Experienced Technical Designer – PUBG x Payday Collaboration
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Language: C++ and Blueprints
Duration: Apr – Oct 2025
My Role: Technical Designer
I joined mid-production and took over ownership of a large part of the project, the player mechanics.
The full team was about 40 people, and I was one of two primary game designers. Taking over from a previous designer at this stage of the project presented itself with a unique challenge of which I faced headfirst. Initially, I focused on understanding the intent so that I could improve and refine in-progress designs. Then I came up with new functionality that fit well with the rest of the game. A lot of people were dependent on my work to be able to do theirs, so I had to work fast and efficiently.
Owner of Player Mechanics
I have driven the work forward by identifying gaps and defining needs to improve the player experience. I have contributed to improved project processes by being proactive in creating clarity and structure of the design. I’ve facilitated discussions and made decisions where needed, continuously documenting and communicating it with the team. I have improved production speed across all departments by removing unknowns, clearly defining the work and setting priorities.
Individual Contributions
My goal was to craft gameplay with fun, impactful mechanics that synergize well with each other while still being distinct enough to cater to multiple different playstyles. I’ve iterated on- and balanced all of the mechanics mentioned below multiple times, and player feedback has been increasingly positive.
My individual contributions includes but are not limited to:
- Creating and refining designs of abilities and skills
- Tweaking and balancing in-game items
- Balancing ranged weapons damage and improved handling
- Establishing a clear player progression
- Adjusting player interactions for better game feel and improved player communication
- Mapping out and implementing control schemes
- Writing and maintaining documentation for designs and developer features, used both internally and externally.
Collaborative work
As this has been a design-heavy role I’ve mainly focused on the paper design and high level content implementations (with some exceptions), while working closely with and directing the programmers. I wanted to make sure that the systems they build support the gameplay needs, now and all the way to the end of production. It not only improved efficiency and long term scalability in the code department, but also made the entire production pipeline more efficient. I have successfully used these systems to implement, experiment and iterate to unlock the fun.
I worked together with Narrative to ensure everything player-facing is an accurate description and puts the focus in the right place, as not all information is relevant. Together with the design- and UX team, we came up with additional ways of communicating functionality and game states to the players effectively and I collaborated with UI, 3D Artists, VFX and Sound to realize it.
I was working directly with QA and production to continuously gather feedback from playtests, both within the direct team, the company and externally. To be able to make impactful positive changes it is important to properly understand the feedback by analyzing it in a context and not just take it at face value. Leveraging my expertise, I came up with and implemented the required action to improve the player experience. This resulted in significant increases in player ratings gathered during larger scale playtests.
Documentation & Communication
I’ve written and maintained documentation for features I’ve worked on, making it the single source of truth for all departments. I have consistently shared my work and design intents with the entire team, providing them with a common language. This communication has empowered the team to work together efficiently towards the same vision, and helped them take better and more informed decisions, increasing the overall level of fidelity.