My position	Junior Game Designer
Time frame	July 2022 - December 2022
Genre	RPG on a shared screen, using multiple platforms and hybrid game loops
Platforms	Nvidia shield + TV, iPadOS, android
Target group	children from 7 to 12
Other team members	1 Lead Game Designer, 2 artists, 5 programmers, 1 QA manager, 1 product owner
Software	Docs, Sheets, Notion, Miro, Unity, Asana
Company	Wondershop Oy – Helsinki, Finland
My tasks	Game Design Updating the config Documentation UX Communication with Developers & Artists

The unique part of the game was that the in-game and physical worlds were intertwined. Real-world activities help you progress in the game. As I first studied digital installation design and have experience with physical games, I designed how these connections work and when the players should end their digital session to continue in the real world.

However, my primary responsibility in the project was the Player Console. The player handles everything personal here. The first version felt more like a tool than a part of the game, as it was less playful. Additionally, accessing all the features the player was supposed to find easily here took a lot of effort.
I proposed a new start page that had a different layout. I suggested that based on multiple personas I made with the team's help at our test hub. I've constantly exchanged with the developers and artists implementing the changes.

My other big responsibility was balancing the mini games, their resources and all the recipes and items. Additionally, both of us Designers wrote quests, missions, dialogues and descriptions.

My position	Game Development Intern
Time frame	April - July 2022
Genre	Deduction game
Platform	board game
Target group	families with children older then 10
Company	Ravensburger – Ravensburg, Germany
Software	Proprietary text setting tool, Word
Other team members	2 Game Development Managers, 1 Art Director, 1 Art Department intern + working with multiple other departments in the end for the final product
Published	2022
My tasks	Testing Game Design Editorial

When I joined the project, the two Editors working on this project already developed the new character abilities for Holmes' Team. In the old version, one person played Mister X and could only win by escaping. Now, this player plays Moriarty and can also win by committing crimes.

But with the new player abilities, we realised during one of the many test sessions that Moriarty needs an escape strategy. These Moriarty abilities were my main tasks during the development. I chose the locations where Moriarty could land with his air balloon and helped figure out the crime scene areas on the board.
In the end, we decided to use Moriarty's start number tokens also for the landing possibilities, always having two options on one token. This way, we didn't need to set up a new layout for printing and could lower production costs.

In the end, I was even in charge of correcting the rules, coordinating with the art director for this project, checking the final print files, and writing instructions on setting up the rule book's explanation pictures.

My position	Game Designer Intern
Time frame	May - July 2019
Genre	AR learning game
Platforms	android and iOS
Target group	families with children from 8
Other team members	Supervising Lead Game Designer, 1 programmer, 1 artist
Software	Omnigraffle, Spine, Unity
Company	the Good Evil GmbH – Cologne, Germany
My tasks	Game Design Content Design Mockups/ UX

After a few weeks, I was in charge of this project. The Lead Game Designer reviewed my process with me weekly and advised on how to proceed. Besides that, I had absolute freedom and worked alone on the Game Design.

I knew which specific forest areas I needed to include in the game and which animals the visitors could find at these. My task was to figure out the possibilities with AR and what the player could do at these sites.

The interactions in the game are small: for example, the player searches with their phone on the trees around them for a place on which bugs could be so the woodpecker can find and eat them.
A short informational text informs the player about the specifics of the animal. Then, they can continue with the following small task. This way, the player learns much about the connections between the forest and the animals living there.

The game is supposed to be played while walking through the forest, and the stations are not directly next to each other. The main focus is still experiencing nature, and the players are encouraged to search for all the details revealing the animal's activities.

My position	Team Lead and UX/UI Designer
Time frame	September – November 2023
Genre	gamified music learning support app
Platforms	mobile and tablets
Target group	children learning an instrument with a teacher and music teachers
Other team members	Founders, Lead Developer, 6 part-time Developer interns
Software	Figma, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, Notion, Miro
Company	Bravori Oy – Helsinki, Finland
My tasks	Design vision and deciding on features for the first prototype Designing the Core loop Clickable prototype in Figma (UX & UI) Project documentation and management Organising and conducting user tests Building personas and user stories

I orginally joined the team as a Game Designer, as the founders were planning on not only gamifying their app, but making it a serious game!
Unfortunately the project was not in that state yet and the core functionalities and user's needs not validated. The core functionality is the exchange between teachers and students about the lessons they are supposed to practice at home.

