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Need For Speed: No Limits (iOS, Android, Google Play)
Production Date: 2015 - Present
Roles: Game Designer, Narrative Designer, Content Iteration
Working as a Designer on the Content team for Need For Speed: No Limits (NFSNL), my main role was to create new iterative content for "Limited Time Events" or LTS'. LTS' were the main focus of NFSNL and the core place where we delivered new experiences for our players. Our production cadence was 6 weeks production per Title Update and would contain between 2-3 LTS' events per update. Each LTS would contain a new car that was added to the game and a 7 day set of events with a different amount of races to play each day. As a Designer it was my duty to set up new cars to be ready to use in build, set up gameplay for the races contained in these events, balance the economy, balance the difficulty and create unique narrative stories (3-4K words).
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Content Iteration and Creation
Adding new cars to the build
Narrative Design
UGR (Underground Rivals), the PvP/Ghost racing element of the game
HAL/EAgle Syncs, working with the Localisation team on translations
Jira (Task Tracking)
Confluence (Documentation)
Feature Ideation (Miro Boards)
Working with Marketing (What’s New, Walkthrough Decks, Patch Notes)
Gameplay Balancing (Event difficulty adjustments, time offsets, etc.)
In game economy balancing (working with Product Managers to balance the economy correctly)
Adjusting PR values to achieve the right amount of grind races
Working with QA to correlate their playthrough data and implement their results
Title Updates I’ve Worked On
Overview:
I was in charge of the Crew Trials: Testarossa LTS event for TU55. Crew Trials are events where you challenge a crew in Blackridge to a series of races and the winner gets to keep the car up for grabs. I chose The Royals as the crew for this event because they love Ferraris. This was the first LTS event I did myself when I first started working at Firemonkeys and it was a great way to learn how content is delivered to players in NFSNL. Apart from creating and managing the event, gameplay-wise, I also needed to write dialogue for the event.
Responsibilities:
TU55:
Implementing the Ferrari Testarossa vehicle to be usable in game (event version and stock version)
Creating files/folders and setting up event structure
Setting up gameplay elements, including race-types, tracks, track elements, challenges, opponents and traffic
Setting up economy elements for the event
Writing dialogue for the event
Play testing the event to check for economy grind
Tweaking event based on economy check play test
Prepare and send event off for 1st QA playthroughs
Review QA play test data and implement changes based on the data such as grind targets and time offsets
Play test the event to test for difficulty and implement test results
Prepare and send event off for 2nd QA playthroughs
Review QA’s 2nd playthrough data and make adjustments to the event
Bug fixing
Overview:
TU56:
I was in charge of the XRC: Chevrolet Corvette C8 Z06 LTS event for TU56. XRC events are events that are supposed to be more professional, stunt driving events instead of illegal street races. The main gameplay feature of XRC events are the XRC race types where you need to dodge barrels placed throughout the tracks to avoid getting slowed down and win the race.
Responsibilities:
Implementing the Chevrolet Corvette C8 Z06 vehicle to be usable in game (event version and stock version)
Creating files/folders and setting up event structure
Setting up gameplay elements, including race-types, tracks, track elements, challenges, opponents and traffic
Writing dialogue for the event
Setting up economy elements for the event
Play testing the event to check for economy grind
Tweaking event based on economy check play test
Prepare and send event off for 1st QA playthroughs
Review QA play test data and implement changes based on the data such as grind targets and time offsets
Play test the event to test for difficulty and implement test results
Prepare and send event off for 2nd QA playthroughs
Review QA’s 2nd playthrough data and make adjustments to the event
Bug fixing
Overview:
TU57 Winter’s Shadow:
I was in charge of the main narrative LTS event, “Winter’s Shadow” for TU57. This was my first time doing a main LTS event for NFSNL. Main events are the primary LTS events that are featured in every title update. They contain a large narrative/story and are the main focus in terms of marketing for each update. This update also coincided with the Christmas/Holiday period so I decided to theme it in that way. I had a lot of fun with the narrative for this update and collaborated heavily with our artists to concept a new character named Karl Klogg. Karl was my take on a human version of a Krampus-like character, to fit with the Christmas theme. To summarise the narrative, essentially there have been mass reports of car and car part thefts all over the city. It turns out Karl is behind it and it is the Player’s job to track him down and stop him. It is revealed at the end that Karl is working with one of the crews, Flaming Skulls to pull this off. It is also revealed that he actually doesn’t steal for himself, he steals and sells the cars/parts for money that he donates to charities and people in need. Karl is essentially an anti-hero or Robin Hood type character.
