Stella Barbagiannis

Games

Art

About Me

I'm Stella Barbagiannis, a Brooklyn-based game developer and artist. I am passionate about shaping immersive experiences that shock, repel, and enlighten, as my work often employs themes of metamorphosis, girlhood, and otherness. I delight in all aspects of the game development process, but I am inclined towards narrative design, level design, UI/UX design, and production roles. Currently, I am in my final semester at Pratt Institute pursuing a BFA in Game Arts.You can contact me at [email protected] or any of my social links below.

Was it all just a dream?

Play as a narcoleptic whose nightmares are plagued by mistakes of his past. While you're awake, search through your computer to piece together what happened and discover information that will help you in your nightmares. While you're asleep, complete puzzles as you traverse through the levels of your consciousness.THIS IS A DEMO! Not all of the mechanics/puzzles are implemented. This was created as a proof of concept for our Senior Project Development course.Created in collaboration with Tyler Zhang, Wilby Pham, and Cecelia Powell.

I worked as UI lead on this project and was responsible for designing the desktop UI. I wanted to create a sense of familiarity so the player could immediately recognize they were awake and on your computer. The 2D, first person view was chosen for continuity so the player knows they are still the main character, as well as differentiate between your dream and awake states. I also added a vignette/screen effect to further solidify that you're looking at a screen while also enabling a sense of unease, since modern computers are generally flat and don't look like this.

The UI includes the Notepad app that gets updated each time the player wakes up or solves a puzzle within the dream state. The player can also go through WhatsApp messages to learn about the MC's relationships with his mom, ex girlfriend, and friends. His open tabs on his browser also give context to his struggle with narcolepsy and frequent, lucid nightmares.I am currently working on making more of the UI interactable and functional, including the addition of a desktop and file folders for the player to explore and search through. Discovering information about the MC's past and personality is vital to uncovering the source of his nightmares.

"There's something in here with me...
I can't see it but I know it's here."

This found footage, analog horror-inspired survival game will have you on the edge of your seat. Did you really see something? Or was it just a trick of the eye? Collect cassette tapes to discover what happened to those who came before you. Can you escape? Or will you share the same fate...?

untitled.mov was created as a final for my Coding II course in collaboration with my classmate, Lilli Harris. Our objective was to create a liminal space that the player would explore from the point of view of a VHS camera. I modeled the assets for the game (excluding the skeleton and bike) and programmed the AI enemies, UI elements, animations, game loop, and more. I also wrote the script, directed the voice acting, programmed the sound design, and filmed and edited the game trailer.The enemies in untitled.mov are invisible, reverse weeping angel-style boogeymen. Although unkillable, the player can defend themself by hitting space/LT to cover their eyes, as the enemies will not hurt them if the player isn't looking at them. Additionally, I programed the lights in the hallway to flicker if the enemy is near, so the player can anticipate the arrival of a boogeyman.

This game was programmed in Unity, and assets were modeled in Maya; the trailer was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro.

Run a cozy potion shop!

Gaia's Brewery follows Emaline, a young nurse who moves from the big city to the countryside when she inherits her deceased aunt's potion shop. In this 3D, isometric crafting game, learn how to brew potions and help the people of Misty Hollow with their ailments.

This project was created as a joint final for my Coding III and Game Studio II: Narrative Design courses at Pratt Institute alongside Lilli Harris and Bee Wertheimer. As lead programmer on the project, I was in charge of programming the day/night cycle, as well as the brewing, dialog, and inventory systems. This game was developed in Unity using Plastic SCM, Jira, Ink, Maya, Adobe Substance Painter, and Procreate.

With this project, my peers and I were inspired by "cozy" games, such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley; we used Caro Asercion's i'm sorry did you say street magic to assist in our world building and character creation processes.

Concept art by Lilli

Beware Black Annis...

Black Annis haunts the countryside of Leicestershire, living in a cave she dug out of the side of a cliff with her iron claws with a great oak tree marking its entrance; from its branches, she tans the skins of children and lambs she's hunted and eaten to patch together her cloak. This dreadful place is known as Black Annis' Bower Close.

In this 2D platformer, play as a lamb on the search for their girl, who was snatched in the night by Black Annis. Through two intense levels of gameplay, successfully navigate through dark woods and a deadly cave while evading enemy bats and the iron claws of Annis in order to safely return home!

This game was created in Unity as a final for my Coding I course at Pratt Institute. As this was a solo project, I was in charge of all aspects of the game design process, including programming, sound design, narrative design, and asset design. All of the 2D art in the game is my own, illustrated in Procreate.

