
After receiving awards for Mega Mallet Mania (Silver) and its follow-up update, as well as a Gold Spark Award for Elf Squad, I was invited to join Crayta’s Ignition Program.
Ignition was a 6-month, invite-only creator initiative that provided resources, mentorship, and financial support for experienced builders to take their projects further. Being selected meant I was recognized not just for my creativity, but also for my consistency and impact on the Crayta community.
During my time in Ignition, I developed Fantasy Islands, a tycoon-style game set on floating islands. Players could buy and upgrade houses, employ villagers, and send them to gather crystals and rune stones. These resources could then be sold for coins, with the ultimate goal of becoming the wealthiest island owner.
At the same time, I collaborated on Scavengers with the Sovereign Games team, designing all of the game’s hand-drawn 2D icons, which gave me the chance to showcase my illustration and UI design skills.
In June 2022, I was honored to be one of just two creators chosen for a video celebrating Crayta’s launch on Facebook Gaming. That spotlight moment gave me a chance to represent the community and share my work on a global stage.
Although I was born in Poland and moved to the UK in 2008 (first to Clitheroe, then to Blackburn in 2016 while studying), this local press coverage felt meaningful — showing how my journey in game development reached beyond borders and platforms
Top Prize Winner "Champions" Mega Game Jam - Jul 2022
UPL!INK - Cosmic Explorers
UPL!NK – Cosmic Explorers was created in just 2.5 weeks for the Champions Mega Game Jam in collaboration with Slaying, who invited me to join in the second week. The game skillfully blended tycoon, RPG, and adventure mechanics into a polished futuristic experience, and it became one of the five winners of the jam.
Players could explore three distinct realms, scavenging for rare items to sell while earning currency to upgrade and decorate their personal base. Along the way, they faced NPC enemies, requiring strategy and preparation to survive. Combat revolved around neon glow staves, available in three tiers of rarity.
I contributed as the level designer for all three realms, ensuring each world felt distinct, engaging, and rewarding to explore. I also designed the inventory icons for the staves and created the game cover and logo artwork, helping give the game its futuristic and polished visual identity. Most of the game systems and mechanics were already established by Slaying when I joined, and it was inspiring to see his workflow and creative process in action.
Being part of UPL!NK was a fantastic collaboration that taught me a lot about rapid prototyping, team coordination, and refining a game under tight deadlines. Its recognition as a jam winner reflects not only the quality of the final game but also the smooth and creative teamwork that brought this cosmic adventure to life.
Silver Award in Monthly Contest - Aug 2022
Shark Attack
Created in collaboration with my partner Rosey — who designed the underwater world while I built the UI and game mechanics — Shark Attack plunged players beneath the waves into a battle for the ocean’s survival.
Players took on the role of a shark with two main missions: rescue fellow sharks captured by poachers and take down the poachers destroying the marine environment. Boosts scattered across the map, such as Fast Swim, gave sharks temporary advantages, adding excitement and strategy to each round.
Due to Crayta’s limitations, where only human characters could be playable, we got creative: the player’s human character was made invisible, and a shark mesh was attached instead. While the shark had no skeleton or animations (making its movement a little rough visually), this workaround let players truly embody the role of the predator in a way that pushed the platform’s boundaries.
Like many Crayta games, Shark Attack was leaderboard-driven. Players earned points by eating poachers, with matches running in 5-minute rounds. The higher your score, the better your spot on the global leaderboard — and the ultimate bragging rights as the deadliest shark in the sea.
This mix of teamwork, environmental theme, and creative problem-solving earned Shark Attack a Silver Award in Crayta’s monthly contest.
Most Aesthetically Pleasing Award - Build Jam – Aug 2022
Living City Posters Pack
For the Living City Build Jam, I created a poster pack designed for the community to use in their games. This project blended game design, illustration, and digital art, showing my ability to work across multiple disciplines.
I began by staging sci-fi environments in Crayta’s editor, capturing screenshots with strong composition and lighting. These were then reimagined in Photoshop and Illustrator, where I layered paint textures, neon glows, and sketch-style outlines to create a bold, futuristic look inspired by the Cybotanica theme. To bring the posters to life, I added animated glitch effects, giving them the feel of flickering holographic billboards or urban street ads.
The result was a versatile collection that other creators could use as anything from wall art to glowing city-scale displays. Beyond adding value as an asset pack, the project highlighted my ability to merge world-building with graphic design — balancing functionality for game use with strong visual storytelling. This combination of design sensibility and gameplay awareness earned me the “Most Aesthetically Pleasing” Award for the jam.
The UI Award "Shaping the
future" Crayta Game Jam
Sep 2022
Squadron 94
In Squadron 94, players explore a galaxy with dying planets, taking on the role of spaceship pilots tasked with restoring them. Developed with my partner Rosey — who created the planets and space environments while I focused on the UI and game mechanics — the game blends exploration, combat, and resource management in a fully interactive space adventure.
Players could choose from three unique ships to recover scattered power cells. These could be collected from the environment or crafted using resources mined from asteroids with specialized ship-mounted tools.
The galaxy isn’t peaceful: enemy ships patrol the stars, and players must fight strategically to survive and complete their mission.
A major challenge was Crayta’s limitations — we couldn’t make spaceships “fly” naturally. Our solution was to attach the ships to invisible player characters and use swimming mechanics, giving players the feeling of piloting through space despite the platform’s restrictions.
