During my senior year at Bradley University, I served as UX Lead on a capstone game project with a team of 30+ students. Alongside other discipline leads, I helped guide the project through a full end-to-end development cycle, culminating in a live showcase at FUSE.

• Led UX across a full production cycle (1 year)

• Delivered a playable, publicly showcased game

• Continued development post-graduation toward Steam release

The project was complex and often unstable, but it became a defining experience in leadership, adaptability, and real-world design constraints.

As UX Lead, I owned the end-to-end UI experience, from concept to in-engine implementation.

• Led a cross-functional UI team (artist, engineer, designer)

• Defined and maintained a cohesive UX vision

• Designed, iterated, and implemented UI directly in-engine

• Facilitated meetings, planning, and task prioritization

• Balanced team strengths, timelines, and shifting priorities

My role required both hands-on execution and team leadership to keep the UI consistent throughout development.

Building a game with a large, student-led team introduced significant complexity:

• Lack of clear creative direction early in development led to misalignment across disciplines and inconsistent design output

• Constant scope changes and faculty feedback created instability, forcing teams into reactive decision-making

• Risk of project failure, with concerns raised about whether the game would be ready for FUSE

Maintaining a usable, consistent interface under these conditions was a constant challenge.

To address these challenges, I focused on creating clarity, alignment, and a sustainable path forward for both the product and the team.

• Helped drive a full project reset, collaborating with team leads to evaluate existing work, redefine scope, and establish a clear, unified vision

• Reframed UX direction to prioritize clarity, cohesion, and feasibility within time constraints

• Realigned team structure and priorities, ensuring work matched individual strengths and supported the new direction

• Maintained UI consistency through change, adapting designs quickly while preserving usability and visual identity

• Supported team morale and communication, helping create alignment and confidence during a high-pressure pivot

This shift allowed the team to move from reactive development to a more focused, intentional process, ultimately setting the project up for a successful delivery.

The UI was designed for two key audiences:

• FUSE attendees

   ○ First-time players in a fast-paced showcase environment

   ○ Needed instant clarity and strong visual engagement

• Developers and faculty reviewers

   ○ Required a scalable, easy-to-iterate UI system

   ○ Needed clarity for ongoing development and feedback

Designing for both ensured the UI was intuitive for players and practical for production.

The project centered around one core principle: communication.

• Collaborated across design, engineering, QA, and production

• Led planning sessions to define UI needs and priorities

• Broke work into manageable tasks using Jira, sprints, and stand-ups

• Designed and implemented UI directly in-engine

• Continuously aligned UI with gameplay and technical constraints

This approach kept the UI consistent, functional, and production-ready throughout development.

Focused on rapid exploration and team alignment:

• Created sketches, flow diagrams, and low-fidelity wireframes to explore layout and interaction patterns

• Defined early information hierarchy and player flows before systems were fully built

• Used designs as communication tools to align artists, engineers, and designers

• Explored multiple UI directions to balance readability, tone, and gameplay clarity

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Because the game was still evolving, flexibility was critical:

• Treated early designs as disposable and iterative, not final

• Incorporated feedback from gameplay, engineering, and production early and often

• Adjusted concepts quickly as features and mechanics changed

This phase helped establish a shared direction, allowing the team to move into production with clarity, alignment, and confidence.

As development progressed, the project faced significant instability, requiring constant adaptation:

• Scope continued to shift with no clear, unified vision

• Teams worked toward different ideas without alignment

• Faculty raised concerns about whether the project would make it to FUSE

• Progress became reactive, with solutions often acting as short-term fixes

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Recognizing this, I worked with production and fellow leads to reset our direction:

• Led a 4–5 hour working session to evaluate the entire project

• Identified what was working, what wasn’t, and what needed to change

• Reduced scope and redefined a clear, focused vision

• Reallocated team members based on strengths and project needs

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From there, I translated this new direction into actionable UI work:

• Reprioritized features based on updated goals and constraints

• Redesigned key elements like health UI and navigation flows

• Collaborated closely with my team to refine and align solutions

• Used Jira, sprints, and stand-ups to manage scope and execution

This shift marked a turning point. With a shared direction in place, the team became more focused, efficient, and confident, leading to a more cohesive experience and a successful delivery.

A core part of my role was bringing designs to life in-engine:

• Integrated UI assets and layouts into Unity

• Ensured designs were functional, polished, and responsive

• Collaborated with engineers and QA to refine behavior and performance

Highlight: Main Menu Implementation

• Prevented a key feature from being cut due to scope changes

• Leveraged pre-built assets and triggers from teammates

• Self-taught Unity Animator in one day to complete implementation

• Delivered a dynamic underwater transition menu

This not only saved completed work, but resulted in one of the most memorable UI moments in the game.

After a full year of iteration and collaboration, the final UI was:

• Polished and cohesive across all systems

• Inclusive of key elements like HUD, menus, and tutorials

• Balanced between style and usability

• Fully functional within live gameplay environments

The final product reflected both the game’s tone and the team’s collective effort.

Despite development challenges, the final product was a success:

• Showcased at FUSE with strong player engagement

• Players responded with fear, excitement, and immersion

• Delivered a complete, playable experience under tight constraints

• Continued development post-graduation, leading to a Steam release with positive reception

• Helped lead a full project reset that turned a high-risk, unfocused product into a successful FUSE showcase and Steam release

Seeing players actively engage with the game validated the design decisions and team effort.