Summary

• Practical Experience & Problem Solving – years of experience in practical application of UX & Accessibility principles in gaming context, with 15+ commercially released games where a big part of my work was UX design and addressing of complex UX challenges. I’ve also done it on various platforms, navigating complicated publisher requirements, and involving telemetry, playtesting, and User Research labs.
• System Design + UX Expertise – capable of doing both system design and UX for the feature or game system, starting from the initial idea and game design, and then proceeding to wireframes, high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes.
• UX Tools Expertise – I am proficient with UX tools such as Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop and Adobe XD) and Figma, enabling me to create high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes of UI screens. Additionally, I have a background in graphic design, and can quickly convey ideas through sketches when needed.
• Accessibility Design Expertise – I have been responsible for designing a variety of accessibility features on multiple AAA projects, including colourblind options, controls customisation, game assists, and option menus. I have consistently served as an accessibility advocate on every project I’ve worked on.

Experience (Focused on UX Design)

Senior Game Designer at Sumo Digital (December 2017 – July 2024)

Gears of War: Reloaded (January 2024 – April 2024)

Remaster of one of the major third-person shooter brands.

UX Design deliveries:

• UX/UI Design for cross-platform multiplayer flow that had to take into account multiple stakeholders, limitations of the old engine and follow TRCs of multiple platforms at the same time.
• UX/UI for social features, where many of them had to be built from scratch and support Play Fab functionality.
• UX/UI Design for updated Video Options screen, with a different flow and structure to include new features of the remaster.
• UX/UI for Gamepad Customisation screen, built from scratch for the remaster.
• Accessibility Design (colour blind options, closed captions, text-to-speech/speech-to-text chat).

Unannonced Project (October 2020 – March 2023)

Online PVP First Person Shooter for Tencent.

UX Design deliveries:

• Design for the UX architecture of the project.
• HUD and UX/UI Design for Character Death & Respawn System.
• UX/UI Design for Match Start & End System.
• UX/UI Design for Home Page & Party System that was taking into account 3rd-party launcher and its social features.
• UX/UI Design for Matchmaking Flow.
• UX/UI Design for Character Customisation System (including complex interactive prototypes).
• UX/UI Design for Season Pass & Store.
• UX/UI Design for Game Settings screens (Controls Customisation, Accessibility, Video Options, etc.).

Sackboy: A Big Adventure (December 2017 – September 2020)

BAFTA-winning platformer for Sony, PlayStation 5 launch title.

UX Design deliveries:

• UX/UI Design for World Map – World Map flow, functional/design requirements for the World Map UI, all its transition screens and UI elements.

• UX/UI Design for Multiplayer Flow – local/couch co-op + online co-op multiplayer where UI and HUD had to adapt on-the-fly to any number of players that could drop-in/drop-out from the game at any moment. Ensuring that this ability to drop-in/drop-out was supported on the most UI screens in the game without breaking the game flow, and also taking into account PSN overlay flow.

• UX/UI Design for Character Customisation – design for a Zom-Zom Shop (e.g. Costume Shop) that was taking into account LittleBigPlanet series artististic style, its established UX conventions, and requirements of the multiplayer flow.

• UX/UI Design for HUD – functional/design requirements for the in-game HUD, and it behaviour in various gameplay situations.

• UX/UI Design for Level Flow & Progression – designed how the player starts the level, complete the level, and how the player’s progress is presented in the game.

• UX/UI Design for Game Settings screens.

• UX/UI Design for Gamepad Customisation screen, which was taking into account hand-crafter nature of Sackboy/LittleBigPlanet art style and allowed physically re-arrange gameplay actions.

• UX/UI Design for Action Almanac screen – in-game help system about various Sackboy moves, also coordinated video recording of the moves, reviewed the final videos.

Game Designer at Ubisoft Kyiv (May 2014 – December 2017)

Design for PC versions of: Watch Dogs: Legion & Watch Dogs 2, Far Cry: Primal & Far Cry 4

Using this experience, I wrote an article about PC User Experience.

UX Design deliveries:

• UX/UI Design for Watch Dogs: Legion – design and high-fidelity mockups for key PC features of Watch Dogs: Legions – Video Options, Graphical Benchmark, Controls Customisation.

• UX/UI Design for Watch Dogs 2 PC HUD – major re-design of in-game HUD to support PC conventions, mouse-centric interactions and keyboard hotkeys, while also allowing on-the-fly switching between mouse & keyboard and gamepad input methods. Also, designed how the HUD is adapting to various resolutions and aspect ratios, the game later got two “Gold” and two “Silver” awards from WSGF (Wide Screen Gaming Forum) community.

• UX/UI Design for Watch Dogs 2 PC World Map screen – major re-design of the World Map to support PC conventions, mouse-centric interactions and keyboard hotkeys (and generally making it closer in terms of interaction to its real-world prototype – Google Maps), while also allowing on-the-fly switching between mouse & keyboard and gamepad input methods.

• UX/UI Design for Watch Dogs 2 PC Smartphone (e.g. primary hub for game UI) – re-design of various UI screens to support mouse-centric interactions and feedback, buttons and hover states.

• UX/UI Design for Watch Dogs 2 PC Tutorials – major re-design of the tutorials to support re-mappable PC controls, recording of new videos with PC gameplay, designing new tutorial screens and loading tips for PC controls and features.

• UX/UI Design for Watch Dogs 2 PC Video Options – designed UI for various video options, settings defaults & first user experience flow, options changing flow, error prevention system, performance feedback (e.g. VRAM meter, option impact description).

• UX/UI Design for Watch Dogs 2 PC Game Settings & Controls Customisation – designed UI for various game settings screens, controls customisation screen, game settings defaults & first user experience flow, options changing flow, error prevention system.

• UX/UI Design for Far Cry: Primal Video Options – designed UI for various video options, settings defaults & first user experience flow, options changing flow, error prevention system, player-facing graphical benchmark.

• UX/UI Design for Far Cry: Primal PC – adapted in-game HUD, UI and Tutorials to follow PC platform UX conventions and to support mouse-centric interactions and feedback, buttons and hover states.

• UX/UI Design of PC Controls Customisation for Far Cry 4 and Far Cry: Primal, with Interactive Keyboard to visualise the current control scheme, and error prevention system.

Game Designer at Arkadium (November 2013 – May 2014)

UX Design for Microsoft Sudoku, with the following deliveries:

• Multiple input methods for Microsoft Sudoku (Cell->Number, Number->Cell, Drawing the number with a stylus) with ability to switch on-the-fly between them, playtested and successfully validated through Microsoft User Research Lab.
• UX/UI Design to provide full support of Windows 8.1 key feature – free change of the window size, with UI adapting on-the-fly to resizing.

Game Designer at N-Game Studios (August 2007 – May 2013)

I was a primary game designer in the small independent studio for 6 years, where a big part of my work was related to UX design.

UX Design deliveries:

• Designed and delivered complex UI/UX of 3D MMORPG that worked in small window of social network with primary windowed mode and technological restrictions of Unity + Flash.

• UX/UI Design for a client-based MMORPG up until Pre-Alpha stage, after which it was cancelled due to budget changes on the publisher’s side. UX/UI Design for progression system, character customisation and inventory system, social features. Spent considerable time “reverse-engineering” UX/UI Design of World of Warcraft.
• UX/UI Design for an online strategy based on “Twilight Imperium” table-top game up until the Alpha stage, after which it was cancelled due to budget changes on the publisher’s side. UX/UI Design for planet/city screen, tech tree, progression system, and cinematic battles.