ROLE: DESIGN & PRODUCTION OVERVIEW
TITLE: BIG POTATO GAMES
(2025 - 2025)Brief:
Must match tone, pace and ease of access that BPG is famous for.
Use the digital format to enhance gameplay and reduce drag.
User story always take place in a living room, around a table or in the pub.
Overview:
Working directly with BPG we managed to get to grips with things very quickly - Then we trimmed anything that would subtract from the “one more round” feeling.
Once the game was solid, we worked with a separate tech team to build the backend, turning the games into a foundation for a new experimental social platform.
Project Summary
This was broken down in to a simple iteration phase - each week we would have AB tests for different screens, users flow and expectation vs outcome balancing.
Design Hurdle:
How do we teach the rules, let you customise the game and have a first session in under 10 minutes - WITHOUT removing player control?
Solution:
We launch directly in to a single player session and give the player both perspectives. If the play onboards via a client link, we give the host an option to trigger a practice round.
◖Seamless Setup
The combinations of user ranged from; Existing premium user, new premium, existing guest and new guest - Every combination had to work in
▲ The Real Trick
Using specific weapons as progress gates gave us several ways to reward player engagement without ever directly funnelling them. It also let us organise and structure a “randomised” world - that stuck to average timings and expectations.
Simple Gameflow [Tilt 'n' Shout]
Goal: show how the app keeps the party game moving from setup to scoring.
Teams pick cards, tilt the phone, and shout answers against the timer.
Mistakes hand points to the other team.
Challenges and rewinds resolve edge cases without stopping the round.
Simple Gameflow [Sounds Fishy]
Goal: show how the app supports setup, role assignment, scoring, and tie breaks.
The mini game starts sessions, assigns Red Herring and Blue Kipper roles, and resolves ties.
Correct play rewards players with coins.
Failed guesses keep the loop clear without adding extra admin.
Scroll down to see simplified versions of game systems
◖Missions are long-term.
They persist after death and help decide the enemy count, biome, difficulty curve, and reward pacing of the procedural environment ahead.
◖Balance based on the individual player was top prio.
Player agency is the core of the project - tracking metrics [DPS, Playtime, Unlock %, Run Streak] allowed us to control the curve, without letting the player know.
◖Trials are short-term.
They only apply to the current run and reset after death or completion. Trials drastically alter the gameplay by adding totally new variables.
▲ The Real Trick
We had to create Trials that don’t “feel” like they are easier - instead offering neutral options that tilt gameplay in the players favour.
◖Single Screen Engagement
We needed to automate score tracking, rounds and digitise pauses, onboarding and game setup - we spent roughly 60% of our dev time just iterating on these.
◖Grind economics are a side effect.
Organic players (total strangers) would naturally flow through the missions route with little care for the missions, so we made them more passive - automatically applying the base mission for your current stage - which then populates the world with a % of your objective targets/scenarios.