Principal Game Design
Intrepid Studios | Apr 2024 – Feb 2026
As Principal Designer on Ashes of Creation, I joined the Alpha 2 Release Team on a $140M+ AAA MMORPG, contributing design direction across systems, content, and tools at studio scale. My work focused on architecting foundational live-service systems and designer-facing toolchains that improved studio velocity and set quality bars across disciplines.
- Architected the design for the World State Manager, a real-time systemic layer monitoring player behavior, economy, and world conditions, greenlit by the director group
- Authored the design for the Content Visualization Tool, an engine-integrated operations tool empowering designers to monitor and deploy content across the game world
- Unified disparate content tools into a single modular Unreal Engine 5 toolchain in partnership with tools engineering
- Designed progression and engagement systems that structured player advancement and sustained long-term retention across the live game
- Established design standards for foundational live-service systems across the project, anchoring quality bars and execution patterns across disciplines
- Served as a senior subject matter expert and design voice, mentoring designers and elevating craft across the team