Leaderboard Systems
I iteratively designed a leaderboard system for Marmalade's games, making changes based upon outcomes of simulations that I ran, and feedback from the studio's Creative Lead,
Lead Programmer, and CEO.
Skills:
Software:
Economy Design
UX Design
Games Design
Pitching
Google Sheets
In-House Simulator​
Miro
Google Slides
Ticket to Ride Leaderboard
for Marmalade Game Studio
This project began as a proposal for a leaderboard system for Marmalade's Ticket to Ride, a game with a notably more competitive player base than that of the rest of Marmalade's catalogue. I proposed several potential approaches and initially began fleshing out the design of an Elo-like system.
Later on, the scope of the project was expanded to encompass all of Marmalade’s games, not just Ticket to Ride. Given that some of these titles attract a more casual audience, I subsequently proposed a new system that could be tweaked to change the impact of win-rate and play time from game to game.
To achieve this, I designed a few options for flexible systems based on straightforward, configurable algorithms. The algorithms' parameters could be adjusted to create a more competitive or a more casual experience. A programmer at Marmalade developed a leaderboard simulator, which I calibrated and used to iteratively test and refine various configurations of those algorithms.
I presented the results of these simulations, and a Marmalade CEO chose which option they thought would work best. Finally, I went through some more fine tuning simulations of the chosen system and some under the hood live testing was performed before the system was finally launched for Ticket to Ride. Some further tweaks were made post launch based upon live data. Since then, the system has gone on to be used across the Marmalade Games catalogue.