Professional experience

Intern Game Designer & Freelance Game Designer, Proxy Studios

Founded in 2009, Proxy Studios is an international game development studio that specializes in the creation of combat-oriented 4X games.

 Warhammer 40.000 Gladius: Relics of war

Gladius is a combat-based 4X game based on the Warhammer 40.000 franchise. Players pick a faction from this universe and fight against other players or AI. When the game was released in 2018, 4 factions were available. There are now 10 factions, with the Adepta Sororitas as the latest addition and many new units for already-existing factions.

I was in charge of designing and then implementing the new Adepta Sororitas faction in the game.

New faction DLC : Adepta Sororitas

Design

• Faction Design : One of the most interesting tasks was to design this new faction for the game. As the framework for the game already existed and the core systems had been implemented for a long time now, it was important to create mechanics that would offer a brand new experience with an unique feel yet fit the gameplay. It was also important to reflect the lore of the faction in its design. 

The Adepta Sororitas (also known as the Sisters of Battle) are a religious armed force of female-only fighters. Fighting for the God-Emperor and saviour of Mankind, these zealous warriors give their lives to purify the xenos and the traitors in a blaze of holy flames. 

• Buildings & Research Design : These are important systems in any 4X game, and I was in charge of designing them for this DLC. Since Gladius is a combat-focused game, it is important for these systems to highlight this part of the gameplay.

• Unit Design : Designing each unit was one of my main tasks early on. Every new unit had to be unique, complementary and feel new. I designed 18 new infantry, vehicles and heroes units. Many of these units introduce new systems and abilities that fit the faction theme.

• Campaign Design :  For this faction, I also drafted the first version of the questline after the story created by the studio's writer. For this, I translated the story into missions with objectives and rewards with clear gameplay intents.

• Miscellaneous : I also worked or got my hands on various miscellaneous tasks with other specialists like illustration and icon requests, visual references gathering, referencing the necessary audio files for sound designers.

Gameplay implementation

Once the most important faction elements were designed, I started to work directly with the game files in XML. I had to learn how to work with this language from the ground up and use TortoiseSVN for this task.

I was responsible for implementing the new content that was designed for the DLC and to make sure it functioned correctly in the game each step of the way. This process was done while the assets were being produced. This includes, but not limited to :

• Units (weapons, traits, abilities, stats).

• Buildings & researches.

• Faction specific elements (new tiles, faction-wide abilities).

• Linking the corresponding description and flavor to the new files.

• Integration of audio files & various tweaks.

Of course, this implementation work also implied regular playtests to observe how the different systems would perform together and grasp as soon as possible the gamefeel for this new faction. Besides, these playtests served an early game-balancing purpose.