From August 2017 through March 2022 I had the privilege of working with Guerrilla as a Senior Systems Designer on Horizon Forbidden West. I was the primary individual contributor responsible for “combat adjacent progression and metagame systems,” including:

• Skill Tree
  • Collaborated with UIUX on the layout, functioning, and feedback of the tree
  • Collaborated with combat design on the design and implementation of Valor Surges and Weapon Techniques
  • Was the primary IC responsible for ideation, design, and implementation of all passive skills

• Health, Healing, Potions
  • Worked with the Game Director and Combat team to balance health increases across leveling
  • Unified healing resources into a single resource (“medicinal berries”), with the goal of giving our Combat team tighter control over how much healing the player could bring into any encounter, allowing for tighter balance
  • Designed and implemented many of our potions

• Food Buffs
  • Pitched, designed, and implemented the Food System, by which players could hunt, cook, and eat food that would selectively boost a selected skill on the skill tree
  • Drafted the initial names and descriptions of food resources and foods, seeking broad representation across cultures as well as palates and dietary needs, while remaining honest to the lore of the Horizon tribes; passed this initial work to our writers for final passes, collaborating with them as needed
  • Collaborated with programmers to help build the “plant distribution system”, as well as defining what areas plants and animals could be found across the game world

• Armors
  • Defined the fighting styles which each tribe would emphasize in their armors
  • Pitched and designed the “armors buffing player skills” and armor mods systems
  • Implemented all resistance stats and skill stats across all armors and all levels of upgrades; this work was done in collaboration with the combat team, with a careful eye towards balance and progression in damage from both Aloy and enemies
  • Collaborated with UIUX on the Armor Upgrading UI
  • Defined the costs for purchasing and upgrading all armors, assuring proper distribution across machines of varying proximity and difficulty, also taking care that each machine was reasonably well represented across resource needs for the whole game

• Weapons
  • Assisted the combat team with minor tasks related to weapon implementation
  • Collaborated with UIUX on the Weapon Upgrading UI
  • Defined the costs for purchasing and upgrading all weapons, assuring proper distribution across machines of varying proximity and difficulty, also taking care that each machine was reasonably well represented across resource needs for the whole game

• Game Economy and Progression
  • With some collaboration from peers, was the primary individual contributor responsible for defining all in-game economic resources, where they would come from, and what they would be used for, in what amounts. Built the item drop tables for every enemy in game. Implemented “bad luck mitigation” mechanics to prevent streaks of bad luck from blocking player acquisition of desired resources beyond a limit.
    • (With extreme apologies to anyone who ever cursed not getting the item drop they needed from killing a machine, yes, that was me)
  • Collaborated with the Game Director to define a “golden path” set of weapons, armors, and their upgrades; distributed these at appropriate points within the main storyline and at vendors, distributing key resources in quests such that players were guaranteed to be able to purchase these “golden path” items when they reached the vendors that sold them
  • Was the primary individual contributor responsible for defining what weapons and armors were available (or rewarded) where; this work was hugely collaborative with every team, from quests to world design to combat design and narrative.
  • Built the implementation for all lootable treasure chest objects, and managed all of their loot tables; collaborated with quest team and world design team to establish density metrics for how many loot objects of varying values should be distributed
  • Built and managed the inventories for all in-game vendors

• Greenshine
  • Championed a fellow designer’s off-the-cuff pitch that we should have an exploration resource- this eventually became Greenshine
  • Built these objects, collaborated with art and audio on visuals, vfx, and sfx, and collaborated with quest and world design teams to ensure proper distribution
  • Pitched and implemented a series of weapons and armors that exclusively used these resources as upgrade requirements, creating a path for players who are weaker in combat but especially interested in exploring to feel progression and reward

Working on Horizon Forbidden West from nearly the day the project was kicked off to its shipping was a genuine delight! All of the above work required deep collaboration with all of our other designers, as well as many artists, writers, programmers, and UIUX experts- all of whom made enormous contributions to the game, and without whom I would have accomplished none of this. Thank you to everyone I worked with!