Overall I am very proud of this update and it is still one of my favourites.
Read the full Winter’s Shadow narrative here!
Responsibilities:
Implementing the Bugatti Bolide vehicle to be usable in game (event version and stock version)
Creating files/folders and setting up event structure
Setting up gameplay elements, including race-types, tracks, track elements, challenges, opponents and traffic
Planning and creating an original story/narrative for the event
Writing dialogue for the event (3-4k words)
Working with the artists to concept a new original character, “Karl Klogg”
Setting up economy elements for the event
Play testing the event to check for economy grind
Tweaking event based on economy check play test
Prepare and send event off for 1st QA playthroughs
Review QA play test data and implement changes based on the data such as grind targets and time offsets
Play test the event to test for difficulty and implement test results
Prepare and send event off for 2nd QA playthroughs
Review QA’s 2nd playthrough data and make adjustments to the event
Bug fixing
Overview:
I was in charge of the XRC: Pagani Huayra R LTS event for TU58. Apart from the LTS event, I was also in charge of UGR (Underground Rivals) this update, which is the game’s PvP/ghost racing system.
Responsibilities:
TU58:
Implementing the Pagani Huayra R vehicle to be usable in game (event version and stock version)
Creating files/folders and setting up event structure
Setting up gameplay elements, including race-types, tracks, track elements, challenges, opponents and traffic
Writing dialogue for the event
Setting up economy elements for the event
Play testing the event to check for economy grind
Tweaking event based on economy check play test
Prepare and send event off for 1st QA playthroughs
Review QA play test data and implement changes based on the data such as grind targets and time offsets
Play test the event to test for difficulty and implement test results
Prepare and send event off for 2nd QA playthroughs
Review QA’s 2nd playthrough data and make adjustments to the event
Bug fixing
Managing UGR (Underground Rivals)
TU59 Underground Insider:
Overview:
I was in charge of the main narrative LTS event, “Underground Insider” for TU59. This was another main narrative event I worked on which was a lot of fun. The story involved a movie director, Michael Speedway, wanting to film a documentary on the underground racing crews of Blackridge and get interviews. The filming is sabotaged by a jealous racer who wants more screen time and the Player needs to help the director get their footage back.
Read the full Underground Insider narrative here!
Responsibilities:
Implementing the Ferrari 296 GTB vehicle to be usable in game (event version and stock version)
Creating files/folders and setting up event structure
Setting up gameplay elements, including race-types, tracks, track elements, challenges, opponents and traffic
Planning and creating an original story/narrative for the event
Writing dialogue for the event (3-4k words)
Working with the artists to concept a new original character, “Karl Klogg”
Setting up economy elements for the event
Play testing the event to check for economy grind
Tweaking event based on economy check play test
Prepare and send event off for 1st QA playthroughs
Review QA play test data and implement changes based on the data such as grind targets and time offsets
Play test the event to test for difficulty and implement test results
Prepare and send event off for 2nd QA playthroughs
Review QA’s 2nd playthrough data and make adjustments to the event
Bug fixing
Overview:
I was in charge of 2 LTS events for TU60; Crew Trials: Lotus Emira and Proving Grounds: Lamborghini Countach LP5000 Quattrovalvole. Managing 2 events was quite a challenge but felt satisfying to complete. Being able to successfully complete 2 events in 1 update made me feel like I had come a long way since I started. The team was also under some capacity constraints in this update, as a lot of people were away on holidays. There were also some issues regarding the name of the Lamborghini car, due to it being so long and there was some confusion around what the official name actually was. Overall this update proved challenging but I was very happy with my work in the end and it felt great to overcome these challenges.
Responsibilities:
TU60:
Implementing the Lotus Emira and Lamborghini Countach LP5000 Quattrovalvole vehicles to be usable in game (event versions and stock versions)
Creating files/folders and setting up event structure
Setting up gameplay elements, including race-types, tracks, track elements, challenges, opponents and traffic
Writing dialogue for the event
Setting up economy elements for the event
Play testing the event to check for economy grind
Tweaking event based on economy check play test
Prepare and send event off for 1st QA playthroughs
Review QA play test data and implement changes based on the data such as grind targets and time offsets
Play test the event to test for difficulty and implement test results
Prepare and send event off for 2nd QA playthroughs
Review QA’s 2nd playthrough data and make adjustments to the event
Bug fixing
Managing UGR (Underground Rivals)
