Bossa Studios - Senior Game Designer
Bossa Studios 5/2021 - 12/2022
Senior Game Designer- On Surgeon Simulator 2 and a number of shelved projects
Senior Game Designer- On Surgeon Simulator 2 and a number of shelved projects
- Served as acting Game Design Lead on two unannounced prototype projects; establishing pillars and the core experience, team workflow, managing tasks and goals, and working with other disciplines to define success for the projects.
- Performed as an ambassador to evangelise the project to other members of the project team and studio at large, helping them to visualise the end experience and emotions the game is meant to evoke.
- Worked with studio leadership to craft pitches and prototypes for new IP projects that align with the Bossian studio strategy; helped to validate other ideas through this lens as part of our product validation process.
- Created and led workshops with members of multiple disciplines to proactively recognise design shortcomings or imbalances in our games and discover intuitive solutions.
- Designed, iterated on, and documented several new mechanics in a variety of projects; worked with streamers and Surgeon Simulator 2's community to develop new features and promote Surgeon Simulator 2's steam launch
Bossa has always been a grab-bag of experiences. As a smaller AA studio it in many ways was quite fast and loose with its structure; and with that came a wealth of opportunities to learn. I came in right as the studio was kicking off its new strategy - leaving 'old Bossa' behind as they prepared to try something new. Predictably, with the changing winds came turbulence. A lot of people were shuffling around, old projects were wrapping up, and new ones were kicking off. It was an exciting time to be there.
Bossa's new studio strategy consisted of some key principles I was very excited to get behind:
Bossa's new studio strategy consisted of some key principles I was very excited to get behind:
- Co-Op as the keystone of the experience. "Good alone but better with friends".
- PvE. This one was particularly exiting for me as PvE is my preferred genre. I'm much more of a collaborator personality type than a competitor.
- Live Service. Bossa's existing titles were all great, but essentially for the memes. They didn't have a lot of staying power. The studio was gearing up to make longer-lasting experiences that would have a bigger cultural impact on our target audience, and help the company sustain itself in the rapidly changing landscape of game development.
Surgeon Simulator 2 (Steam release)
I came onto Surgeon Sim 2's Steam release (SS2 for short) with basically enough time to only make some key changes in areas Bossa wanted to maximise their performance - particularly with content creators and Influencers. So a lot of that time was spent getting to know the audience we were targeting, and working alongside them to make something which would help them help us.
This was my first time working with influencers, but was a really interesting experience. For better or worse, Influencers are major players in the virality of media today and it'd be beholden of any designer to at least understand their needs as a market. I've linked some of the streams below for the curious, including one of the features I worked on specifically to integrate with Twitch; the Modifiers, which (as the name implies) are modifiers to the game experience which can be voted on by the audience or used by solo players.
PewDiePie - Surgeon Simulator 2 Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzFxeuTzps&t=2004s
DanTDM - Surgeon Simulator 2 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43nj8xOXA_0&t=585s
FGTeeV - Surgeon Simulator 2 Video with Modifiers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DcNvhGHvw4&t=145s
Daithi De Nogla - Surgeon Simulator 2 Halloween Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD7c66OmSwM&t=29s
This was my first time working with influencers, but was a really interesting experience. For better or worse, Influencers are major players in the virality of media today and it'd be beholden of any designer to at least understand their needs as a market. I've linked some of the streams below for the curious, including one of the features I worked on specifically to integrate with Twitch; the Modifiers, which (as the name implies) are modifiers to the game experience which can be voted on by the audience or used by solo players.
PewDiePie - Surgeon Simulator 2 Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzFxeuTzps&t=2004s
DanTDM - Surgeon Simulator 2 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43nj8xOXA_0&t=585s
FGTeeV - Surgeon Simulator 2 Video with Modifiers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DcNvhGHvw4&t=145s
Daithi De Nogla - Surgeon Simulator 2 Halloween Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD7c66OmSwM&t=29s
Bossa Presents
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With the release of SS2 came the next step in Bossa's journey - Bossa Presents. While on the surface it's just a website, it was a critical part of how Bossa evolved into its new strategy. All of the projects there came from a host of backgrounds - some were expansions of an internal Game Jam, while others were developed top-down, and came from a core idea that we thought would resonate with our studio’s goals and target audience. They were then subjected to further scrutiny alongside an evaluation on the impact the proposed title had on the Bossa Presents audience. We used the platform and our existing fans for early rounds of feedback to iterate on the concepts further and land on what the next big Bossa title will be.
Although I worked on several of the titles shown in Bossa Presents, I must admit to being particularly attached to Project Meru. There's a lot more I'd like to say on this matter, but the winners - and projects Bossa is working on right now - as of the time of writing are still under wraps. |
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Prototyping
The lion's share of my time at Bossa was spent in the prototyping phases after decisions had been made from the data given by Bossa Presents. During this stage I was prototyping on two projects.
The first one had a bit of a troubled start - we had to hit the ground running, with a full code and art team, as well as marketing support before we'd even had time to really sit down and figure out the fundamentals of the game's design or how well it aligned with the studio's strategy for the title. It was a lot of fun to work on but a tumultuous one, and ultimately led to the Lead Designer on the project parting ways with Bossa overnight. That left me as the sole designer on the team and the new acting lead.
Overall, I think it went well. I rapidly transitioned us to a Feature Owner structure to remove Design as a bottleneck and give more ownership to the rest of the team. My role then really focused on establishing pillars, teaching underlying Whys, and maintaining the vision for the project. With the day-to-day work handled we also finally got around to validating the new project, only to find it had some key failings with the studio strategy that couldn't be reconciled. It was axed, and we started a new project on a much better foot.
I remained in the same capacity as acting Lead Designer on the new title. We fixed many of the issues with the previous one, and had a much better start with a validated core concept, a solid target audience, and an understanding of how the game would monetize. It was a fantastic learning experience, and I had a lot of fun on it. Ultimately though external factors led to that prototype's end as well as my own departure from Bossa.
The first one had a bit of a troubled start - we had to hit the ground running, with a full code and art team, as well as marketing support before we'd even had time to really sit down and figure out the fundamentals of the game's design or how well it aligned with the studio's strategy for the title. It was a lot of fun to work on but a tumultuous one, and ultimately led to the Lead Designer on the project parting ways with Bossa overnight. That left me as the sole designer on the team and the new acting lead.
Overall, I think it went well. I rapidly transitioned us to a Feature Owner structure to remove Design as a bottleneck and give more ownership to the rest of the team. My role then really focused on establishing pillars, teaching underlying Whys, and maintaining the vision for the project. With the day-to-day work handled we also finally got around to validating the new project, only to find it had some key failings with the studio strategy that couldn't be reconciled. It was axed, and we started a new project on a much better foot.
I remained in the same capacity as acting Lead Designer on the new title. We fixed many of the issues with the previous one, and had a much better start with a validated core concept, a solid target audience, and an understanding of how the game would monetize. It was a fantastic learning experience, and I had a lot of fun on it. Ultimately though external factors led to that prototype's end as well as my own departure from Bossa.
Overall, I have a lot of nice things to say about Bossa. It really has a small studio mindset and highly values its people and its culture. It's got a very flat structure as a result of being on the smaller end, and that gives a lot of buy-in not just to the vision of the studio but to its success as well. A lot of the red tape and process that bogs down larger development houses isn't really there and it tends to draw in people that are both doers and dreamers. It has some people that have been there for over a decade, and I can absolutely see why.
I wish them all the best, and I look forward to the studio finally publicly announcing what they're working on.
I wish them all the best, and I look forward to the studio finally publicly announcing what they're working on.