The candidate I am working with is a well-established designer with a long history working on both AAA and indie titles with studios of varying sizes such as Ubisoft.
He is seeking an individual contributor role at an exciting studio with a particular focus on believing in the vision of the game he will be designing.
This candidate has significant experience working within contemporary industry workflows and is extremely proficient utilizing the modern toolset of a principal designer; Unreal Engine, Unity, Adobe CS, DaVinci Resolve.
He is a process-oriented individual with a focus on mechanics by emphasising prototyping and gameplay iteration, prior to implementing polish.
Work Experience
Principal Game Designer
UK-Based Game Studio Developing AAA Titles (2018 - Present)
In the AAA aRPG Playstation game he worked on last year he was responsible for:
- Designing all the core actions for navigation, stealth, combat, and interaction.
- Handling the camera work for framing, blending, and transitioning for all in-game behaviours and states to maintain a smooth user perspective.
- Defining all of the gameplay archetypes for the playable characters which included their roles, skillsets, abilities, and perks.
- Tuning all of the weapons, including the high profile Bow & Arrow, which was praised for it's authentic 'feel'.
- Designed the rock/paper/scissors framework for combat as well as defining all the PvP and PvE character values
- Helped to define the core game mode loop and iterated upon all of the main objectives, as well as pitching the well-received cooperative mechanics.
- Created and maintained the variety and distribution of rewards throughout progression which included Perks, Playable Characters, Trinkets, Cosmetics, Achievements, and Challenges.
- Deeply involved in all of the platform features which included identifying ways to leverage the PS5 DualSense controller for enhancing the feel of gameplay mechanics via the enhanced haptics
- Pitched the villain archetype which was to be a slow-moving, NPC who can instant kill any player akin to Mr X from Resident Evil.
- Wrote the majority of the game's flavour text (outside of the narrative backstory) which amounted to character archetypes, hint strings, interaction prompts, options settings, perk descriptions, cosmetics, and achievements.
- Laid the initial groundwork for player onboarding and tutorials which was later adapted and iterated upon throughout development
Prior to the AAA title, he also worked as a senior game designer at the same studio, where he was responsible for:
- Collaborating with mixed discipline peers on a variety of features from conception to launch.
- Benchmarking features against competitor products, player expectations and genre conventions.
- Pitching numerous ideas for features to internal and external stakeholders.
- Designing and implementing a wide range of gameplay and platform-specific features from the conception stage of development.
- Overhauling design workflows to enhance efficiency and consistency.
- Producing concise documentation using bespoke templates to maintain clarity, professionalism and highlight prevalent information.
- Tuning, tweaking, balancing and iterating upon features to ensure comfort and the highest possible level of polish.
- Blocking out gameplay scenarios for testing and tuning purposes.
- Blueprinting gameplay functionality, producing ingredient prefabs and writing debug tools.
- Writing scripts, flavour texts and gameplay prompts for use with the back and front end.
- Discussing design decisions, appraising feedback and reviewing content with directors and publishing partners.
- Collating feedback and analysing gameplay data to inform decision making before implementing changes.
- Mentoring other members of the design team; reviewing work, providing guidance and delivering constructive feedback where applicable.
- Producing content for company wide knowledge sharing on the intranet.
- Chairing design team meetings, gameplay stand ups and playtest feedback sessions as required.
- Reviewing applications and conducting interviews for prospective new hires.
- Assisting other internal projects on a consultancy basis; providing pre-production guidance, playtesting throughout milestones and outlining actionable feedback in areas associated with my expertise.
UK-Based University (2015-2018)
Senior Games Design Lecturer
Employed as a Senior Lecturer in Games Design. He was regarded as a subject matter expert in areas of game, level, and interface design having had professional experience with each. He was responsible for:
- Preparing and delivering taught materials for course modules.
- Introducing production methodologies to aid with time management.
- Reviewing development progress through build reviews.
- Overseeing student projects.
- Assessing the quality of student submissions.
- Providing feedback and feedforward relative to submission outcome.
- Validating grades at formal board meetings.
- Preparing moderation packs for External Examiners.
- Evaluating and iterating upon module deficiencies.
- Manning stands for applicant open days.
- Conducting interviews for potential students.
- Introducing new cohorts to the university throughout welcome week.
- Pastoral and confidential support to learners throughout their studies.
- Mentoring and guiding new staff to the university throughout probation period.
- Knowledge sharing with both internal and external colleagues.
- Liaison with other departments including admin, management and learning teams.
- Contributing towards two academic papers as a participant.
- Attending several gaming and technology conventions on behalf of the institution.
In addition to the above, he also created and lead a technical game development course which featured a unique, employability focussed pathway, blending the creativity of game design with the technical proficiency of programming and scripting.
His impact further expanded outside of the games discipline as he advocated for more contemporary educational approaches and to work smarter, not harder.
He distributed numerous templates which aided with consistency and efficiency for student assessment.
Data Editor
Global AAA Studio (2015-2018)
His primary work at this studio involved oversight of a massively popular sporting game.
Responsibilities included:
- Adjusting a variety of attributes for individual player-characters, mirroring real-life people, cross-referenced with statistical data and video evidence.
- Ensuring visual consistency with player models, including regular adjustments to hairstyles and licensed attire.
- Setting the team formations, team makeup and choice of clothing.
- Adjusting team tactics for consistent offline AI playstyle.
- Providing feedback on areas outside of his remit such as other teams, players or controversial attribute decisions.
- Submitting other miscellaneous data such as team info and kit reference images.
Game Designer
Global AAA Studio (2010-2015)
Primary project at this studio consisted of working on a massively-multiplayer online shooter that went on to sell several million copies and had a sequel made.
Responsibilities included:
- Regular trips abroad for feature collaboration and tools training.
- Brainstorming new designs for features both in and outside of his remit.
- Presenting ideas to relevant personnel both locally and remotely.
- Developing the 'smart loot' system, the core progression and reward structure which also adapted item drops to the player's needs.
- Designed the interface and presentation elements for indicating loot in the game world.
- Revamped the status effects system to indicate active buffs and debuffs.
- Contributed towards each of the interfaces for the character screen, inventory, vendor, and weapon mods.
- Collaborated with remote teams for the presentation of the world map and companion app.
- Miscellaneous contributions towards the 3Cs, skills and weapons on feature crossover.
- Provided feedback on all other aspects of the game following substantial playtesting.
