Summary
Type: Professional Experience
Completed: Released
Acquirable: iOS (Apple Arcade), Steam, Windows Store and Nintendo Switch.
My Role: Junior UI Programmer
Studio: Gameloft (Brisbane)
Time at the studio: November 2021 - March 2024
Overview
During my time at Gameloft, I worked on The Oregon Trail as a UI Programmer using Unreal Engine Blueprints. Although my role focused on implementation rather than UX or UI art, I collaborated closely with designers, artists and gameplay engineers to bring new features to life and ensure UI behaviour supported the needs of a large, multi-platform audience.
My responsibilities centred on technical execution, system behaviour, and cross-discipline integration, which aligns strongly with Technical Game Design. I implemented UI logic, game-state dependent behaviours, controller/touch input handling, and platform-specific requirements for the Nintendo Switch devkit.
Audience & Design Context
The Oregon Trail has a broad audience, including:
• Younger players
• Long time fans of the original
• Switch users playing in short sessions
• Players unfamiliar with traditional UI conventions
This meant every interface needed to:
• Communicate information quickly
• Support controller, touch and handheld play
• Minimise friction during decision-making
• Remain readable under varying screen sizes
Understanding these constraints was an important part of my design-thinking process.
My Role
I did not create UI art or own UX direction.
Instead, my design-aligned contributions involved:
Instead, my design-aligned contributions involved:
• Implementing the behaviour behind designed UI flows
• Ensuring interactions matched the intended player experience
• Giving feedback to designers when a flow caused friction or readability issues
• Translating design intent into functional state-driven Blueprint systems
• Supporting iteration by making underlying systems more reliable and easier to test
• Helping identify edge cases and proposing technical fixes that preserved clarity
This positioned me as a bridge between design and engineering, which is core Technical Designer territory.
Key Contributions
Blueprint-Driven UI Systems
I implemented and maintained large portions of the game’s UI functionality using Unreal Engine Blueprints, including:
• Menu interactions and navigation rules
• Input handling for controllers and touch
• Dynamic widget behaviour
• Conditional UI logic tied to gameplay states
This required a strong understanding of game state, data flow, and player intention.
Collaboration Across Disciplines
Working with a distributed team meant:
• Coordinating with artists on widget hierarchy and visual layout
• Collaborating with designers to ensure UI supported gameplay clarity
• Working with gameplay programmers to sync UI with systemic states
• Integrating QA feedback daily to fix usability issues
This built strong cross-disciplinary communication skills — essential for game design roles.
What I Delivered
• Blueprint implementations for UI systems and widgets
• Input handling for Switch controller flow
• Adjusted UI logic to support clearer decision-making and better pacing
• Cross-disciplinary communication processes that improved turnaround
• Prototypes of alternative UI behaviours for designer review
• Reliable, shippable code used in the final release
Why This Shows My Design Strengths
This project shows my ability to work as a technical designer within a large production team. I translated design intent into functional systems, proposed usability improvements, and aligned UI behaviours with the needs of a broad player base. My understanding of player flow, clarity and input readability informed many of my decisions, even though the role sat under programming.
It also highlights my ability to:
• Understand player psychology through interface clarity
• Collaborate across disciplines
• Implement and refine systemic behaviours in Blueprint
• Work within platform constraints
• Support designers through technical solutions
This experience strengthened my ability to design with constraints — a core skill in game design.
Press Coverage + Awards
• Australian Game Developer Award: Best Ongoing Game Winner 2022
• Nyx Award: Ongoing Game Silver Winner 2021
• The Webby Awards: Peoples Voice Winner
