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Members got hired or promoted at 51+ studios
553+ happy members
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First Principles of Game Design Mentorship Program

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GDS FPGD course video preview

Learn To Diagnose Any Game's Root Player Experience Problems

A self-paced course with daily instructor feedback and weekly live mentorship to help you turn game design into a professional career.

  • Learn by playing your favorite games and skip years of trial & error
  • Develop core design skills to stand out to studios
  • Build a strong portfolio and network of contacts in the industry
  • Get help with job search and interview preparation
  • 41 videos lessons & drills |lifetime access| 4 career workshops
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4.89/5 from 553+ happy members
Our members got hired and promoted at 51+ studios worldwide:

A Personal Note From Your Instructor

alex hs2

Hi, I’m Alexander Brazie, aka Xelnath.

I’ve been where you are now — unclear about what you need to learn and how to put everything together to reach your game design goals. 

I’ll share my design methodology with you to help you move faster than I did.

It took me four grueling years of trial and error to break into the industry…

But I made it, and you can too.

Today, I come to you armed with over 25+ years of experience working in various studios like Blizzard, Riot, Moon Studios, and consulting many others.

My Aim? To spare you the hardships and mistakes I faced in my early career, and provide you with the most important and practical design skills required to succeed in the industry.

In game design, the skills to make design decisions, analyze gameplay, solve design problems, and adapt to constraints are the most important.

For instance, you may need to skillfully balance various elements within your game, such as the difficulty curve, player abilities, prominent strategies, and enemy AI.

Or you might find it necessary to enhance the flow of your game to prevent your gameplay from becoming monotonous and boring by deciding when to introduce:

  • New mechanics
  • Narrative stories
  • Visual and sound elements
  • New objectives

Studios actively look for people who possess these skills when hiring for design roles.

Why?

Because these skills help you make games people enjoy playing and rush to share with their friends, empowering studios to create more games.

The sooner you get them, the sooner you can build a portfolio that will impress the studios you want to work for.

Most new designers struggle to get into the industry

Here's why...

Game design education has a significant gap.

Many aspiring designers lack core design skills, confusing them about what’s missing in their games and during job interviews.

There are 3 main reasons for that…

Reason 1: Studios fiercely guard their design expertise as a competitive advantage to capture and retain player attention, creating a knowledge barrier for people outside of the industry.

Reason 2: The craft of game design by nature is a deep, abstract, and broad subject.

You’re essentially designing how the player will interact with the world and you have to do it in a way that keeps as many players entertained as possible.

Reason 3: There is an overabundance of technical tutorials, primarily focused on coding and game engines, with few teaching essential core design skills

GDS game dev learning resources supply

With the little bit of materials that do exist, you run into these 3 problems:

Problem 1: They are often taught by individuals who haven’t shipped any game. For example:

  • Majority of university game design/dev curriculum (with a few rare exceptions)

The available legit design resources are either

Problem 2: Overtly shallow and theoretical. For example:

  • GDC keynotes can be insightful but often too short and theoretical, I don’t blame them, since it’s unreasonable to cover any topic in depth within a 45-minute presentation.

Or

Problem 3: Overly complex and formatted in a way that’s difficult to digest. For example:

  • Most books that address actual game design are predominantly theory-heavy, hard to implement, and lack feedback when you get stuck or if you are on the right track.

And they’re formatted in dense paragraph blocks lacking visual examples attempting to verbalize abstract concepts that can be better visualized through videos and images.

As a result, many aspiring designers struggle to translate their knowledge into practical skills to break into game design.

This is why I created the First Principles of Game Design Mentorship Program.

So, how is this program different?

This program is designed to address this lack of practical game design skills and knowledge.

FPGD helps aspiring and professional designers like you improve their skills, achieve their career goals, and ultimately, do what they love: create remarkable games.

You’ll gain insights into the game design processes used by industry professionals, providing formal structure, and terminology to your intuitive understanding of what effective game design is.

My expertise comes from my two decades of experience, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some of the most widely played games in the world, enjoyed by 150+ million players each month.

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During this time, I’ve also dedicated thousands of hours to studying leading games and playtest sessions.

On top of having the privilege to be mentored by some of the industry’s top game developers, like:

  1. Tom Cadwell (Chief Design Officer, Riot)
  2. Michael Heiberg (Principal Designer, Blizzard)
  3. Chris McEntee (Lead Designer, Rayman, Ori)

First Principles of Game Design gives you the opportunity to learn from someone who has hands-on experience successfully shipping dozens of AAA and Indie games just for a fraction of the cost of a single college class.

