Player-facing systems, built to scale.
At Vela Games I was the sole designer responsible for redesigning and scaling the full player-facing experience for Evercore Heroes: Ascension during a major shift in product direction, building cohesive systems across progression, rewards and interaction while balancing clarity, complexity and performance in a live multiplayer environment.
A co-op action roguelite
Ascension is a co-op action roguelite with MOBA-inspired elements where up to three players team up across unique maps, defeat enemies and face powerful bosses, unlocking heroes and powering them up across each run.
I owned the redesign of the full player-facing experience, from progression and rewards to moment-to-moment interaction, during a major shift in product direction.
Fragmented, fast, scalable
The product had fragmented and inconsistent UI across systems. Players needed to make complex decisions quickly during gameplay. Systems had to scale as new features and content were added, and the UI had to work across multiple input types and performance constraints.
Consistent, scalable, readable
I designed systems that were consistent (predictable patterns across the product), scalable (new content without breaking existing structures), readable under pressure (quick decisions mid-game) and flexible (supporting different, evolving playstyles).
This guided every decision, from progression and rewards to moment-to-moment interaction design.
Owned across the product
Alongside the core systems, I delivered improvements across the product: refactoring the in-game HUD for readability, redesigning post-match screens to surface individual and team performance, improving matchmaking and session flows, enhancing map selection, streamlining hero unlock and progression, refactoring the vendor interface, and designing a reward/upgrade iconography system for consistency and recognition.
Owning both design and in-engine implementation gave me a holistic understanding of how systems, interaction and performance combine to shape the overall experience.
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