About

Harrison Alonso as a child eating ice cream

Hi, I’m Harrison Alonso, a Computer Science student at the University of Oregon focused on systems / game design and gameplay implementation.

I like working close to the mechanic itself: designing a system, getting it into the engine, playing it, and changing it until the interesting part is obvious. Narrative is another layer of that work for me, especially when player decisions can alter characters, consequences, or how a system is understood.

Most of my experience comes from game jams and small teams, where I often move between programming, design, production, and leading the project toward a finished build. GameMaker / GML is where I move fastest, and I’m also building more gameplay systems in Unity / C#.

Outside of development, I write short fiction and spend a lot of time thinking about games, film, television, music, and storytelling. I was born in London, grew up in California, and now go to school in Oregon.

HOW I WORK

Design it. Build it. Play it.

I tend to sit between design and implementation. Being able to change a mechanic and feel the result immediately is the part of development I enjoy most.

Systems → implementation

I usually start by asking what decision I want the player to make, what pressure makes that decision interesting, and what information they need to read it. Then I build the system, play it, and keep adjusting until those ideas show up in the actual game instead of only in the design document.

Narrative is another design tool.

I like branching dialogue and character writing most when they change the stakes of a mechanical choice rather than sitting beside the game as a separate layer.

Small teams mean wearing a few hats.

I often set the direction, divide work, keep task lists, implement the core systems, and make the calls that get a jam build across the finish line.

CURRENT SETUP

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GameMaker

GML

PRIMARY ENGINE

Unity

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS

Git / GitHub

Version Control

COLLABORATION

Python

Scripting

TOOLS + AUTOMATION

{ }

JSON

Data + Content

GAME DATA

Games I Play

I play a lot of games. Probably too many. I’m trying to actually finish more of them instead of endlessly adding things to my backlog.

View my Steam profile ↗

SOME FAVORITES

Deltarune

Stardew Valley

Outer Wilds

BOTW/TOTK

Oxenfree

Hollow Knight/Silksong

Chants of Sennaar

Before Your Eyes

Inscryption

Splatoon

OMORI

Spiritfarer

Night in the Woods

A Short Hike

Cuphead

Inspirations

Three games and creators that have stuck with me for very different reasons.

Toby Fox

MUSIC + META NARRATIVE + EMOTIONAL PAYOFF

Toby Fox has been a personal hero of mine for as long as I can remember. Undertale was the first game that really got me into games. I became obsessed with the music, the story, and the way the gameplay itself could be part of the joke or the emotion. It is also the reason I started playing piano.

His story is just as inspiring to me. Watching Undertale grow into Deltarune while still feeling so distinctly his makes me want to keep making things for a long time. I recently got to see the Undertale orchestra live, which was surreal after years of playing the music myself.

I am especially fascinated by the way he uses leitmotifs. A melody can carry character and story information before you even realize it, then return later with a completely different emotional weight. I am also a huge sucker for meta narratives, and few games play with the relationship between the player and the game as well as his do.

Chants of Sennaar

LANGUAGE + PURPOSE + CONNECTION

Chants of Sennaar is one of my favorite recent finds. The worldbuilding through language is incredible, and the score and stark visuals make the whole world feel even more distinct.

On one level it is an amazing puzzle game that constantly has me thinking. At the same time, the act of deciphering words is the narrative. Each culture has its own language, values, and way of looking at the world. Very little carries over exactly between them. Simple concepts like you, me, or death return in different forms, but one idea that keeps appearing is purpose. For one culture that purpose might be science, for another religion, and for another art.

SPOILER WARNING

The ending is what made all of that really land for me. The symbols for each culture’s idea of purpose turn out to be the same shape rotated in different directions. After spending the game struggling through all of their differences, you realize that the connection between them was there the entire time. It is a beautiful idea, and I love that the emotional payoff comes directly from the same mechanic you have been using for the whole game.

A Short Hike

SCALE + GAME FEEL + INTENTIONALITY

I love A Short Hike, and it has inspired me a lot. It starts with such a simple idea and feels like it explores that idea completely without ever stretching it too far. The music and graphics are full of personality, the game feel is incredible, and the map is exactly the right size. There is always something to find, but never so much that exploring starts to feel like a checklist.

It is also the game that got me into achievement hunting. The first time I played it, I finished it, enjoyed it, and moved on. When I came back later to complete everything, I fell in love with it. I started noticing the dynamic music, the shaders changing across different parts of the island, and tiny side activities that get their own animation and song even if they only last ten seconds.

There is so much care in details that could easily have been skipped. That intentionality is probably what I love most about it. Almost everything feels like somebody thought about why it should be there.

Writing

OVIEDO, SPAIN / SUMMER 2026

In summer 2026 I studied fiction writing through a University of Oregon program in Oviedo, Spain. I wrote and workshopped a 25 page story alongside four shorter pieces, with a lot of time spent on character, dialogue, pacing, structure, revision, and learning how to give and take serious feedback.

I would love to eventually submit some of that work to a literary magazine. I can also already imagine at least one of the stories becoming a game someday. Writing fiction has made me much more aware of what a scene actually needs, what a character is communicating without saying directly, and when a story should trust the audience to connect things themselves.

The program was also just an incredible experience. I got to travel around Spain while I was writing, spend real time getting to know Oviedo, and see much more of the country. I was also lucky enough to be in Spain when they won the World Cup, which made an already memorable summer feel completely unreal.

Outside of Games

I love to play the piano and the guitar. I also enjoy writing, watching movies, reading, traveling, and following soccer.

At school I love going to see student bands and live music, and I’m part of an album listening club that constantly gets me hearing things I would not have picked on my own. I also love being at school in Oregon because of how much nature is around me. Having forests, trails, rivers, and so much open space nearby is one of my favorite parts of living there.

Piano + Guitar Fiction Writing Reading Soccer Film Travel

CONTACT

Want to talk?

harrisonalonso9@gmail.com ↗ itch.io ↗ Discord @itsmostlymagic ↗ LinkedIn ↗