LOST IN THE OPEN
Game Designer &
UI/UX Designer
Black Voyage Games
Tactical RPG
March 2023 - August 2023
Steam Page
Final and WIP Screenshots
About Lost In The Open
Lost In The Open is a single-player rogue-lite tactical RPG based in a dark, low-fantasy medieval setting with a procedurally generated world and tactical, turn-based grid combat. You control King Nrvesk as he narrowly escapes from an assassination attempt and tries to return to his home kingdom of Ruedome. Along the way, you'll defend yourself from enemies, hire backup, upgrade your skills and equipment, and uncover the story that led Nrvesk to end up in this harsh situation.
It was developed by Black Voyage Games, a small remote indie studio based out of Sweden. Check out Lost In The Open on Steam here: Steam Page.
I worked full-time on contract with Black Voyage Games from March 2023 - August 2023 as a Game and UI/UX Designer for Lost In The Open, with a wide range of responsibilities. With so few developers, I had to wear many hats and fulfill any role I could!
My Work (in no particular order)
Game Design
Working with the Game Director, I designed, iterated on, and maintained the design for most of the gameplay systems in Lost In The Open throughout their implementation to production. Some main systems I worked on were combat design, character design and progression, item progression, trading, and game balance.
For each of these systems, I came up with an initial design, pitched it to the Game Director, and made iterative prototypes and improvements while working to support my design with other teams such as code, art, animation, and marketing as the design moved into implementation and finishing.
On top of this, I also did some narrative, level, and economy design in order to integrate my systems into the world. I created combat encounter levels, narrative-based scenario events in the world map, as well as resource and experience systems to foster progression throughout the game.
UX/UI Design
For all of the designs I created, I also designed the way to show that information to players in a helpful, informative, and non-intrusive way. I performed analytical breakdowns of various competing games within our target genre, analyzing their goals and methods to achieving them, and using that information to inform my own designs for Lost In The Open.
A Figma design sketch from August 2023 when working on new button designs.
I worked on many visual prototypes and designs for all External and Internal User Interface for Lost In The Open, such as the Main Menu / New Game screens, onboarding, world map HUD, combat encounter HUD, information and tooltip systems, pause, defeat, and victory screens, and various other necessary interfaces.
An early sketch completed by me when starting to visualize Zone of Control and Flanking features for the combat system.
Leadership and Pitching
As the project neared a Kickstarter launch, I started to take on more responsibility for leadership. I assisted the Game Director in creating documents for potential investors and publishers, such as pitch decks and Game Design Documents (GDDs). I also attended meetings with potential investors and publisher representatives to represent and provide an expert position on the game's current and future design vision.
LITO's core gameplay loop graphic used in pitches.
Over time, I took responsibility for managing all playtest feedback and bug reports from any of the playtests Black Voyage Games ran over our various builds, collecting everything and profiling things into an easy-to-work-with bug backlog for our programmers.
As various designers and internal members in our small team assisted with design, I became the "go-to" person for the game's design, always being active and responsive in our work chat channels to help steer teammates in the right direction whenever they were feeling unsure about a mechanic, story, or gameplay element. I take pride in the ability to support and inform my team with gameplay knowledge, so they're never unsure about the planned content for our project!
