DECIMA / HORIZON

LAUNCH TRAILER
Year: 2017-2018
Position: Tools Designer (Credited as special thanks in The Frozen Wilds and Forbidden West)
Systems: PS4 and PC, with Decima (Guerrilla Games' propriety engine and editor toolset)
Responsibilities: Concepting, designing, iterating, communicating, producing, documenting, and presenting tool designs for the various systems inside Decima
Skills/Software used: Communication, producing, Photoshop, MS Word, polling, scripting, designing, and triaging the various

Created content: Tool improvements and new tools, including but not limited to: Geometry creation and editing tools, improved gizmo visibility, improved debug visibility, visibility sets, asset browser improvements, a design for a new narrative and story tool, improved pointer/clicker functionality, and documentation for old and new features.
Notable accomplishments
  • Was able to be the person who people could speak to when they had both recent and long standing issues.
  • Worked directly with the narrative, design, and art teams to create solutions for them.
  • Found and alleviated some very old request tickets that had stagnated for some time and were forgotten about, but still caused daily issues.
  • Stayed on top of current events with the users to make sure the tool production schedule was on top of current affairs.​
  • Made many colleagues feel heard and understood, and provided some relief in their daily workflow.
  • ​Created a design for an overarching design and story tool that could integrate with designers and artists' workflow.
Learning points
  • Always keep dogfooding. Try to use the tools as much as possible.
  • Mocked up UI is always secondary to a library you can quickly make final looking UI out of.
  • Clearly establish boundaries and goals when joining a team with a brand new role that has not existed before.​​
  • A great deal of necessary effort goes into staying neutral when discussing potential features for feedback, of which you think one is best.
  • Never be afraid to say: "We can't right now, but I will write it down for when we work on this feature in the future."
  • Always keep building those UI skills. Workflow skills can only get you so far.
Back to the Portfolio page