Witch It
Witch It is a multiplayer hide & seek game set in a vibrant, magical world. Hunters are tasked with seeking hidden witches that blend in with the environment – trust no furnishing, grocery, or utensil!
This page covers the 3D assets I have created since joining Barrel Roll Games.
Store Pages:
Sorcerer’s Spire (2025)
Sorcerer’s Spire is a mystical map set in a spectacular observatory – a once serene place now unleashed with magical chaos! Hunt and hide amongst the sorcerer’s tools and tomes, or take flight on one of the flying books circling the central orrery!
My main responsibilities were creating new props and the vistas surrounding the tower. The peculiarity of this map lies in the different themes of each floor, making it seem like all floors are detached and scattered across the world. The new props also feature many new active and passive behaviours.
Software: Unreal Engine, Blender, Substance Painter, Photoshop
Dream Valley Castle (2024)
Dream Valley Castle rests at the foot of a mountain and harbours a multitude of fairy tales. An explosion, caused by experiments in the central tower of the courtyard, led to the simultaneous prevalence of the four seasons which spread across the whole land.
I was responsible for creating (a record amount of) new props and assisted with many environment assets. I addition, I had the opportunity to create animated NPCs and a prop layout.
Software: Unreal Engine, Blender, Substance Painter, Photoshop
Grave Gulch (2022)
Welcome to Grave Gulch – a monstrous ravine cutting through a haunted valley, filled with critters, crevices and revolting cobwebs…
For this map I created new props, some environment assets and three prop layouts.
Software: Unreal Engine, Blender, Substance Painter, Photoshop
Flint Falls (2022)
Flint Falls is a primeval-themed map located in the clearing of a prehistoric jungle. A stunning waterfall towers over the map, connecting to a fast-flowing river that may pull you along if you’re not careful. Thick stone slabs on the surface mark the beginning of a civilisation, but also double up as great hiding spots for the witches – but for those who want some proper shelter, locate the cave system underground and see what you can find!
This is the first map I had the opportunity to work on. I was responsible for the blockout and the landscape meshes, created new props and environment assets, worked on three prop layouts and made an empty variant of the map to be used in Creative Mode.
Software: Unreal Engine, Blender, Substance Painter, Photoshop
Miscellaneous
Prop Workflow
The subsequent steps of creating a prop.
Unreal’s custom collision meshes require to be convex, have a maximum of 32 vertices per collision mesh and be named accordingly (UCX_ObjectName or UCX_ObjectName_00, UCX_ObjectName_01, etc.). Vertex colours are not always necessary, but they are usually used to mask light and thin parts of the mesh to be affected by the WPO to simulate wind.
Unwrapping and texturing take the texel density into account and snapping the vertices to the grid in the UV editor prevents cut-off pixels. A special shader is used to render pixels sharply in Substance Painter.
When importing everything into Unreal, first the compression setting of the mask texture must be set to “Masks”. Then, in the static mesh settings, the collision complexity must be set to simple collision and “Allow CPUAccess” enabled, so flight particles are spawned around the mesh and not only at the origin. For the material, often a material instance is enough that reads out the three textures. Is the prop behaviour or appearance more complex, then a new material is created. The material is added to the static mesh. Next, a blueprint is set up, usually by duplicating a similar prop, and the stats tweaked. Defining a prop ID makes it possible to render a prop icon and makes the new prop appear in the prop collection. Updating the prop volume through the same editor utility widget which renders the icon (©Christoph Rienäcker) sets the correct HP value for the prop in the collection. Lastly, the prop is placed (or hidden if it’s a secret prop) in one of the many maps.
Software: Unreal Engine, Blender, Substance Painter
Event Props (2022–2026)
Event props for the three recurring events. The Spring Fever 2022 props were my first props for the game.
Software: Unreal Engine, Blender, Substance Painter, Photoshop
Various Skin Items (2022–2025)
The skin items I implemented when I filled in for Lisa Sherin Kühn. The Luaq O’Lanterns were a last-minute-idea by Lisa – one day before the patch.
Software: Unreal Engine, Blender, Substance Painter
Material Variants (2024–2025)
Previously, some structures like rocks and trees had material overrides based on the map type. However, this didn’t allow for much creative freedom in Creative Mode, so Simon Furrer and I worked on making materials switchable. He worked on the logic and I created material variants for 100s of different structures.
Software: Unreal Engine, (Photoshop)
Prop Layouts (2022–2025)
In the first months at Barrel Roll Games, creating prop layouts made up the majority of the work. It can be both tedious and meditating, but I liked it precisely because you could tell stories with different prop arrangements. The image above doesn’t feature the most interesting locations, but shows that many compositions are possible per area. Having different prop layouts in a hide and seek game makes it more difficult for seekers to memorise patterns.
Software: Unreal Engine