First short trip out of Auckland: Muriwai. 🤩

Designing for competitive games is difficult: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆. TeamFight Tactics 🐧 has very competitive players but a big part of the player base plays more casually.
Here's how we tackled this for the Soul Brawl game mode (summer 2023) 🧵
#gamedesign #gamedev

Four games I've worked on

In 2019, I was given the opportunity to flesh out the Assassin's Creed universe with a fictional language. Our ambition was bigger than just interesting lore. We wanted to delight fans with a mystery. 🔍

Here's our approach and how it worked for us 🧵

#gamedesign #gamedev #conlang #assassinscreed

Watching Skull and Bones 🏴‍☠️ gameplay from E3 2017 last week sent me down memory lane. I rewatched E3 2018 too. It's an open world PvPvE pirate game just like what released in 2024, yet they are so different! There are MANY factors, but one stands out to me as a designer. 🤔

➡️🧵

#gamedev #gamedesign

In 2014 when I joined Skull and Bones 🏴‍☠️, one of the key goals was to add depth to Assassin's Creed Black Flag's naval combat to make it the core of the game, and suitable for PvP.

The most common playstyle was boring. 😒

A thread about shaping player behaviour. 🧵

#gamedesign #gamedev

In 2012, Watch Dogs made an impact at E3. With expectations raising, Ubisoft Montréal needed additional support.

Ubisoft Paris joined on several topics, including making activities for the open world.

A cautionary tale about making the right choice for the wrong reasons. 🧵

#gamedesign #gamedev

Let me tell you about a dirty little development secret. 😈

On Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, we designed ourselves into a corner: the game structure required a fixed number of mini-games. Production was getting late, we had to find fun and fast to produce ideas.

A fun story about player perception 🧵

A key responsibility as a game design leader is to crystallize a 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 and ensure the team knows and understands it. A clear target fosters efficient teamwork and allows team members to contribute their best. 👁️💪

Lessons from my career in 🧵

#gamedev #gamedesign

Mastery and self-expression are common motivations for players, best satisfied with 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗵 i.e. the size of the meaningful possibility space. In simpler words: how much room to express skills. 💪

Here are my tips to create depth without sacrificing accessibility 🧵

#gamedev #gamedesign

Happy new year! 🎉

As I reflect on how to keep my resolutions for 2025, I realize I've asked myself this question a lot – and in fact have found elements of answer – but in a very different context! As a game designer, I've studied how to keep people engaged.

Advice for long-term player engagement🧵

𝗘𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 can be a desirable design goal, as it lets players appropriate the game - deepening their connection to it.

By definition, you don't design these interactions. You design a possibility space players can find interactions in.

Advice to maximize that possibility space 🧵
1/8

Gamedevs, post your first shipped game and your latest shipped game.

It gets tricky for the latest since my role at Riot was transversal to the whole studio, and not dedicated to any single project.

This is the last release I contributed to hands-on.

A popular mantra for designing games is to "𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻". 🏃‍➡️👾

The general idea is that you should prototype an idea as early as possible and let play drive the design. But as many catchphrases, it’s highly open to interpretation.

A 🧵 to get the most out of this philosophy:

#gamedev #gamedesign

Hello game dev community!

I'm currently building my own studio and an exciting project. Unfortunately reality caught up to me and I'm running out of savings.

To keep this amazing new venture going, I'm opening up for consultancy as a side gig.

#gamedev #gamedesign #consulting #conlang #freelance

I made it!

10 years later, ready on the same starting line.
Let's see if I can still run 42.195km! 🦵