Knights and Dragons

I was hired as the Art Director at IUGO Games — this was before there was any formalization of the UI/UX process at the studio. The job was to help improve and make the art consistent across the team, which was easily achieved by creating style guides and promoting certain artists into the right roles. But the real challenge was bringing UI and UX to the studio for the first time.

I was brought on as the Art Director for Knights and Dragons, and during that time I discovered the game was monetizing poorly. I improved the monetization through UX improvements and created a vast library of banners, economizing the production greatly. Knights and Dragons was the first game I managed as Art Director — then they gave me Battle Hackers, and after that, Rage of the Immortals. At one point I was managing three live games at once, overseeing a total of around 25 artists.

IUGO was a really interesting period of my career. This was definitely a place where I learned a lot, and what I learned most was how valuable effective time management is when you're responsible for the visual direction and UX across multiple live products simultaneously.

It was trial by fire — and it made me a fundamentally better designer and leader.