Ilya Firsov – Justmoby Galactory Game Designer Portfolio

Galactory offers a blend of sandbox and god simulator gameplay, allowing players to rule over their miniature world. Players can craft and demolish anything they desire, ranging from intricate landscapes and diverse creatures to the rise and fall of entire kingdoms

Studio: JustMoby
Team: 5 full-time members + ~10 people from other departments
Development time: ~20 months
Platform: Android (Play Market)
Engine: Unity
I worked as a generalist Game Designer during the entire development process of Galactory:
  • Held design ownership of most gameplay mechanics and systems
  • Designed game content to create a proper sandbox experience
  • Wrote and maintained documentation in Confluence
  • Leveraged analytics to balance progression, economics, and monetization
  • Designed interface mockups and created UI/UX prototypes using Figma
Kingdom and City Systems
In the game, AI people can construct their cities and kingdoms. I was responsible for designing various systems to foster realistic and diverse behaviors, such as:

  • A tendency system that monitors kingdom parameters and influences decisions like war, trading, etc
  • A city manager system for assigning tasks to AI humans and overseeing city construction
  • A resource system assesses resource needs based on factors like food, army, and construction
  • A trading system for setting resource prices based on market demands and facilitating trade between kingdoms
  • A relationship system to gauge parameters influencing whether kingdoms are at war or peace
  • A war system in charge of army management decisions, including attacks and city defenses
Note: Some systems are simplified here due to a shift in team priorities during the development process
AI
I took over the design responsibility for the AI system, which involved:

  • Collaborating with programmers to develop behavior trees for various entities such as people, animals, and other creatures
  • Creating logic for basic actions including idle, self-defense, and feeding
  • Developing a behavioral model for citizens and military units
  • Designing interactions among predators, herbivores, humans, and various monsters
Game Content
In Galactory, players can use diverse powers to interact with the world. My objective was to craft a compelling sandbox experience by designing powers with intricate interactions. This approach encourages players to explore game mechanics and rewards them with exciting outcomes
Elementals
Elementals are units that players can spawn. Their material composition depends on the summoning location. This mechanic turns elementals into a small mini-game, encouraging players through inner motivation to discover all possible variations

Interaction of elemental summoning power with earth, sand, water, lava, and snown
Acid
Acid is a landscape-altering power that generates liquid acid. Its design concept is akin to that of elementals, where interactions with various landscapes and natural elements yield distinct results
Interactions of acid with sand, fire, and water
Balance and economics
I worked on the balance of economics, monetization, and related systems, creating automated balance spreadsheets for this purpose. You can read more about it here (recommended), or view a preview below.
Note: The spreadsheets presented do not reflect the current game balance and content. They are included to demonstrate these spreadsheets' structure, formulas, and systems.