Game Designer: Data-Driven Systems and Gameplay
I design game systems and use player data to fix them. Over 5 years across 12 titles on mobile, PC, and web. 2 commercial releases, a graduation thesis, and more than 10 student and jam projects. Statistics background. I iterate with spreadsheets and analytics.
Selected Projects
5 curated pieces · 2 case studies + 3 showcase cardsBuilt on what I learned from Idle Kingdom Builder. Deeper progression tiers, and a monetization layer using reward ads and IAP. I instrumented Unity Analytics to snapshot player state at 4 milestones. That surfaced two economy bugs and a timer persistence defect. Three fixes shipped in v1.70. 600+ organic downloads, 4.2/5 rating, no marketing spend. Median session is around 6 minutes. Top 10% of players average 15+min.
My first published idle game. I designed the core loop and economy from scratch, using Cookie Clicker's formulas as a reference and tuning them toward a slower, more deliberate pace. Shipped on Google Play with 800+ organic downloads and solid early engagement. Without an analytics pipeline, I had no reliable way to see where players dropped off. That limitation is what led me to build the analytics system for Cyberpunk City.
2.5D Metroidvania developed as a graduation project at PUC-SP. I started as game designer, then took on developer and producer duties as the project progressed. That meant core systems, parkour mechanics, and the art/sound pipeline. I led the scope cuts needed to ship a playable vertical slice with a team of 6 inside academic deadlines. Well received by the examining committee.
Souls-like combat demo built for PUCJam 2023 on the theme: "Sacred". I designed and programmed the core fighting system: hitboxes, animation trees, life/death state, and combat balancing. Won Best Art at PUCJam 2023 against every participating team at PUC-SP, newcomers through seniors.
Stealth-action game set in an alternate 2031 Brazil, with Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell as clear references. I designed the level layout, the core stealth and shooting mechanics, and the narrative. Espionage mixed with absurd comedy in a Brazilian geopolitical setting. Built for CtrlAltJam#3 with a team of 4.
Additional Work: FoxTales Studios
Student studio · PUC-SP · 2020–2023 · Game Designer & 3D Artist
Case Study: Idle Cyberpunk City Clicker
220 tracked players · pre-1.70 build · 4 milestone snapshotsFlying blind after the first game
Idle Kingdom Builder shipped with 800+ downloads and solid reviews, but no analytics pipeline. I had no visibility into where players dropped off, or why. Cyberpunk City was growing steadily and had the same blind spot. I needed a way to see inside the player journey without blowing the budget.
Milestone-based analytics on a budget
Maximum information, fewest possible event sends. I was working within the free Unity Analytics tier. I designed 4 snapshot events tied to credit milestones (1K, 1M, 1B, 1T). Each captures buildings, upgrades, click/passive ratio, and time elapsed per player.
Economy validates, bugs surface
The click-to-passive transition behaved as designed. The data also caught a tracking bug inflating clicker counts (a variable naming mistake), and a timer persistence defect at higher milestones that was producing invalid readings.
3 fixes shipped in v1.70
I corrected the analytics instrumentation, adjusted the passive upgrade multiplier from 5× to 3.5×, and added session persistence. The next analysis cycle will have clean data for a before/after comparison.
Knowing what the data showed
The steepest drop in the funnel is 1M → 1B, at 73%. That wall lines up with passive upgrade costs scaling faster than player earning power. The multiplier jump from mid-tier to late-tier buildings is too aggressive. The next iteration targets a smoother mid-game curve: passive multiplier from 5× to 3.5×, clicker multiplier from 10× to 7×.
I would also revisit upgrade discoverability. 52% of players had zero upgrades at the 1K milestone. That means the UI isn't surfacing them early enough. A subtle prompt or visual cue the first time a player can afford an upgrade should shift that ratio without being intrusive.
Case Study: Guardian's Falls
Team of 6 · 12 months · Scope management · Graduation thesisAmbition outpaced capacity
The month-1 design doc planned for 4+ zones, 8 parkour mechanics, combo combat, skill trees, and layered narrative. Team of 6. No dedicated programmer. 12-month academic deadline.
Prototype fast, cut decisively
We built early prototypes covering the full mechanic set and tested which ones actually supported the core loop. Then a structured beta with categorized feedback. Features that weren't pulling their weight got cut.
Ship what works, not everything
The final demo covers 3 zones with streamlined movement (sprint, slide, dash), dash-strike combat, and environmental storytelling. Progression is linear so the level design can introduce mechanics in sequence.
