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Patrick Byers
Selected work

2025 · Student / indie team · Shipped · team project

Elixir Blitz: Saya’s Trials

A shop-driven potion-crafting game around a fairy potion-master. I built a floating island forage level so a flying mount could move in the open, then lit the world and dressed the backdrops so it felt larger than the playspace.

Role
Level designer & prop designer
Platforms
PC
Focus
Level · Props · Environment · Gameplay
Elixir Blitz: Saya’s Trials key art

The problem

The forage loop is supposed to feel like leaving the shop for a living world. The island needed to be flyable, the hut needed to work as a landmark from above, and the sky needed to feel bigger than the playspace.

The loop

  1. Order
  2. Fly
  3. Forage
  4. Brew

What I owned

  • Floating island level laid out for open mount traversal
  • Lighting experiments so night, water, and canopy share a read
  • Backdrop mountains and sky to push the world past the playspace
  • Fishing hut and dock as an aerial landmark
  • Prop, dressing, and light gameplay support around the shop-driven loop

Stills

The shop — three portals, a cauldron, and the loop that sends you out.
The shop — three portals, a cauldron, and the loop that sends you out.
Fishing hut at night — a landmark you can find again from the air.
Fishing hut at night — a landmark you can find again from the air.
Flying the forage world — the island was laid out for a mount.
Flying the forage world — the island was laid out for a mount.
Underside of the island — roots, moss shelves, and a fall you can still use.
Underside of the island — roots, moss shelves, and a fall you can still use.

Process

  1. 01

    Fly the greybox

    The island was blocked for a mount first — leave the shop, sweep the water, come back — so the camera and the layout had room to breathe.

  2. 02

    Landmark the hut

    A timber hut on the water is something you can steer toward. Warm interior light against a colder sky, so it still reads at a distance.

  3. 03

    Light the edges

    Night skies, mountain backdrops, waterfall, canopy. Lighting passes and sky dressing so the island sits in a place instead of a viewport.

Outcome

A forage world you can actually fly: an island with a tree and a fall, a hut you can spot from the air, and a sky that sits behind it.