GAME DIRECTOR
SHAAN MISHRA
"Jack of all trades, Master of design" - Principal Game Designer with practical Production experience,
who revels in various responsibilities across systems, live-ops, direction, biz-dev & everything game design!
01
Casual Autorunner
A Trail
GAME DIRECTOR
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This was the magnum opus of our indie studio, 'Tryhard Entertainment'. We re-created our student/indie released C2 game, 'Rambox' into a higher quality title on 'Unity' and then released it for multiple stores, The game truly embodies 'easy to play, hard to master!'
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I worked on the core gameplay, systems, balancing, level design for roughly half of the released levels, monetization, localization and the ui/ux.
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We didn't have any artist available with us during development so all the visuals in the game were created via design & code ingenuity, seasoned with clever obfuscation!
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Finally post development wrap-up, my role switched to more behind the scenes focused in arranging publishing deals for the game; while working with the team to adapt the base build for various open and closed platforms with different monetization approaches.
02
Survival - Experimental - Hidden Image
Adorae
GAME DESIGNER & PRODUCER, PX | PC (Steam)
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While working for GIGO Games, I was tasked to produce and work on design and systems optimization from a 'PX' pov for the studio's new innovative IP, 'Adorae'.
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An unique take on the survival genre and tacking existential issues like connections, loneliness, anxiety and mental health. Being developed for the Steam platform via Unity.
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Alongside hosting daily standup and production responsibilities, I hosted the bi-weekly play-testing sessions along with the lead dev and the testing team while also contributing in the PX on the systems and design side!
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Being an experimental survival game, this project really allowed me to deepen my balancing and PX optimization skills, contributing to the UI/UX, pacing, progression, difficulty curve and more importantly, polishing the essential minigames in the core gameplay loop in a more immersive direction!
Showdown
GAME DIRECTOR & PROJECT LEAD
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GOALS: Create a feature rich FPS from scratch while juggling a tight deadline schedule (6 Weeks!) & mentoring a non roblox native dev team.
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RESULT: Successfully directed the team to launch a polished game & helped Super Gaming secure an incubation deal with 'Roblox' for further development.
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SUCCESS: Featured on Roblox, App Store, RDC | Check Out!
Roblox sponsored ($50k) Ongoing Creator Tourney (Brazil) | Check Out!
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RESPONSIBILITIES: Directed team & game -> Established platform & dev conventions -> Led daily standups -> Heavy R&D -> Created & perfected the scope, scale & live-ops as per the outlined goals & vision intention -> Created the FPS design systems, gun archetypes, gunplay combat, modes, traversal, UI/UX & the levels -> Created essential design documentation (as needed) -> Balanced & Finetuned the gunplay to feel smooth & fluid -> Worked closely with the lead dev while mentoring the 2D & 3D artists, devs, animators & the sound team for a platform they had no prior experience on -> Handled high level stakeholder check-ins -> Directed intensive polish cycles -> Hit 'PUBLISH' on the gold build! ^^
03
FPS
04
ROGUE-LITE - SURVIVAL - SHOOTER
Monkey Mayhem
GAME DIRECTOR & TEAM LEAD
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DEVELOPER: Ginger Games | PUBLISHER: Krafton
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GOALS: Overhaul Monkey Mayhem (Krafton Incubator Program) to show all-round KPI improvements, reduce user attrition & eliminate heavy on-boarding friction.
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RESULT: Successfully directed the team to oversee a comprehensive overhaul of the game, FTUE, design, progression & other areas including visuals, animation & code
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SUCCESS: Immediate upward swing on key metrics & KPIs
Overhauled FTUE & On-boarding substantially reduced early stage user attrition
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RESPONSIBILITIES: Directed team & game on a comprehensive overhaul -> Design Unpacking -> Production Plan -> Led daily standups -> System Rework -> New Systems -> Bug, Fixes, Improvements & Rework Plan -> Comprehensive balancing cycles-> New FTUE & Progression -> Re-worked onboarding -> Level Design Polish -> Visuals & Code optimizations -> Directed multi iterative, intensive polish cycles -> Stakeholder Liaison with Krafton -> New Tutorial -> KPI optimization -> Beta Testing
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Greg Hastings
Tournament Paintball
GAME DESIGNER & PRODUCER, PX | Xbox
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While working for GIGO Games, I was tasked to produce and work on level optimization from a 'PX' pov for the studio's prized IP, 'GHTP'. The latest entry in development for the storied (fps) paintball series for Xbox platform via Unity. alongside hosting daily standup and production responsibilities!
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One thing I really enjoyed was to use my foundations as a designer to further assist the team better as a producer while also contributing in the PX on the level side!
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I produced and manage different teams & leads across timezone, in particular with the lead dev; ensuring smooth workflow, quick problem resolution, efficient version control, update logs and specs for the beta build of the game!
05
FPS
06
ROBLOX GAMES
Multiple Roblox Games
GAME DESIGNER, PRODUCER & LIVE-OPS LEAD
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Also while at GIGO Games, I as the only game designer, was tasked with in the initial
months to handle the design, production and live-ops for multiple active Roblox IPs
under the studio portfolio (15+ titles; Highly Active DAU; Millions of Game Visits).
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Adapting and excelling fast with multiple release schedule, I then went on to design, produce and release multiple Roblox games from scratch to release for the studio and
help smooth everything for the dev and art teams I was working in conjunction with!
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A thing that I found really exciting and challenging in the early stages of my platform experience was to optimize the meaty live-ops (seasons, events, themes, passes, pets,
design intertwined gacha, drops and etc) and existing systems towards more design
based frameworks than the existing dev based frameworks.
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Post that, I optimized the UX and PX standards across boards in a more centralized way so that the design and visual philosophy can be adapted across game suites & cover multiple active studio games simultaneously!
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My biggest achievement however would be my breaking down and setup up of custom frameworks and templates that handled content delivery, deliverable roadmaps & pipelines, redundant design & content requirements; in turn establishing systems and practices that reduced and optimized work load, planning and development execution by a WIDE margin!
