MOTOGP™ SERIES
LEAD GAME DESIGNER | GAME DESIGNER
2018 - 2021
Racing | Simulation | Sports
PROJECTS OVERVIEW
The MotoGP™ series is a franchise of racing games with a heavy focus on the simulation of its driving model. These games are designed around the official license owned by Dorna. Milestone s.r.l. is an italian studio of 250 people that owns the license for developing these games.
I worked at Milestone for three and a half years on this series of video games, starting as a Junior Game Designer with MotoGP™18 - which marked the very first MotoGP™ game made with Unreal Engine - and ending my journey at the studio as Lead Game Designer for this IP, releasing MotoGP™21 and contributing to the concept and pre-production of MotoGP™22.
As a generalist designer, I worked on various areas (game modes, flows, progression, balancing, platform services), except for gameplay systems linked to the driving model and pilots AI. I was also design owner of the Career Mode, which represented the core mode designed to keep players engaged for several hours. During my time on MotoGP™, I got used to working within medium-sized teams of 30 to 50 people, primarily composed of Designers, Engineers, Vehicle Artists, and QA.
MOTOGP™21
LEAD GAME DESIGNER
I started working on MotoGP™21 right after aiding the RIDE 4 design team during the final stages of its development. I joined the team as Lead Game Designer at the early stages of production phase, after the pre-production planning had been done by the previous Lead.
I also pitched MotoGP™22, created the backlog for the design department and estimated the time for each design feature during pre-production. I was not credited for that game since I left Milestone before production had started.​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
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Led a team of 6 designers from production to release, overseeing their work.
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Drove major improvements on the Managerial Career Mode, building on features I conceptualized and designed during the development of MotoGP™20 to massively improve the flows, balance, and overarching systems linked to its internal progression.
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Reviewed and planned the work for each milestone with the Producer, Lead Programmer, Lead Artist and Dev Manager, following the scrum framework.
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Standardized guidelines and best practices for writing documentation across projects in collaboration with other Design Leads.
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Interviewed Junior Game Designers and upskilled a new hire to expand the MotoGP™ team, delegating my previous areas of design ownership while reviewing their work during their training.​​​​
BIKE RETRIEVAL FEATURE
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This feature lets players control their pilot when they fall from their bike. MotoGP™21 is the first entry in the series to introduce this mechanic. I drove the requirements needed for this feature to ensure that having it enabled felt fair and not gimmicky, while also tuning the third-person camera and refining the feel of the pilot while controlling them.
MOTOGP™20
GAME DESIGNER
MotoGP™20 marked the first entry in the series since Milestone transitioned to Unreal Engine to feature a complex and in-depth Managerial Career Mode. I worked on this project from the early days of pre-production up until its release and post-launch support. Alongside a Historical Mode featuring pilots and events of past Grand Prixes, the Career Mode was a huge feat to develop within one year, and a significant part of it was released as a post-launch update, making MotoGP™20 one of the most ambitious title I worked on at Milestone.
My key role in MotoGP™20 was designing the Career Mode, driving the design of most of its core systems, collaborating closely with other designers and engineers, and reporting to the Lead Game Designer and Game Director to commit to key decision over its development.​​​
​​​​​KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
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Owned the development of MotoGP™ Managerial Career Mode from pre-production to release, designing and overseeing most of its features.
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Drove the design of the Junior Team post-launch major content update for the Career Mode.
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Balanced the progression systems and game economy for all game modes.
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Designed the game data structures within the game database and Unreal Engine assets for storing and balancing the data required by all game modes.
MANAGERIAL CAREER MODE​
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MotoGP™20 featured a Career Mode with heavy tycoon-managerial elements, where players impersonate a pilot throughout their career, from their early days in the lower categories up to taking the lead in the major Grand Prixes. Between each race, players have to make key decisions on the development of their bike, hiring the best members for their team, and planning how to spend their resources.
My contribution to this game mode was crucial. I worked closely with the Lead Game Designer and Game Director to define its high-level aspects, which I then translated into the core game flows that were used by the UX/UI team to design the game interfaces. I designed how all core elements worked together, creating a strong sense of progression for the player that they could feel while racing on the track.
