Wild Beyond
Pocket Gems
Mobile iOS
Key Skills
product vision, strategy, cross-disciplinary collaboration, user research, usability testing, storyboarding, prototyping, design operations, mentorship
What is it
Wild Beyond is a free-to-play real time strategy (RTS) game with the visual quality and strategic gameplay depth of a console game in a mobile-first package.
Pocket Gems aimed to create their next successful franchise by satisfying the wants of Console & PC Gamers 17-35 looking for deep gameplay on the go.
Featured “Game of the Day” on Apple App Store (11/24/2018)
Why I joined
Wild Beyond represented a new direction for Pocket Gems, and I was excited to work on a game that I was wanted to play myself.
It was also a huge opportunity for personal growth, to be on the ground floor and contribute to a product development cycle from concept to launch.
As UX lead, I grew and managed the UX team responsible for the game’s user experience over a 4 year development cycle and worldwide launch.
Major Challenges
- As a team we struggled between prioritizing between 2 audiences; balancing depth and strategy for core gamers versus learnability and usability with mainstream mobile audience
- A Major competitor launched when we were mid-development which disrupted our product strategy and led to a major internal game design pivot.
- We worked with a new in-house 3D engine that was being developed in tandem with our game. Game rendering required learning and managing multiple tech stacks (iOS native, Cocos2D, Cocos3D, HTML/CSS/Angular).
What I accomplished
- Grew the design team as project scaled; including hiring, onboarding, and training Implemented and managed the pipeline for multiple designers across pods through a successful worldwide launch.
- Designed several features that produced measurable increase in early retention and conversion
- Collaborated with engineering to define and create a component based UI framework which reduced UI implementation time by ~30% and improved overall quality and consistency.
- Implemented and managed the pipeline for multiple designers across pods.
- Established internal UX processes; contributions include process and pipeline creation for visual design, design, and development
- Co-authored the company’s UX career track, established the company’s first cross-studio design meetings, and cultivated team culture through collaborative training, presentations, and team events.
What I learned
Consistent Quality
This project began with a push for the best quality game we could work with. Of course in the real world, time and scope often didn’t allow for that. One really great screen will set expectations that other screens might not be able to meet. I learned to focus on creating the best experience possible that I can also deliver consistently.
Commit fully to redesigns
I had compromised on the navigation redesign and allowed for one feature to not be fully integrated due to scope and time. Unfortunately this lead to many future required to work around this feature. If the redesign is radical enough, jump with both feet.