The Bazaar
Gameplay design for a digital strategy game
Overview
I was the lead designer on The Bazaar in its early days. It's an unreleased strategy game developed by indie game studio TempoStorm.
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Skills
Gameplay Design
Design Communication
Tools
Google Sheets
Google Docs
Figma
Unity
Two Chapters
I worked at Tempo two times. First, I was the lead designer in the early days of the project. Then I rejoined as a prototype game designer after a year. The game is still yet to be released.
2020-2021 (1.5 year)
Back then, The Bazaar team had 5-6 people in the U.S. with specialized roles. I was one of them. The rest of the team was ~20 remote contractors in Ukraine doing development and art. I contributed most of the gameplay design. I had two direct reports my last few months.
2022-2023 (8 months)
I returned after a year away. The studio then had 30+ people in the US. I was a prototype designer. Basically, I was in charge or making sure the original vision was still happening.
Rules Design
When I first joined, the basic rules weren't settled. After those first 1.5 years, we basically had it figured out. I designed the rules in collaboration with the CEO Andrey (Reynad). It required a lot of experimentation and strategy game analysis.
The opening scene before a fight
Card Design
Card design is ongoing and much more in-the-weeds. I designed hundreds of cards. I invented the mechanics and balanced their numbers. Most of this work was in spreadsheets.
I added cards to the game through an internal tool. And when we needed new mechanics and content, I wrote design docs for artists and engineers.
Example Card Designs
Design Communication
I spent at least half my time on communication. We had dozens of artists and developers. I made sure they knew what to make.
I did a lot of writing. For developers, I wrote detailed mechanical docs describing rules. For artists, I made art requests with gameplay context and narrative direction.
The Bazaar has incredible art. I'm proud I played a small role in the creative direction. The bulk of the credit should go to the art director Valentine Khruslov and his team of artists in Ukraine 🇺🇦
Check it out yourself!
Visit The Bazaar