Problem statement:

Often teachers don't know what the students are really practicing at home. Do they practice at all? Is it fun? Too easy or too hard maybe? What is frustrating for the student?
The teacher will only know next time when they meet!
And for the student it's similar: they can't get help when they are stuck, it's not that motivating to just repeat the same piece over and over without any positive confirmation.
The Bravori Music App is planning to fill this gap with providing gamification and positive feedback for lesson completion and just for practising the instrument overall. And the teacher get's valuable feedback and can help way better.

So, I made it my task to ensure the core functionality is what the target group actually needs. Or let's say target groups. It's mainly the children, but the teachers will be the ones introducing the app to their students.
To test this core functionality I broke down all the ideas that were roaming around, figured out what we really need for the first prototype and started to build flow charts and wireframes.
At the same time I tried to get every team member on the same page, as we refactored the entire project. Thanks a lot to my colleague MJ for doing such a great job in helping all these young developers while refactoring.
Last but not least I was also organising and conducting user tests to understand, why students practice - or do not practice - currently, what other apps they use, what is fun for them, and so much more.

To sum it up:

It was a packed learning experience for me. I jumped into the project to do Game Design and, in the end, built a clickable prototype in Figma to test with our target group and make sure the team has a clear goal towards which they are heading.

My position	Game Designer
Time frame	May - July 2019
Genre	Casual Mobile Strategy Game
Platforms	android and iOS
Software	twine, Docs, Sheets, Affinity Designer, Affinity Publisher, Adobe InDesign, draw.io
Target group	teenagers from 13 to 18
Other team members	1 Content Designer, 1 Artist/ UI Designer, 1 supporting professor
Company	Harz University of Applied Sciences + Saxony-Anhalt state parliament
My tasks	Research and Analysis Game Design Concept presentations Contact person for the state parliament

Our team consisted of three students and our Professor, who consulted us. One was in charge of illustration and UI, one was doing Content Design and Research, and I was doing the Game Design and client communication on this project. Our main inspiration was Reigns/ Tinder. Our goal was to develop a game with a short time frame for each play session, continuous learning and some silliness in the gameplay. We wanted our players to make decisions, see the consequences and get another chance quickly.

The biggest hurdle was the communication with the client, as we had different vocabularies and didn’t even know about minor differences in some specific political terms. But for them, it was unclear what exactly we struggled to understand.
After multiple phone calls and iterations, we had learned a lot, and our client was satisfied with the result.

My position	Game Designer
Time frame	May - July 2019
Genre	Casual Mobile Strategy Game
Platform	board game + tiptoi
Software	Prototype in Table Top Simulator, Affinity Designer, tiptoi tool, Sheets, Docs, draw.io
Target group	children from 6 to 10
Project background	Masters' degree: thesis project
Other team members	Consulting Game Development Manager
Company Cooperation	Ravensburger – Ravensburg, Germany
My tasks	Content Research Competitive Analyse Game Design Prototype building Visual Design

The tiptoi transforms analogue media into an audio-supported experience. Basically you take the tiptoi, tap on a surface that has a fine point grid printed on it and the device reads a number from it. This defines, which audio to play. The device can handle actual logic and therefore you can program states, conditions etc and which text to play afterwards.

I went through multiple iterations within the project time and tried to keep the gameplay as simple as possible. My biggest problem was that I couldn’t test with more then one friend due to Covid. I built several prototypes and illustrated the last version a bit, so I could import the assets to Table Top Simulator for a final round with 4 testers. I had to prepare all the logic connections and needed texts. Which the tiptoi then would play, to simulate the gameplay.

My position	Game Designer
Time frame	March - August 2020
Genre	Tile and turn based Puzzle Game
Platform	windows
Engine	Unity
Target group	puzzle players, mainly from 25 to 35
Other team members	1 programmer
Project Background	Harz University of Applied Sciences: Pracitcal project
My tasks	Competitive Analysis Game Design Visual Design & UI Testing

SheepRoll was a project developed in a group of two within one semester. We’ve built a prototype which was programmed by my colleague and illustrated by me.

I put a lot of time in user personas and analysing multiple game mechanics to build a game with simple rules and goals, but a challenging experience.
I was in charge of the overall game design, and my colleague did the level design. That also made me the primary tester. We ended up with five different levels.

We made our first prototypes with paper. When the basics worked, I scribbled our main components and UI, and we started to “play” by just moving the visuals around and checking the different layers.
You can see the mockups below. Download the Unity build (Windows only) and check if you can solve the puzzles.

