Presentation

Nodding Heads Games, India - NDA - TBA - Unreal Engine 5

I spent two years as a freelance senior game designer at Nodding Heads Game, an independent game studio based in India. I worked remotely with a team of 15 international members.

Being under NDA, I can't talk much about the project itself, but I can say that I was tasked with designing a game that didn't feel like a rip-off or a skinned version of an existing game, and to create some mechanics and systems that were as original as possible, or if not, not often seen in big triple-A games. It was a huge step up from their previous game and we had to try and find a number of new ways to meet those expectations in terms of management, workflow and communication.

What I did

• I defined a large part of the overall vision for the game, based on the rough intentions of the creative director.
• I had to think about systems, features and specifications that would still be "modern" at the time of release, and establish proper principles for the core gameplay.
• I had to prototype and/or motion design some complex features, write docs and sync with the story team to maintain a strong consistency between lore, narrative and gameplay.
• Gathered references and did a lot of research on cultural aspects of India, such as martial arts, dances, objects, etc.
• Blockout levels to test and adjust mechanics, and researched an efficient workflow to match the scale of the project.
• Figured out a new communication process and set up some tools, and tried to break some useless and old management practices.