Systems • Gameplay • Technical Design • UI/UX

At Wildflower Interactive on an unannounced title as a generalist senior designer, but primarily focusing on game and world systems and UI/UX features. I worked to design, prototype, iterate, and expand on features for a narrative-focused title. I collaborated closely with creative leadership and other disciplines to create holistic features and emergent systems to delight players, as well as building in usability and scalability to feature implementation and prototypes. As it was a small team and my skillset is diverse, I wore various different designer “hats” from day to day, variably switching between design work, technical design support for features, and UI/UX depending on the needs of the project and the team.

systems, gameplay, and experience design

I led design and implementation of a variety of world systems, gameplay mechanics, and player verbs, including UI/UX flows. I focused on creating engaging systems that tied together the gameplay loop and core game pillars, but also reinforced the game’s narrative and story. I designed and implemented various features including player crafting, level transition mechanics, collection, traversal, and gameplay feel, as well as designing flows and implementing various UI/UX screens and features, and prototyping level layouts and puzzle content.

I worked to design and implement gameplay features to support and expand the game’s narrative and worldbuilding in a way that was small-team friendly, and to create a sense of wonder and mystery for players. I worked with creative leadership to ensure that features upheld design pillars and to attempt to tie disparate systems and ideas together in a more cohesive whole. A lot of my design work was focused around tying together the disparate ideas, gameplay verbs, and systems in an attempt to create a cohesive game loop that felt right for the setting and narrative of the game. To that end, I touched many different areas of the game’s design, from traversal mechanics, gameplay loops, crafting, exploration, and unique in-game features to surprise and delight players.

In addition to my other design work, I was responsible for the majority of UI/UX features throughout the game, from bootflow and menu screens to input mapping and HUD. I worked to design and implement UI/UX content throughout the game, listening to feedback and refining interactions to create an intuitive experience for players.

technical design and mentorship

I worked not only on the design and initial concepting of features, but additionally worked to prototype not only my features but those of other less-technical designers, in order to prove out features and gameplay, as well as working directly with engineering to craft scalable and shippable features. I worked in Unreal Engine 5 Blueprints and data structures, interfacing with engine and project code to take features end-to-end from design to playable prototype and polish.

In addition to feature implementation and technical design support, I also mentored the rest of the design team on Unreal Blueprint scripting and engine use, to give them greater self-sufficiency in creating playable prototypes of their designs, or help build features quickly. I ran a series of “blueprint bootcamps” for the design team, as well as mentored designers 1 on 1 to review and pair-implement features such that they could expand their scripting knowledge and experience.

Along with technical mentorship, I also worked to institute metrics for designers so our content would be crafted to give a consistent player experience as well as maintain flexibility and scalability of our blueprints and content. For both small and large teams alike, creating content and systems that are scalable and reusable is a major component of a successful project. Whether a simple prototype or a full game system, I endeavored to create content and tools (and mentor other developers to do the same) that would be flexible for future needs as well as support iteration and repeated implementation across the game. I worked with engineers to ensure our systems and content was created to support full production and would be flexible and scalable throughout the life of the project.

Audio & narrative systems

In addition to gameplay, I also worked closely with the Audio Director on the project to build out the audio toolbox and implement new player-focused features involving music and sound effects. I also helped create and implement developer tools used for audio and animation to easily build narrative and other in-game content in a quick and easily scalable way throughout the game. I worked with engineering team to architect and implement features for narrative content delivery, and built narrative-focused features into gameplay and world systems to create a holistic experience throughout the game.