Ilya Firsov – Ricochet Tanks Game Designer Portfolio

Ricochet Tanks is a cross-platform arcade PvP & PvE tank shooter with a high focus on ricochets

Studio: 23:23 Team
Team: 4 full-time members and 1 freelancer
Development time: ~8 months
Platform: PC & Android (itch.io)
Engine: Unity

As a small indie studio co-founder, I performed as a Generalist Game Designer and Team Leader:

Designed PvP & PvE gameplay mechanics, maps, systems, and AI
Designed interface mockups and created UI/UX prototypes using Figma
Created maps with meaningful gameplay using the Unity toolset
Established work processes and maintained day-to-day management for a multidisciplinary team of 5

Core Gameplay

My two primary goals in terms of core gameplay were:

To create a determined battle system with a minimum amount of randomness.
To encourage players to adopt an aggressive gameplay style.

Determined battles

I limited the number of ricochets to one and added a feature to display their trajectory, making fights more predictable. Now players can precisely know where their bullets will fly and plan their actions strategically

Projectile trajectory display and ricochet mechanic

Aggressive gameplay

I designed a bonus system to emphasize certain areas of the map. It motivates players to play more aggressively and fight for these strategic positions to prevent their opponents from gaining bonuses and an advantage

Maps for four players, with bonus spawn points marked by colored prints on the ground

Team Management

As the team leader, my responsibilities included:

Setting tasks and overseeing their implementation, providing regular feedback
Implementing and managing two-week sprints, tracked in YouTrack
Developing pipelines for sound design, art, and code
Conducting meetings with iteration retrospectives and planning discussions

UX Design

I was also responsible for the interface mockups and UX design. Further details and examples of my work can be found in the prototype below