Fer.al
Platform: PC and Mobile Engine: Unity
Role: Game Designer
Accomplishments:
Designed 7 unique minigames for players to engage with while playing.
35% of total player time was spent in these minigames.
Discovered an issue with treasure spawning that caused the servers to crawl, and created a solution that not only rectified the issue, but also improved performance, stability, and overall player experience.
Created end-game quests structures using existing content to reduce production cost.
Hand-crafted 150 puzzle levels with progressive difficulties and features.
Converted a one-time quest into a daily activity that improved habitual engagement with our players by 10%.
Responsibilities
Game Designer
Owned the design and creation of seven different minigames collaborating in a pod with an engineer and artist.
Planned modular Seasonal Activity and Reward structures, with recurring elements that reinforced new and existing gameplay
Repurposed one-off designs into replayable systems that offered value to returning players
Owned the design and creation pipeline for seasonal story content and quests
Used a modular design structure to incorporate reusable content, characters, and reward systems
Created 4 seasonal activities that could easily be reskinned or adjusted for future seasonal or quest events
Included a social “shout out” system to promote friendly competition between players while giving them public praise for completing higher-level tasks
Designed over 20 cosmetic themes for character outfit sets and decorations, providing artists with examples and documentation for inspiration
Quest Designer
Planned the design, story elements and rewards for the endgame questlines ranging from dexterity-based skill checks to general item discovery and collection
Collaborated with multiple disciplines to provide a rapid pipeline for quest testing and iteration
Postmortem
During my time on the Fer.al project I was able to wear many different hats and collaborate with every discipline in one way or another. This led to many useful conversations regarding designs and allowed for smooth transitions from ideation to production.
Unfortunately, during early release the design platform shifted from PC only to PC and Mobile. This caused some issues with early, existing designs that made them more difficult to port to the mobile platform. This taught me a few valuable lessons regarding scope and screen real estate, and how planning for these shifts early on can save time and sanity.