Demo shipped + 3 design principles I still use
Shipped a coherent vertical slice. The committee acknowledged the design trade-offs involved. The scope and iteration lessons from this project shaped how I approached both idle games afterwards.
What We Envisioned vs. What Shipped
The original doc was deliberately ambitious. Dream big first, then scope down to what the team can ship well. I handled design, C# programming, and production. No dedicated programmer on the team.
| System | Month 1 Vision | What Shipped | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Movement | 8 mechanics: vault, slide, wall jump, grab/climb, swing, roll, sprint, free jump. Stamina system gating usage. | Sprint, slide, dash. Stamina cut entirely. Removing the resource gate made movement feel fast and expressive. Vault, wall jump, and grab/climb were prototyped, then cut for clarity. | Evolved |
| Combat | 3-hit combo tree, slide attack, bounce attack, power punches, sprint attack | Dash-into-enemy strike. Combos made players stop and chain punches. The dash-strike let them keep moving. It emerged from prototyping, not from the original doc. | Simplified |
| Zones | 4+ zones (Moonlit Meadow, Bond Fracture, Jade Jungle, Innerlake) + Hub | 3 zones shipped. Hub removed. Progression is linear, not branching. | Simplified |
| Progression | Skill tree, NPC quests, HUB, backtracking, left/right difficulty choice | Linear progression across 3 zones. No skill tree. No hub. Mechanical mastery carries the progression. | Cut |
| Narrative | 4 cardinal guardians, trauma metaphor, intro cutscene, NPC dialogue, symbolic enemy design | Environmental storytelling carries the narrative. No cutscene. No NPC dialogue. World-building is embedded in level design. | Evolved |
| Enemies | 3 types per zone + mini-boss + final boss, thematically symbolic designs | Generic enemy types. Focus shifted to making combat feel responsive rather than narratively themed. | Simplified |
Mechanic Spotlight: Dash-Strike Combat
Combat is movement
Instead of standing still and executing combos, the player dashes into enemies to attack. The original doc specified a 3-hit combo tree and special attacks. Early prototypes had them working. In practice, they pulled the feel in the opposite direction of the movement system. Combos made players stop. The dash-strike kept them flowing.
What I Carried Forward
Scope is a design skill
The original doc had 8 movement mechanics. The shipped game has 3, and they feel better. This mindset shaped how I built both idle games: start with the minimum viable loop, not the maximum vision.
Test before you're ready
Even rough testing with non-expert players surfaces problems you can't see from the inside. Beta testers caught navigation issues and control pain points we had gone blind to.
Mechanics must talk to each other
The combo system fought the movement system. The dash-strike emerged because we prototyped both and noticed the conflict. Design documents are hypotheses. Prototypes are the experiments that test them.
Design Documents
GDDs, QDDs, LDDs, and design tests: How I think on paperAbout
Game designer with a statistics background and a build-first, iterate-always approach. I bring a structured, evidence-based methodology to whatever design problem I'm working on: economy tuning, mechanics, levels, or narrative. Over 5 years in game design across 2 shipped mobile titles, a graduation thesis, and more than 10 student and jam projects. Based in São Paulo, Brazil.
The approach comes from studying how Valve teaches Portal's mechanics through play, and how Half-Life guides players with lighting and architecture instead of waypoints. Invisible design, validated by obsessive playtesting. Kojima's influence shows up in the ambition: trust players with complex systems and meaningful choices. Make depth accessible through iteration, not simplification.
Alongside shipping games, I teach game development and design to kids and teens. Over 300 students across three schools, content adapted for ages 8 through 17. It's the best training I've found for studio communication: if a 10-year-old can follow your explanation of a state machine, your spec will probably survive a cross-discipline review. It also means I can scope a lesson the way I scope a milestone. Break a complex system into deliverable chunks, check whether people actually understood, adjust before moving on.
My core is systems and economy design, but I work across disciplines regularly. The Genshin Impact quest doc covers narrative and quest structure. Bagre Noturno combines stealth mechanics with alternate-reality storytelling. Cyberpunk City's atmospheric lore ties world-building back into the progression systems.
- Engines
- Unity, Unreal Engine 5, Godot
- Design
- GDDs, economy modeling, level design, quest design, playtesting
- Data
- Unity Analytics, spreadsheet simulation, Python, R
- Code
- C#, C++, SQL
- Art
- Blender, Maya, ZBrush, Adobe Creative Suite
- Languages
- Fluent English, Native Portuguese, Basic Spanish
