Note: Bit Fry Game Studios left Apple Arcade in the fall of 2021, so the Ultimate Rivals games are not currently live on any platform. Here is a gameplay video of Ultimate Rivals: The Court. I do not own this video, I found it on YouTube.

Development of Ultimate Rivals: The Court began during my third year with Bit Fry Game Studios. For this game, I was promoted to Director of Game Design, where my job was to work closely with the CEO (vision holder) to collect requirements and translate them into actionable systems designs which could be implemented within our milestone deadlines.

Tight deadlines, licensor approval loops, and unexpected COVID-induced overhead required me to shape a format of "functional spec" design documentation to fit our studio’s needs. After weeks of trial and error reaching complete cross-discipline endorsement, I arrived at a functional spec format which would produce a list of assets required to complete a feature including Design, Localization, Engineering, UI/UX, Meshes, Rigging, Audio, 2D, VFX, and so on. Asset lists, once generated, would be reviewed with the corresponding disciplines for story point estimation and negotiation of Definitions of Done. Asset Lists satisfied preproduction needs and generated realistic estimations and, therefore, achievable goals.

I directed a team of eight including several Game Designers, a UI/UX Designer, a Data Scientist, and a Senior Designer. Under my direction, the designers would intake my CEO-translated systems designs to write functional specs. I would review drafts of functional specs and provide feedback to support their creative input while continuing to satisfy executive vision. Upon approval of a functional spec, the author would drive cross-team estimation meetings to create actionable Jira work items. I often shadowed or led these meetings to resolve interdisciplinary disagreements with the help of a producer.

During the development of both Ultimate Rivals: The Court and Ultimate Rivals: The Rink, I served business development as a voice of authority from the product development team. My contributions included crafting and performing publisher pitches, conversations with prospective and existing licensors, publisher and licensor feedback loops, and even press junkets and one-on-one interviews.

I coordinated a six-week pre-launch beta test through TestFlight. The goal of the beta was to collect meaningful player data, through both qualitative questionnaires and quantitative in-game analytics hooks, and draw actionable insights on First-Time User Experience, usability, gameplay imbalances, and friction/exit points. We shipped beta updates every Friday during the course of the six weeks, and the released version of the game contained many improvements based on the data we gathered.

I managed and creative directed the work Honnda, our Musical-Artist-in-Residence, Lead Composer, Music Supervisor, and Sound Designer. I directed the aesthetic pairing of licensed music, stingers, sound effects, and musical score for each of the three court environments we shipped. We wound up with a gameplay score which would build with four movements to match the four-quarter structure of a basketball game.