Terragaul

Primary Duties

Gameplay & Technical Design on Terragaul, an action co-op mobile game with a roguelike structure.
Became subject matter expert on the Gameplay Ability System.
Owned 12 player characters and over 75 player abilities.
Created internal training videos used across the design team for a variety of systems.
Owned design requests to engineering, created specs, and worked with engineers to implement initial content for new features.
Created and managed internal daily change notes across all player characters for QA and internal playtests.
Assisted in running daily playtest feedback sessions and performed triage of discovered issues across Design and Engineering teams.
Created Python-based editor extensions & tools for designers.

I owned design on many player characters while at Kabam. This included full ability kit design, as well as roguelike in-run randomized upgrades for each. It also included projectile behavior, firing patterns, and gameplay attributes.
In a roster-driven game, it was important to establish clear identity within each hero - as well as clear strengths and weaknesses. This was more important as we factored in in-run upgrades, which gave several options for developing a hero during a play session.
Additionally, as we were a “co-op first” game, there needed to be enough synergy between the heroes to ensure each pairing played differently, covering each others’ weaknesses and reinforcing each others’ strengths to different degrees.
After identity and kit had been established, it was important that all tuning and control variables were converted to backend data, allowing live balancing and emergency fixes without the need to issue a title update.
Hero identity, ability behavior, and presentation were reinforced by daily playtests - this fueled fast iteration, and was critical in establishing cohesion in a kit.

As the primary interface between Design and Engineering, I was frequently the first to create content as new systems came online.
To aid the Design department in using these systems, I would work with the owning Engineer to create design documentation on internal wikis.
I would frequently host design meetings to cover usage of new features, followed by a packaged tutorial video showing working examples.
I ran a Blueprint review system to ensure designer-created BPs met standards of player feedback, functionality, and data integration for tuning in live service.
To facilitate QA efforts, I maintained a page on the internal wiki which hosted daily change logs across all heroes, ensuring their tests were synced to current design intent.
I lead a “Blueprint Boot Camp” training course for new hires and other interested team members. This covered Blueprint & visual scripting basics, organization, best practices, debugging methods, and in-depth analysis of currently implemented content.
I worked with backend engineers to format data and build up our data editing suite for use in a live-service game. Additionally, I trained designers on the usage of these data systems.
I built data visualization tools using Python and UMG to give designers an in-engine way to quickly review complex, interconnected data structures.
Created templates for use at all stages of design, from paper design to final implementation.

As part of my work at Kabam I designed, implemented, and balanced over 75 abilities for player characters in an online co-operative game.
This breadth of exposure allowed me an opportunity to greatly increase my skills with the Gameplay Ability System.
I worked closely with engineering to request and work through new features for Abilities. This included Ability Tasks, integration with our backend data systems, and “skillshot” style activation.
Helped run daily playtests with prototype content to drive iteration and gather frequent feedback. This was immensely helpful in finding the fun and establishing identity for heroes early in the process.
Ability prototyping included exposure to modifying existing Niagara systems and the creation of placeholder HUD elements to provide feedback to players.
I performed biweekly tests of all Ability BPs to ensure they functioned as described, had appropriate hookups to backend data, and were resilient to future tuning changes.

Killing Floor III