Associate Systems Designer
Back in June of 2022, I got a job working remotely for the company Standing Stone Games where I was to be an Associate Systems Designer on their game Lord of the Rings Online. Getting this position was a dream come true, a full circle moment for me in my life as it was a game that I had fond memories of playing as a child. Getting the chance to learn from the team that formed and worked on the game while having a chance to influence myself was an amazing opportunity for me.
Work there ramped up fast and quickly. I went from fixing minor bugs learning about the systems to being able to influence major systems. The first major system I got to help in the development of was our Delving system, a system that took existing instanced content and allowed players to scale it to higher difficulties, adding on modifiers to make the content more challenging. I was able to help in both the design of this feature of what sort of modifiers we would be making for it as well as in the implementation of the effects as well. I learned a lot about balancing effects from this system, about what to expect about player capabilities at various stages of gameplay, and how to properly create engaging challenge for those players. The next major system that I aided in working on was our newest class for the game, the Mariner which released near the end of 2023. This was an exciting new opportunity to help drive the core development of a player class in the game. Thinking in lines of what would be fun in the game as well as would fit the theme was a thrilling challenge of critical thinking. The collaboration around it worked well and, in the end, a creative and fresh new class was brought into the game. Onto the most recent major systems I worked on, that would be the crafting update for our latest expansion, Corsairs of Umbar. For this, I was charged with the task of leading the update myself. This entailed creating new recipes for all the 10 professions we have in the game and implementing their items and resources that would be taken to craft them. I was able to take knowledge and patterns from previous expansions crafting tiers and built upon them to create fresh content for our crafters to go through. While I had guidance in the organization and expectations for the crafting update the majority of implementation and planning was left to me which was both a challenge and an exciting opportunity to work creatively on a new system. Overall, even when not working on these major systems in the game I was still constantly collaborating with my team and fixing or working on other systems, which provided a great experience to gain knowledge in lots of different facets of game design and development in this game’s space. Below you can find a breakdown of major features I worked on as well as highlighted things I did during each’s development.
Work there ramped up fast and quickly. I went from fixing minor bugs learning about the systems to being able to influence major systems. The first major system I got to help in the development of was our Delving system, a system that took existing instanced content and allowed players to scale it to higher difficulties, adding on modifiers to make the content more challenging. I was able to help in both the design of this feature of what sort of modifiers we would be making for it as well as in the implementation of the effects as well. I learned a lot about balancing effects from this system, about what to expect about player capabilities at various stages of gameplay, and how to properly create engaging challenge for those players. The next major system that I aided in working on was our newest class for the game, the Mariner which released near the end of 2023. This was an exciting new opportunity to help drive the core development of a player class in the game. Thinking in lines of what would be fun in the game as well as would fit the theme was a thrilling challenge of critical thinking. The collaboration around it worked well and, in the end, a creative and fresh new class was brought into the game. Onto the most recent major systems I worked on, that would be the crafting update for our latest expansion, Corsairs of Umbar. For this, I was charged with the task of leading the update myself. This entailed creating new recipes for all the 10 professions we have in the game and implementing their items and resources that would be taken to craft them. I was able to take knowledge and patterns from previous expansions crafting tiers and built upon them to create fresh content for our crafters to go through. While I had guidance in the organization and expectations for the crafting update the majority of implementation and planning was left to me which was both a challenge and an exciting opportunity to work creatively on a new system. Overall, even when not working on these major systems in the game I was still constantly collaborating with my team and fixing or working on other systems, which provided a great experience to gain knowledge in lots of different facets of game design and development in this game’s space. Below you can find a breakdown of major features I worked on as well as highlighted things I did during each’s development.
Evergreen Challenge System - Delvings
- Collaborated with other designers to create a system that could be added on effectively to gameplay loops we already have with an evergreen reward and challenge structure
- Planned out new effects and abilities to confront players with within the new system
- Created and implemented various effects to fall into different categories that would work well together to create exciting and challenging experiences
- Tested and reworked designs for effects based off feed-back to fine tune the overall experience
New Class - Mariner
- Researched and brainstormed with a team of other designers what classes would fit both the lore of the world and the setting of our newest expansion
- Worked with that team to come up with unique mechanics that would make the class stand out both from anything currently in the game as well as from other games
- Aided in the testing of the classes abilities and feel as well as worked to fill out itemization for the class back throughout the game.
Crafting Update - Umbar Crafting Tier and Craft Guilds
- Considered the areas where previous crafting tiers had been lacking and worked to create a plan for the newest tier to address those concerns and player concerns
- Outlined a system for crafting that would ensure that it would have both current and future viability throughout the new expansion
- Prototyped and implemented all the various crafting items for the 10 different professions that are currently in the game
- Updated the Crafting Guild system of the game to have more progression for players throughout the new level range and constructed impactful items for them to unlock and create