My position	Game Designer
Time frame	March - August 2020
Genre	Competitive Maze Runner
Platform	Windows
Engine	Unity
Target group	children from 8 to 12
Other team members	1 programmer, 1 sound artist and animator, 1 artist
Project Background	Harz University of Applied Sciences: Game Development course
My tasks	Game Design Documentation Team communication Testing

The basic game play was decided very quickly. Be a hamster, get all the groceries, don't get sick, get out of there first. I made some flow charts, made a map with all the needed screens and then started to scribble some mockups.

Our main difficulty: the team consisted of four people and we had a lack of programming knowledge.
One person doing the Art and UI, one person doing animations and sound, our developer and me doing Game and Level Design. Our developer had never written a line of code before. Therefore we needed to test as much as possible before in a more analogue way.
To simulate the game play I moved around the different visuals digitally just like a paper prototype. Below you can see my mockups. As the first assets for the groceries were done very early, I used those in there very soon.

Also you can see the core mechanics and a snippet from the big table for all the different conditions in the game.

My position	Designer, Programmer and artist
Time frame	October 2016 – February 2018
Genre	interactive installation
Platform	windows + Kinect
Software	Processing, Adobe Photoshop
Target group	by-passers in the city
Other team members	1 helper to set up the installation
Project Background	Trier University of Applied Sciences: Main project
My tasks	Concept and organisation Graphics Brand design for the whole exhibition Implementation in processing Promotion and networking to exhibit Setup

This project was my main bachelor's degree project and I developed it on my own. I had enrolled in a course called Installation laboratory and I found it extremely fascinating. In the course we developed our own tiny digital installations and augmented reality projects in processing, a library based on java.

My idea was to have people realise more what happens around them and therefore to pay more attention to their surroundings. Fianna starts to appear as soon as the Kinect tracks a person walking by. Lines appear on the screen and there is movement. When the person then stands still, she fully appears and imitates your movement. The longer you stand there, the more nature around her appears until at one point everything disappears again.

My biggest achievements were finding 3 possibilities to exhibit my installation within the city of Trier, having all my stickers been distributed and staying within my time schedule.
Overall it was shown over a time of nearly 3 months. The actual idea was to lent it to property owners, who's shop area was currently not in use. Instead of having dark empty or covered windows, I would have liked to see my installation in there. Moving from one window within the city to another, switching weekly.
Unfortunately the acquisition was not that easy, but in the end I was allowed to show it in one of the biggest shopping malls in the city.
I used a small box with stickers for a rough indication on how many people have actually seen it. Fun fact: "Schau mal!" means "Take a look!" in German.

Click to show the video

My position	Experience Designer
Time frame	March – September 2017
Genre	interactive installation
Platform	Physical installation with multiple digital games and infographic stations
Software	SketchUp, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign
Other tools	Loads of Styorofoam, wood and acrylic glass for the models
Target group	visitors of the church, young adults
Other team members	40 Students from the degrees architecture, informatics, and intermedia design
Project Background	Trier University of Applied Sciences: Installation Design
My tasks	Exhibition design Exhibition model prototype construction Conception and implementation of survey station Communication between individual project groups Lettering

Click to show the video

My position	Game Designer
Time frame	September 2019 – January 2020
Genre	transportation game
Platform	Board game
Software	Affinity Designer
Other tools	Cardboard, glue and paints
Target group	kids 10 and older
Other team members	just me
Project Background	Harz University of Applied Sciences: Game Development Course
My tasks	Game Design Graphic Design Prototype production Playtesting

This game was developed during the Health Game Jam in 2022. It was organised under the sign of mental health by gamesAHEAD in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and the ThaiHealth Foundation. The intended goal was to show, that even small decisions make a difference for the own point of view. A person that might have a mental difficulty might not be aware of the other possibilities. This way it's very hard to understand, that there might be a way out.
We hope that the little fish in this game show that a helping hand or a gesture might bring some more colour or brightness to someone elses life.

This game was developed during the "wir-vs-virus hackathon" in 2020" initiated by the german government.
To playfully reward staying at home in times of the pandemics we developed an App in a big team of about 50 people. By staying at home you can protect your plants, that are endangered by a pest. If you stay out for too long they will start fading away. Grow your tree, collect new plants and virtually battle along with your friends.

This analog game was developed at the Global Game Jam 2018.
A light-hearted RPG about time travelling magical beings bringing happiness and kindness to places and times that are transmitting waves of sadness. H.O.R.N of Happiness is a social roleplaying game, so telling stories and being together with your friends is just as important as winning - if not even more so.

This 2D game was developed at the Global Game Jam 2022. Find out about the story of Dean, visiting the place of his childhood.