From late 2021, until my departure from Survios in September of 2022, I worked as a Lead Game Designer on the Player Systems Team for Alien: Rogue Incursion. The project shipped as a VR title in 2024 and a traditional non-VR title in 2025.
This role was extremely exciting for me. I had the opportunity to set the direction for a ton of new features in areas I don't typically touch. There was a heavy focus on UI/UX work, so I got to put my mark on designs for the map screen, inventory screen, interaction widgets, navigation markers, and even the PDA-like device players use to access all of this information. I also oversaw the design and implementation of all sorts of gameplay elements that players find in the world: things like doors, switches, and item chests.
Leading a team of game designers, UI Designers and Engineers was a thrilling challenge for me. And from the looks of things, the team did a fantastic job carrying forward the direction we set early in development.
Interface Puzzle
One of the features I really enjoyed working on was the Interface Puzzle. The design goal was to come up with a reusable puzzle to break up the tense action, slow players down, and get them to focus on a single-screen challenge. The fact that this game was being designed simultaneously for both VR and flatscreen meant the puzzle couldn't literally be a 2D UI screen like so many comparable puzzles in big action games. I know the puzzle got iterated on a ton before the game eventually shipped, but I feel super proud of the work I did establishing the tone and design goals for this feature. Please check out the design document for this interface puzzle.
Prototype Level
Here is a video I recorded of a playthrough of an internal prototype level. The team was in the middle of a thorough reboot of the design principles for the game, with a heavier emphasis on crafting and resource management. This was my attempt to show the entire development team the end result of my team's prototype efforts, and explain how decisions we had made would fit into the longer term development plan for the project. Many of the ideas we prototyped here made their way through to the final shipping game.
Design Documents
Here are links to various design documents I authored during my time working on the Alien project in the early days as Design Lead of the Player Systems Team
Doors GDD
Data Terminals GDD
Data Webs GDD
Interaction Widgets GDD