Another day, another dollar.

You're late! In this infinite jumper inspired by Franz Kafka's novella, The Metamorphosis, play as cockroach Gregor Samsa trying to get to work after being mysteriously turned into a bug. Dash into your manager to destroy them, and dash again after to get an upward boost; collect money along the way to bypass the paywalls and beat your high score!This project is the third iteration of Metamorphosis-inspired games I've created.

ITERATION 1: BITSY

The first was a simple experimentation with Bitsy created as a 1-week project for my Games, Glitches, and Creativity course. I got a positive reaction from my professor and it inspired me to continue my exploration of classic literature and video games.

ITERATION 2: PYGAME

The second iteration of this project was Samsa Spring, the final for my Creative Coding course, where I learned how to use Python and Python libraries. I decided to create a simple infinite jumper, a metaphor for the demanding, never-ending climb of capitalism that dehumanized Gregor to the point of turning into a cockroach. This exercise was beneficial in helping me grasp Pygame and using Python in game development; before this, I had only ever programmed games in C#. However, I felt constrained by Pygame and knew I wanted to revisit this idea later.

ITERATION 3: GET TO WORK!

A semester later, Get to Work! was created as a 4-week solo project for my Senior Thesis Development course. The assignment was to make anything we were interested in exploring for our potential thesis. I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to iterate on my Metamorphosis infinite jumper.I was also inspired by the song Cockroach Mentality by Gun; I wanted to experiment with BandLab and sound design to create an 8-bit, arcade version of the song to go with my game.

In this version, I added enemies, which is Gregor's manager demanding that he gets to work and scolding him for slacking. If you hit your manager, you die and the game is over. However, if you dash into them instead, then your manager dies, and you can hit the dash again to get an upward boost. Another mechanic I implemented in this version is collecting money and a paywall. This started as a joke with my professor but I ended up adding it; it received positive feedback from my peers, as it added a new incentive and made the gameplay more rouge-like.

One goal of this project was to develop it for mobile, which I unfortunately didn't get to during the span of the 4-week project. However, I plan to iterate on this project further and eventually make it available for mobile download.

A chance encounter can change your life...

In this brief interactive fiction set in Wyoming circa 1890, play as Gabe Wesson, a solitary ranch hand who dreams of escaping his mundane, little life on Hobbes Ranch. One day, everything changes when a bloodied stranger tries to kill him.This project was created for my Narrative Design course and was my first time using Twine.

Cover artwork by Glenn Dean.

Are you a survivor, or a zombie?

In this exciting 1 vs. 1 top-down 2D game, play as a lone survivor in a zombie apocalypse, fighting the undead with your trusty crossbow in search of the Safe Haus, or a hungry zombie hunting for their next meal with an army of the undead behind them.

This project was completed as a midterm for Coding I at Pratt Institute. This was the first game I ever programmed on my own in Unity. I also created all the assets in either Procreate or with colored pencil on paper.

Growing up is scary...

Level 1 interiors vs. Initial level design

In this 3D horror puzzle platformer, play as a ragdoll helping her human companion, Phoebe, through the tribulations of girlhood. THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS! Doll Parts is my senior capstone project and is currently in development. Created by myself, Lilli Harris, and Vivian Sun.The initial idea for this project came to me as I was looking at my sock monkey my friend had made for me. I imagined him in a 3D platformer where you play as a doll with limbs you can swap out with found objects to traverse a landscape and solve puzzles. I pitched this to my friend Lilli and we toyed with this concept, reminiscing on the feelings of anxiety and loneliness brought about by puberty. Eventually we scrapped the initial mechanic of detachable limbs for a more narrative-driven story that evolved into a tribute to our childhoods.The first level exemplifies the horrors around getting your first period, how it feels all-consuming and like the end of the world. The second level highlights how puberty changes your body, how you feel uncomfortable and disgusting in your own skin. The house manifests Phoebes anxieties through rising blood and pimples growing from furniture.As the narrative lead on Doll Parts, I am responsible for constructing the narrative and writing the diary entries that contextualize the levels. I am also the producer on this project, which includes distributing tasks between my group members and making sure they get completed according to schedule; I established a game development timeline with weekly goals to accomplish leading up to our showcase at GDC. I am also working on level, audio, and UI design.

Concept art, character models, and cutscene art.

Early development screenshots.

GDC 2025 playtesters & giving a talk at the New York State booth about our development process.

Photos from Hexhouse playtesting event.