Maksim Gavrilin | Game Design Portfolio

I'm a Senior Game Designer with 11+ years of experience in mobile games. My main field of experience lies within combat, enemy AI scripting, gameplay balance and systems design.

I like making prototypes, and sometimes I make games for fun at game jams.

Auckland, New Zealand · Open to remote work

Projects

Grimguard Tactics 2023 - Now

Role: Senior Game Designer, Outerdawn
Platform: Android · Engine: Unity
Stages: Soft launch, global release, live operations
Google Play

Overview

Grimguard Tactics is a turn-based tactics RPG in a grimdark setting. I enjoy working on this game: creating new fun combat mechanics, synergies and the enemies that counter them.

Main achievements

Proposed and own a hero system redesign. Slow releases and power creep came from how heroes and subclasses were built; the new design lets heroes release monthly instead of every 3 months, with a migration that keeps every player's progress.
Redesigned campaign enemy spawning and challenge rating, so any level works with any enemy set and its difficulty follows from what spawns. Levels are about 3× faster to build and balance data is reliable.
Designed and shipped 4 heroes, 2 dungeon events and clan fight bosses, from concept to implementation.
Own gameplay and balance across the game: subclasses, combat effects, and hero and campaign progression.
Script enemy and boss AI in Unity Visual Scripting; prototype and tune new combat features in-engine.

Greenwood Lines 2020 - 2022

Role: Game Designer & Developer, Verzilla Games
Platform: Android · Engine: Unity (C#)

Overview

Greenwood Lines is a link-style puzzle game I had wanted to make for a long time. I worked on it with an amazing artist: I designed and programmed the gameplay, mechanics and tutorials, and built the level design tools.

My main goal was to get more experience programming in C# and to learn the Unity engine in depth.

Main achievements

Ran the whole project with one artist, from first prototype to release.
Designed the project architecture and programmed the game in C#.
Built level design tools and used them to create and balance 120+ levels.
Released the game on Google Play and found a publisher. Market tests showed 17% D1 retention, and the publisher decided not to scale it.

Pixel Gun 3D 2019

Role: Lead Economy Designer, Lightmap
Platform: Android, iOS · Stage: Live operations
App Store · Google Play

Overview

Pixel Gun 3D is a mobile shooter. I was brought in to move the game from pay-to-win to a fair free-to-play balance. My work was to analyse the existing economy, build math models for it, then integrate and tune them based on analytics. With the team we remade, step by step, the core currency flows and weapon distribution across the game.

Main achievements

Analysed the existing economy and monetization systems with live data and built improved math models for them.
Designed the new economy model (currency flows, spending points and weapon distribution); shipped it quickly with the team, then ran several post-launch iterations.
Worked on a new weaponry system, removing or rebalancing underused and imbalanced weapons.

Rescue Sparkle 2018 - 2019

Role: Lead Game Designer, Game Garden
Platform: Android, iOS · Stages: Preproduction to release

Overview

Rescue Sparkle is a match-3 game we took all the way from preproduction to release. My daily work was communicating with the producer, keeping the game vision clear across the design team, task management, task review and sprint planning. When needed I did hands-on design work too: documentation, data entry, balance and testing.

Main achievements

Led a team of 6 designers and was project manager for the ~15-person team: sprints, task reviews, one-on-ones and milestone planning.
Every milestone met on time with minimal feature cuts.
Sole designer through preproduction: designed the prototype and tools, and wrote the full documentation.

Pet Heroes 2017

Role: Technical Game Designer, Game Garden
Platform: Android, iOS · Stage: Reboot

Overview

Pet Heroes is an unusual match-3 / farm / battler RPG. The game was being rebooted, and my job was to analyse the existing systems and fix or rebuild them. I was responsible for hero progression, the farm economy, and economy and gameplay balance.

Main achievements

Built a fully documented math model for the balance and economy systems.
Wrote in-game scripts that calculate everything from the math models, making new heroes, buildings and regions much faster to produce.
Redesigned the core game loops, which made tutorials easier and improved FTUE and retention.
Found and removed balance issues and features that caused churn.

Dakota: Farm Adventures 2016 - 2017

Role: Technical Game Designer, Rocket Jump
Platform: Facebook, VK · Stages: Soft launch, release
Facebook page

Overview

Dakota: Farm Adventures is a farm simulation game in a Victorian setting. I scripted character behaviour from the game's narrative scenarios and built Excel tools for economy calculations. I contributed to four full story locations.

Main achievements

Created character behaviour, interactions, conversations and camera transitions for four locations.
Wrote VBA calculation tools in Excel for the game designers.

Dreamland 2015

Role: Technical Game Designer, Rocket Jump
Platform: Android · Stages: Prototype, preproduction, soft launch

Overview

Dreamland is a roguelite puzzle game inspired by Dungelot, set in a very different universe, with generated levels and situations. I owned the technical side of the project, worked with programmers on several features and planned sprints for the tech work.

Main achievements

Owned procedural level generation: designed the rules for spawning enemies, abilities and other content, all driven from one JSON file, and balanced the output.
Owned the ability mechanics and their balance.
Created the production pipeline for locations and backgrounds.
Managed production for the 7-person team through soft launch.

Under Fire: Invasion 2014 - 2015

Role: Game Designer, Rocket Jump
Platform: Android, iOS · Stage: Live operations

Overview

Under Fire: Invasion is a strategy game, and the first project I worked on. I designed and balanced levels for the campaign and for events. Every level is a map with a story, paths, and enemy and hero spawns.

Main achievements

Designed and balanced around 20 campaign levels and their scenarios.
Owned the recurring event system.
Supported the game after the end of development.

Also worked on: Hawaii Match-3 Mania (G5, 2019: cutscene scripting and match-3 level balance) and the original Under Fire (social).