My Role:

Systems Designer

For Shark Tank Tycoon I worked closely with the game’s lead designer in creating the game’s Shark Tank minigame. I assisted with pitching ideas and mockups for its functionality, helped provide feedback on gameplay and UX, and created the configuration data sheets needed to import the minigame’s many parameters such as characters, game balance, dialogue, pitch products, image references, etc.

The goal of the Pitch minigame was to better tie in the game to the TV show. Based on player feedback, the game didn’t feel as connected to the show as players would like, and you didn’t really get to participate in the bantering and bidding that often occurred. Since the game had already been designed and was live, it was a real challenge to find some way to integrate gameplay that would meet player expectations without redesigning the core game. The solution we came to was to make it a minigame that players could frequently interact with. Rather than just unlocking this minigame, we decided that the game should start by introducing the player to the Sharks, and explaining that you, the player were the season’s newest shark. Players are greeted by an entrepreneur pitching their ideas, and the other sharks would jump in and banter with each other. Each pitch had its own unique dialog to make sure they felt unique.

I created an importable data spreadsheet that would contain all the elements needed for each pitch. With that, we could add, adjust, or remove individual pitches and simply reimport the sheet to our servers to avoid releasing a new build each time.

I also helped create two seasonal events for the game’s liveops content. My main contribution was to balance the events and work with artists to generate the required art assets for the events. These events were mini-events that spanned 3-4 days where players could play an alternate version of the core game loop for additional rewards. The goal of this event was to encourage player engagement and monetization. Each event had its own unique businesses and entrepreneurs to interact with, and it was this content I was in charge of delivering and balancing.