Disney Emoji Blitz
Principal Games Designer (2021-2023) | Lead Game Designer (2023-2024)
A Forward from the Designer
In 2021, I joined Jam City as a Principal Game Designer on Disney Emoji Blitz, leading feature development and monetization systems across Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars franchises. My role quickly expanded beyond core features to include UI/UX design, a catalyst for my promotion to Lead Designer.
Beyond product KPIs, my time on Emoji Blitz has been defined by design leadership, mentorship, and pedagogy. As a lead, I helped establish the studio's feature design documentation standards, built level design pipelines, and coached associate to senior designers. I believe in growing and maintaining a culture of continuous learning within development teams: I lead department-wide market research reviews, cross-department concept shares, and hands-on technical workshops—including guided systems analysis sessions lovingly dubbed "Spreadsheet Parties"—to train designers in basic formula logic.
Game Overview
Disney Emoji Blitz is a highly successful, mobile match-3/blitz game built with a massive live-operations ecosystem and a deep Emoji collection meta. As the Feature Team Design Lead, I directed feature design, UI/UX flows, and live monetization frameworks from ideation through execution and live operations. I dealt with aggressive business KPI targets, working directly with sensitive and high-profile Disney, Pixar, and Lucasfilm IPs.
Monetization Design & Live Economy
I was personally responsible for several new F2P sale mechanics that generated tens of millions of dollars in live revenue while fostering DAU and growing ARPDAU. I created all the UI and UX mocks on this page.
Progressive Cascading Sales
Multi-tiered purchasing tracks that gate high-value rewards behind incremental micro-transactions, balancing player value perception against conversion cliffs. Unique to this sale, mystery Emojis appear in order to drive spend and foster players’ curiosity.
Gumball Machine
Gacha-driven probability mechanic embedded, leveraging visual feedback and collection psychology. This sale built beyond the emoji chests gacha and provided players with a new form of monetization, chasing valuable emojis with increasing probabilities each pull.
Narrative Sales
Puzzle-based monetization where purchases directly unlocked segments of exclusive thematic Disney illustrations. Unlike similar features in other casual games, players that completed the sale are able to download high-rez images from the sale.
New Boxes
Designed new ways to inject new limited-time Emoji boxes, giving players more options and agency to get their favorite Emojis.
Systems Design, Ads, & Social Meta
As lead, I expanded the core game loop by introducing new progression systems, meta features, social hooks, and ad economies:
Platinum Class Emojis
Designed a brand-new tier of Emojis featuring bespoke round-mechanics and capitalized on Disney’s 100 year anniversary.
Rewarded Video & Ad System
Designed the base UI/UX and design framework for rewarded ad integrations, driving ad revenue without eroding core IAP metrics.
Daily Dynamic Missions
Re-architected the daily quest loop to scale dynamically with each player. This system directly fed into the "Wishing Star" meta-reward engine, a feature designed by designers under my mentorship.
Social & Virality
Integrated Facebook connectivity, asynchronous friend leaderboards, and viral invite loops to boost organic acquisition and retention while effectively lowering CPIs.
Battle Pass Upgrades
Designed aspects of the existing battle pass for highly-engaged players that finish each pass early.
Timed Boosts
Updaed our boost system to have limited-time, always on boosts to drive further rounds per day.
Rewarded Invites
Designed a system to encourage game shares with friends in order to reward both players for enagement.
Documentation & Design Mentorship
I created the standardized Feature Game Design Document template used by the Emoji Blitz design team. I established clear guidelines for feature intent, UI/UX wireframes, edge-case mapping, and telemetry tracking requirements. I mentored junior and senior reports through regular 1-on-1s, GDD and content reviews, and design critiques, successfully guiding multiple team members toward raises and career promotions.
