This episode’s guest is Julie McConnell, a UX Director at ⁠Epic Games⁠ working on Fortnite. With almost 15 years of experience, she's a veteran of Riot Games, Google, and Bungie, working on some of the most prestigious franchises in the games industry.

We talk about cursed UX problems in games, mentorship and knowing whether the manager path is for you, and why design orgs in tech tend to be more mature than those in games.

Music by ⁠Abstraction⁠.

Topics

How Julie got into the industry

What was the industry like back then? How have you seen it change?

Being self-taught and leveraging mentorship

What’s stuck with you from observing senior UX designers?

What to do when UX research and data contradict each other and dealing with a passionate playerbase

Design maturity differences between tech and games

How has your taste changed over the last decade?

Have you closed the taste gap?

How did you know you wanted to be a manager?

Do you ever miss getting super hands on as a designer?

Dealing with the stress of being a manager

The hardest interview question you’ve ever been asked

This episode’s guest is Noor Amin, a game designer at ⁠Riot Games⁠ working on League of Legends. She’s also a member of the Game Awards Future Class of 2023, and a BAFTA Connect member.

We talk about content efficiency in games, “strong opinions, weakly held,” and the cults of game design and neuroscience.

Music by ⁠Abstraction⁠.

Topics

How Noor got into the industry

Landing the first internship

The process of learning to make games

The hardest interview question you’ve ever been asked

The transition from college life to working post-pandemic

How did you get into doing talks?

Noor’s experiences with neuroscience and game design

Content efficiency in game design

Has the industry changed?

How have you changed?

The hunter, gatherer, farmer framework for game designers

“Strong opinions, weakly held”

Choosing the IC or manager path

This episode’s guest is Allison Hao, a UI artist at ⁠31st Union⁠ working on ⁠Project Ethos⁠, an upcoming third-person roguelike hero shooter. Prior to that, she worked on VALORANT with Riot Games.

We talk about finding our voice at work as zoomers, how we got into the industry, and our goal to beat impostor syndrome by the time we turn 70.

Music by Abstraction.

Topics

What does being a UI artist mean? Do you prefer UI artist or UI designer?

What do you enjoy the most about your work?

Pitching ideas to stakeholders in smaller and bigger companies

How did you get into the industry?

Experience coming into the industry as a newer grad and impostor syndrome

What does your collaboration process with other disciplines look like?

How have you changed since you’ve joined the industry?

IC vs manager path

Qualities of the best people we’ve worked with

Using AI

This episode's guest is ⁠Sarah Chen⁠, a designer and researcher at the independent game developer ⁠Studio Chyr⁠. She's also a Rhodes Scholar pursuing a PhD in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.

We talk about AI, the limitations of VR game design, and whether we'd choose to save a dog over a grandma.

Show notes:

Sarah mentioned the job platform Work With Indies.

We talk about the text game engines Twine and ink by inkle, as well as the immersive fitness platform Quell.

Games mentioned in this podcast are The Witcher 3, Teamfight Tactics, Balatro, Superhot VR, Down the Rabbit Hole, The Moral Machine, and Vaudeville.

People mentioned this episode are Celia Hodent and Greg Buchanan.

Music by Abstraction.