JUNIOR TEAM UPDATE​
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This feature was released in a major content update that we worked on during the post-launch support of the game. Junior Teams are AI-controlled teams that play in the lower categories when the player reaches the upper classes. The concept was to mimic the life of Valentino Rossi, a pilot who transitioned from racing to managing teams in the later stages of his career.
The Junior Team update was part of the Career Mode and worked seamlessly with existing save games. Like the base game mode, I played a key role in designing all the requirements for this feature, defining its internal progression systems, and integrating it into the gameplay on track. Taking inspiration from titles like Motorsport Manager, the pilots' AI that the player hires have internal skills that progress over time. As a manager, the player can spectate the races to see their teams performing live.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was matching the player performance while watching live races to the simulation used when not spectating. This required many iterations over the data controlling the pilots' performance, aligning the unpredictability of a live race with the more deterministic results of a simulated race.
MOTOGP™19
GAME DESIGNER
MotoGP19 brought the series into a new shining light by improving all aspects of its predecessor and massively enhancing the gameplay on track with a new and smarter AI based on a neural network training system, and a much more refined driving model. The game was developed in close contact with the community, having them around the studio to try early builds and shape the core gameplay systems that were then improved with subsequent installments of the series.
I worked on this title from its preproduction to its release, temporarily moving to the RIDE 4 concept phase to support the team after the game launched. I re-designed the Career Mode, the multiplayer and online structure, and helped develop a new pipeline for managing graphic assets linked to the game-logic data.​​​​​
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
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Designed, prototyped, and balanced the Career Mode.
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Supervised the development of the core game modes, working closely with the programming team.
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Designed the online and multiplayer modes structure.
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Balanced the Historical Challenges Manage the game-logic data and define how it was organized into game structures.
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Set up Microsoft's Achievements, Hero Stats, and Rich Presence on Partner Center.
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Set up Sony's Trophies into the Trophy Pack.
CAREER MODE​
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Starting from what we developed on MotoGP™18, I redesigned all the elements of the Career Mode, working hand-in-hand with the Lead Game Designer. I improved the Grand Prix flow and presentation while also redesigning the Bike Development system, the Team Transfer mechanic, the resources definition, and their rewards loops. I reviewed all data structures and balanced the Career progression and economy, projecting the results into specific simulated scenarios.
I also designed the Career's Menu structure through Axure and Confluence to display the most relevant public information linked to the Career's data and flow. Moreover, I supervised its art direction to convey a sense of journey across the world while maintaining a strong racing feel.
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Specifically, I worked on:​
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The Career's Main Menu.
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The Calendar Page.
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The Player Progression and Objectives Page.
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The Bike Development Page.
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The text-based Tutorials flow.
HISTORIC MODE​
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I aided with the creation and tuning of the historical challenges. In accordance with the Lead Designer and Director’s vision, I worked with the rest of the design team to achieve the desired level of difficulty and historical events' presentation fidelity by working directly in the Unreal Engine 4 level editor and cycling through fast and iterative playtesting.
MOTOGP™18
JUNIOR GAME DESIGNER
MotoGP™18 is the first MotoGP title developed in Unreal Engine by Milestone. Its reception was the lowest among the most recent entries in the series, but it marked a new generation of MotoGP™ games for the future of the studio. This was my very first game at Milestone and my entry point in the game industry.
I started working on MotoGP™18 during the final months of its development. During this period, I learned most of the company processes.​​
​​KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
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Supported the tuning and testing of the Career Mode.
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Designed and prototyped a simple algorithm for selecting fair opponents in the Time Attack mode.
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Maintained and reviewed the design documentation.
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Placed respawns and invalidating elements in the Unreal Engine 4 level editor and reviewed the penalty system.
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Designed features related to Microsoft and Sony game services.
GHOST SELECTION IN TIME ATTACK​
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I designed, prototyped, and balanced a system that automatically selects a player's ghost from the Time Attack leaderboards, providing a challenging opponent based on the user's skill level. I prototyped and tuned the feature using Microsoft Excel and VBA.
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PENALTY SYSTEM​
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I improved the designers’ pipeline by requesting specific changes to the internal Unreal Engine 4 tools used for placing invisible collision walls and track elements around the maps. These elements could detect players’ faulty actions linked to the penalty system.
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