CREATIVE LEADER IN VIDEO GAMES •
AUTHOR • VOICE ACTOR
LORI HYRUP
Genre:
Year:
Team Size:
Role:
Platforms:
Engine:
Recognitions:​​
F2P MMO / PVP / RVR / Third-person / Space Shooter
2011 - 2013
25 (5 designers)
Lead Game Designer (Live Operations)
PC Browser
Unreal
European Game Awards - Best Browser Game 2011​
Lead Game Designer (Studio Lead Designer)
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I was originally hired by Bigpoint to lead another project, but when the licensing fell through for that, I was asked to take over Battlestar Galactica Online (BSGO) as the Lead Game Designer. The game, which had launched about three months before my arrival, had been developed by an external team and then brought internal for Live Operations. The young game was struggling in some areas. Some aspects of design work had not been started and/or had just the bare minimum implemented. It was also a free-to-play game in North America when free-to-play was still a somewhat new concept for many North Americans.
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A week before I was scheduled to join the team, I thoroughly studied the game, read all of the player forums, and created a prioritized list of features to tackle and bugs to fix. When I officially took over, I was ready with a plan. I balanced the small team's work between tackling the most significant issues already existing in the game and those new features—both new gameplay features the players wanted and monetization features the project needed to pay for itself.
​​Gameplay Footage
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This gameplay footage from Battlestar Galactica Online shows the type of game it was and some of the gameplay systems.
When I joined this two-faction, PVP MMO, it only had the bare bones of a guild system. PVP-based MMOs thrive because of guilds and clans, and such systems need to be well-supported. One of the first things I did was design a fully fleshed-out guild system called the Wing System and the plan to roll it out over six phases.
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The team had never seen a design like the one I presented, and many people on the team thanked me for the clear documentation and instructions.
While BSGO was a PVP-focused game, it still had AI enemies, but they weren't very smart at all, which makes the experience boring. So, I designed a number of AI behaviors for our enemies, including spawn behaviors, threat behaviors, range-related behaviors, defense assistance, defender behavior, and end-of-combat behaviors.
​​First-Time User Experience (FTUE)
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When I first joined the project, the FTUE was not engaging for the new players who were excited to join the universe of Battlestar Galactica, and if you don't engage new players right out the gate, you lose them. So, I designed a new FTUE, and directed my team toward its construction. Below is a simple storyboard I created for the team using a mixture of scenes from the TV show and assets that existed from the game.