Christina “Chride” Lassheikki, b. 1992, is a Helsinki-based game designer, illustrator and narrative designer with an MA in art education. In 2022, they graduated with an MA in New Media – Game Design and Production from Aalto University.
With minors in film animationat ELO film school and general history at Åbo Akademi, Christina has a special interest for breathing life into projects through world building and visual storytelling. They are an avid game jam enthusiast and organiser, and game education spokesperson.
With a comprehensive understanding of both contemporary visual culture and art history, Lassheikki loves mixing traditional methods and inspirations like watercolour and acrylic painting, with the ease of digital techniques, be it for game graphics, illustration, games or animation.
In narratives they particularly enjoy stories that tackle the absurd, but with a gentle touch. Watching characters struggle with accepting the inevitable heat death of life as we know it, make futile attempts to control their life and perhaps find solace in others seem to be a recurring theme in her stories. Their working languages are English, Finnish and Swedish.
Lassheikki is a surname from Finnish Lapland. It can be pronounced lass-hay-key; “lass” (as in girl) “hay” (as in dry grass) “key” (as in item to unlock things). Chride goes by she/her or they/them pronouns.
Core skills:
- Narrative design and writing for games; including narrative scripting, dialog writing, world building, and quest design
- Digital painting for concept art, portraiture and environment art
- Compelling and charming character design and animation in 2D and 3D
- Game and app prototyping, and visual and IP development
- Vast experience teaching, all ages, through workshops, courses and lectures
Software experience:
- Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for graphic design and digital art
- Unity, Construct 3, Twine, Ink Engine, Ren’Py for game prototyping and asset management
- blender 2.8 and Maya 2018 for 3D modelling, rendering and animation
- Premiere Pro, After Effects and Final Cut Pro X for video editing
- Spriter, OpenToonz, DragonFrame and PiskelApp for animation
- Basic scripting and programming for games in C#, Java, html/css and Python
Working languages:
- English
- Swedish
- Finnish
Miscellaneous facts:
- Makes very good vegan cinnamon buns, and never too tired to make bad puns
- Affinity for all things dragons
- Learning to juggle and play the violin (not very successfully)
Click here to [download my resume (PDF)]
Connect with me on LinkedIn: [LinkedIn]
Check out and play my latest game projects on itch.io: [classheikki.itch.io]
Mochabot Organic
Mochabot Organic In Mochabot Organic you take the role of a robotic barista and tend to the curious customers of your isometric establishment. Tend to your plants, harvest coffee beans, carefully prepare drinks, receive great reviews, and listen to the occasional gossip. Mochabot Organic was created in 33 hours and received first prize at the… Continue reading Mochabot Organic
Aalto Drawing
A scalable introductory drawing and visual communication course for all Aalto students, implemented as a digital game that automatically assesses the drawings of students and provides clear quantitative and visual feedback. Aalto Drawing is a gameful platform for learning to draw, developed in the Gamifying Learning in Visual Communication research project for Aalto Online Learning.… Continue reading Aalto Drawing
Inktober 2017
It’s Dragontober! For inktober 2017, I decided to create a dragon character design for every day of October, inspired by the official prompt list. Here are some of my personal favourites. Hubertus the Sword-Hoarder. Frankie the Filthy. Lars the Long and Sally the Short. Petty and Puny the Poisonous. All 31 illustrations are also available… Continue reading Inktober 2017
Witch Apprentice
Apprentice Witch Low-Poly Hand-painted Character modelling challenge A model created inside blender in order to test creating an animation-ready character for games – mesh, rig, weight painting and texture atlas – from scratch in one weekend. I also use this character as an example for teaching character modelling in blender. Created and rendered in blender… Continue reading Witch Apprentice
Portrait Studies 2017 – 2020
Digital portrait studies, 2017 – 2020, based on photos. Made using Photoshop, GIMP and Procreate.… Continue reading Portrait Studies 2017 – 2020
Game Jams for Learning
My interest for making games was ignited in 2015 when my boyfriend asked me to come along to the Global Game Jam. It turned out to be incredibly fun, and oddly relaxing, to create a game from scratch in 48 hours. Since, I have been going to 1-3 game jams every year, and am… Continue reading Game Jams for Learning
Landscape Studies
Landscape studies made in January 2020, to study colour, light and proportions. Based on photographs made available on Pexels.com. Higher resolution images available at ArtStation: [link].
Sails of Change
Sails of Change Learn to sail the sea, trade with the quirky Islanders and explore the archipelago in this cozy small open-world game about sailing, trading and community set in the Archipelago! Team: Tuure Saloheimo, Oskari Liukku, Nadiia Honcharuk, Christina Lassheikki, Jaakko Kulomaa, Kevan Murtagh, Izzan Bacharrudin Soedarsono, Jenni Halkola, Martin Varama, Antti Nieminen.… Continue reading Sails of Change
Campaign Portraits
I have a special affinity for board gaming and tabletop roleplaying games. Sometimes turns are a little slow during remote TTRPG sessions (or, well, any sessions) and one of my favourite things to draw is characters – and so, unsurprisingly, you’ll usually find me sketching player characters during campaigns. … Continue reading Campaign Portraits
Squirrel Squire and Possum Bard
The two first members of the Fierce Rodent Mercenary Corps, made during IGDA SIG Game Art sketch nights.
Christina Lassheikki 