The game’s UI — which won a Crayta UI Award — enhances the spacefaring experience, featuring a sci-fi health bar, XP tracker with level counter, quest and POI icons, weapon inventories, NPC indicators, tutorial interface, and ship selection. Every element helps players navigate the galaxy efficiently while staying immersed in the adventure.
By combining exploration, combat, resource management, and creative problem-solving, Squadron 94 challenged players to save the planets and showed that even a galaxy in crisis can be a playground for imagination.
Honourable Mention 'Science Fair' Build Jam - Oct 2022
For Crayta’s Science Fair Build Jam, I designed the Science Lab Kit — a collection of UI widgets and scripts that let creators add immersive science-themed and atmospheric effects into their projects. My goal was to combine UI/UX design, CSS animation, illustration, and Lua scripting into reusable tools that could enhance both gameplay and storytelling.
The Kit Included:
Chemical Flask & Bubbles
A bubbling neon liquid effect inside a stylized flask, complete with rising animated bubbles. The liquid’s color could be customized in the editor, making it flexible for labs, experiments, or even fantasy potion brewing.Chemical Bubbles Widget
A standalone animated bubble effect with multiple sizes, staggered animations, and glowing highlights — perfect for chemical reactions or magical mixtures.Flickering Neon Sign
A retro neon title widget with customizable text, font size, and hue. The glow and flickering animation gave science labs and sci-fi settings a distinct aesthetic.Solar System
A dynamic orbit model of the planets, each rotating around a glowing sun at different speeds. It worked as both an educational showcase and an atmospheric background element.Orbital Spinner
A futuristic rotating 3D orbit system made of multiple colored energy rings. It looked like advanced lab machinery, a cosmic scanner, or a portal stabilizer.Image Filter Widget
A flexible tool that applied real-time filters (hue, grayscale, contrast, sepia, etc.) to any image in-engine. This gave creators instant stylization options without external editing tools.Ghost in the Mirror (Lua Script + Widget)
A scripted horror mechanic where a ghost UI widget would suddenly appear (and vanish) at key story moments. This merged gameplay triggers with UI to create a chilling jump-scare effect.
Recognition
The Science Lab Kit received an Honourable Mention in the jam, noted for its blend of technical creativity and atmospheric design.
This project was especially meaningful because it showcased my ability to push Crayta’s widget system beyond simple overlays — turning UI into a powerful storytelling tool. By combining visual design and interactivity, I created a kit that other creators could drop into their projects to immediately add immersion, style, and narrative flair.
Bronze Award - Monthly Contest - Oct 2022
Fantasy Islands Update
In October 2022, I created a Halloween-themed update for Fantasy Islands that combined atmospheric world design with new interactive mechanics.
Key Additions:
Halloween World Overhaul
The entire island was given a seasonal makeover, with spooky decorations, glowing lanterns, and a layer of purple fog drifting across the map to set the tone.Flickering Ghosts
I adapted the flickering mechanic from my Science Fair Neon Sign Widget and used it to make hand-drawn ghost designs appear and disappear around the world. This gave players a haunting new activity: searching for and “catching” ghosts scattered across the map.Ghost Caught Counter
A new UI system tracked how many ghosts players had discovered, adding a collectible-driven layer of progression to the event.
This seasonal update won a Bronze Award in the October 2022 Monthly Contest. It was praised for blending custom UI scripting, original art, and atmospheric level design into a fun and immersive limited-time experience.
Bronze Award – Nov 2022
Elf Squad - Holiday Update
A year later, just in time for Christmas again, Elf Squad returned with a magical new update. Santa’s house was expanded with a kitchen area, complete with a cupcake-making station and a pie oven where players could bake festive treats.
The update also brought a full UI overhaul for a smoother, more polished experience, along with a brand-new Christmas calendar to keep players coming back throughout the holiday season.
But the biggest addition was player housing: every elf now had their own home to decorate. By collecting candy canes — earned through the original toy-crafting and wrapping system — players could purchase furniture and festive decorations to make their houses feel uniquely theirs.
This update blended creativity, holiday spirit, and cozy customization, and it earned me a Bronze Award through Crayta’s monthly contest program.
Player's Journey Award "Unfinished Business" Crayta Mega Game Jam
Lost Region
Lost Region was made in just two weeks with my partner Rosey — he designed the levels while I handled all game mechanics, UI, and quest systems. Players started on their own land, each with a house and unlockable crafting stations like a workbench, advanced workbench, furnace, loom, campfire, and decorative items.
Players had to craft weapons, cook and farm food to survive, brew potions to heal, and gather resources to progress. Unlocking portals to other lands gave access to higher-tier resources, which were required to open even further portals. Each land had its own challenges: some were corrupted, some had tough enemies, and some had harsh environments such as freezing temperatures that forced players to craft special armor and prepare carefully before entering.
Every land also featured a boss, whose trophy players could bring back to their house to display, giving a sense of achievement and progression. The game combined survival, crafting, adventure, and tycoon-style progression, letting players feel ownership over their land while exploring increasingly dangerous territories.
The game’s in-depth tutorial guided players through all mechanics, helping them learn crafting, combat, farming, and portal progression. This thoughtful introduction and immersive gameplay earned Lost Region the Players’ Journey Award, making it one of our most ambitious and fully-featured Crayta games
Chronicles Reborn® 2025