Senior Gameplay Designer

Combat Design

I design combat as part of a larger player experience—connecting character mechanics, movement, enemy behavior, encounter pacing, narrative context, and feedback to create readable decisions and memorable moments.

With 9+ years of experience across AAA, AA, and indie games, I combine gameplay design with technical expertise to carry features from concept and prototyping through implementation, tuning, and cross-disciplinary polish.

Shipped Titles: Chrono Gear: Warden of ·  Time Poppy ·  Playtime Ch 4 · Boneworks · Firewall Ultra

Design Principles

  • Readable Decision Making

  • Mastery Through Expression

  • Combat with Purpose

Featured Combat Work

[Mark of Sacrifice]

Creating the core combat mechanics for Guts.

Focus
Character Kit • Attack Trees • Combat Movement

🎯 Design Challenge

Design the bread and butter combinations of the protagonist Guts.

🛠 Key Design Decisions

  • Made all light attacks except for the finishers be cancelable to create a fast pace and responsive character.

  • Designed arm cannon to be a utility tool that can also cancel attacks while dealing damage and dodging.

  • All attacks are made to use the weight of the great sword to redirect the momentum of the player.

⭐ Player Experience

Players play a deceptively fast character that uses the shift in his momentum to deal devastatingly powerful attacks.

🏷 Skills Demonstrated

Character Design • Combat Design • Combat Pacing • Character Kit

[Souls-like Combat]

Recreating the core combat mechanics in a Souls game.

Focus
Combat Gameplay • AI Enemies • Combat UI

🎯 Design Challenge

Recreate the core mechanics in a Souls-like game.

🛠 Key Design Decisions

  • Worked to create a modular and Scalable.

  • Decoupled Attack logic from Characters.

  • Animations are modular depending on the weapon.

⭐ Player Experience

Players can move around and have the basic UI and combat mechanics of a Souls-like: light, heavy, charged, and jump attacks. While having the freedom to use different weapons and getting different damage stats and animations.

🏷 Skills Demonstrated

Combat Customization • Combat Design • Player Agency • Mob Enemy Design

[Poppy Playtime Ch 4]

Rewarding Player Mastery Through Interactive Cinematic Gameplay

Focus
Narrative Combat • Interactive Cinematics • Player Reward

🎯 Design Challenge

Deliver a cinematic conclusion that rewarded player mastery while reinforcing the emotional payoff of the story's final confrontation.

🛠 Key Design Decisions

  • Removed scanners from Doey's spawn location to preserve the surprise reveal.

  • Required players to apply mechanics they had learned throughout the game to defeat the boss.

  • Transitioned seamlessly from gameplay into a scripted cinematic to maintain immersion and narrative momentum.

⭐ Player Experience

The final victory feels personal because players actively participate in the climax instead of simply watching it unfold.

🏷 Skills Demonstrated

Interactive Cinematics • Narrative Encounter Design • Cross Disciplinary Leadership • Boss Encounter Design • Gameplay Storytelling