ONE ON ONE WITH THE DETROIT PISTONS

About the project:

• Company: Eko
• Genre: Action/basketball
• Target audience: Millenials, casual gamers, basketball fans
• Release date: December 5 2016
• Associated creator: Ramiro Corbetta
• Play it here: https://pistons.palacenet.com/

About my work:

• Position: Lead game designer
• Design work: game systemechanics, UX, controls, balancing, QA

This project is the result of a partnership with the NBA team Detroit Pistons. I spent over 5 months working on it daily, at first as a game designer assisting Ramiro Corbetta (the external creator in charge of the project), then as lead designer, taking over the design responsibilities and the vision of the game.

The project is a full-motion video game in which two protagonists play one-on-one basketball. The user must execute quick actions following indications on the screen in order to influence the outcome of the branching video and score points. The game is fast paced, yet its controls are simple enough to reach a non-gaming audience and allow them to get better as they replay. The game has a "snackable" format: it can be played in under 5 minutes and replayed often. It showcases a cinematic basketball experience conveyed by a simple and fast-paced gameplay.

My role on the game was to design the main mechanics and the user experience (flowchats, as well as to define the controls for both mobile and a desktop platforms. Later on, I took care of balancing the values of the game, defining the tutorial and progression, as well as overseeing the QA process.

What I learned:

• Iterating on gameplay and tweaking mechanics with a fixed amount of assets (film)
• Working daily with a development and QA team overseas
• Implementing balancing and progression for both mobile and desktop controls