F1 Manager 2022

Role

Senior Game Designer

Key Responsibilities

Designed core gameplay features

Worked closely with UI and Code to implement these feature

Designed backend tools to aid other designers in their work

Mentored and managed graduate designers with their work

F1 Manager 2022 is the official racing management simulation game of the 2022 Formula One, Formula 2, and Formula 3 championships. Players chose a team and, through decisions both on and off the track, try to lead their drivers and constructor to championship wins.

I joined the project midway through development as it was moving from pre-prod into full production. My role on the team was primary a senior systems designer, however the responsibilities I was entrusted with varied from conceptual design, to game balancing, to aiding and mentoring graduate designers in their day to day tasks. One of the key areas I was given to work on was the Team Management aspect of the game.

This included systems and features such as the Drivers, Staff, Facilities Management, Calendar, Dashboard, Finances, Inbox etc.; as well as the AI behaviour for how other teams would manage these aspects as well. This involved work in all aspects of feature creation, from initial design documentation, through prototyping and ultimately balancing and delivering of the final feature.

One of the larger tasks I worked on during the project was to help build a series of tools which allowed Designers to create content for the game. A philosophy I wanted to the project to adopt, was to give content driven systems (such as the player’s Inbox where they receive emails) over to design, freeing up other departments to focus on other areas of the game. Designers would have access to tools (in the case of the Inbox, a series of Unreal Blueprints) that would allow them to create content without the need to involve Code or UI. This system proved extremely useful and as the franchise moved forward, I would want to extend this philosophy and approach to other systems.