As a result, the majority of the design graduates and aspiring game designers who joined my program always share almost identical stories about the curriculum:

My mentors and I discovered that games across all genres rapidly lose players when they violate one or all of the 7 fundamental gameplay patterns. 

These patterns are the underlying reasons behind player frustration, boredom, and confusion, often hidden beneath surface-level gameplay fixes.

Through this program, you’ll acquire the skills to identify these 7 patterns in any game you’re working on and how to solve them.

You’ll have the ability to diagnose and identify exactly what part of the player experience is missing the mark and allow you to come up with meaningful design solutions to enhance the gameplay.

You’ll have a methodology to create games that are not just visually stunning and technically sound but also capture the hearts and minds of your players.

This is the same design methodology that earned me the respect of my colleagues and millions of loyal players.

Mastering these 7 patterns will allow you to:

1. Identify hidden gameplay issues hindering your (or any) game’s success

2. Shorten your iteration cycles, saving time and effort

3. Know exactly what to look for before and during playtests

4. Rapidly validate the “fun” in your ideas and prototypes

5. Clearly articulate your designs and collaborate effectively

6. Write clear and concise design documentation

7. Learn the game design skills you need to get your first job

Systematically build your design skills to secure your first design job

And more...

I’ll guide you step-by-step, helping you stop “winging it” and removing the guesswork involved in securing your first game design role.

When game studios hire designers, they’re essentially asking themselves:

“Can I trust this person to help us bring deliver for our player base to life?” 

I’ll help you tackle this crucial question, equipping you with the skills to pass interviews and become an invaluable asset to any studio just like dozens of our alumni members.

In addition, you can use this program to level up your game design career even if you’re already in the industry.

Here is how 

But the best part? You’ll learn by doing. 

I’ll show you an easy process to drastically improve your game design skills while doing something you love – playing games!

You’ll understand what makes players tick, what compels them to continue playing, and what factors contribute to a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction.

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With the FPGD methodology, you’ll have a clear process to follow whenever you “hit a wall” with your game… 

You won’t struggle anymore to pinpoint or verbalize what’s off in your game – the 7 fundamental gameplay patterns will be your debugging process. 

You’ll get support every step of the way, ensuring you’re fully prepared to showcase your talents in all stages of the studio hiring process and secure your first design job.

14-Day Money Back Guarantee

What's included in the program:

41 Practical Video Lessons & Exercises (Lifetime access + upcoming updates)

The program is 100% online and self-paced, covering a system of 7 interconnected design principles through 41 videos (16 hours.)

The program will train your design analysis and problem-solving skills through hands-on drills, practical exercises, and design journal.

You can apply what you learn and the exercises to the games of your target studios, gaining experience in solving their gameplay challenges.

This will give you an edge during the studio’s design tests and interviews.

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6 Months of Mentorship & Feedback (Renewable)

You’ll get one-on-one chat feedback and mentorship.

On topics like:

  • Resume, portfolio, design tests, and interview questions
  • Any design or prototype issue you may have
  • Crafting game systems or mechanics
  • Your design process

You’ll post your exercises in the private invite-only channels in the Funsmith Club Discord and get direct feedback from me and other community members.

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Funsmith Club Discord Community

The Funsmith Club is the supporting community for the FPGD program with  game devs of all skill levels focused on improving their game design skills and leveling up their careers.

As a member, you can

  1. Attend live weekly AMA and game design workshops
  2. Get multiple design perspectives on how to improve your game project
  3. Find other game devs to collaborate on game jams and games
  4. Network and make new industry connections

You’ll get prioritized feedback in the public channels where you can interact with over 503+ AAA and Indie designers from studios like Riot, Bethesda, Nintendo, Respawn, and many more.

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6 Months To Attend Live Group Office Hours (Renewable)

You can atten weekly live office hours to get the answers you need in real-time with me and other guest professionals live:

  • Showcase your prototype, portfolio, or resume for review.
  • Receive guidance on refining your design skills and avoiding common career pitfalls. 
  • Get help on answering common interview questions and highlighting your skills and experience to your roles and studios.

Think of the live office hours and chat feedback as having a personal mentor with 25+ years of design experience at your fingertips – a single piece of advice can make a big difference in your games or career.

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You can see some office hours examples here 👇
Daniel - How to apply Module 1 concept Clarity to my game?
Arda - Did I implement your portfolio feedback right?
Adam - Can I get feedback for my university Capstone game Kitty Kart
Daniel - How do I balance player abilities in my horror game?
Ronald - How do I get the most out of the FPGD course?
Pray - Can I get feedback for my game Match Maker?

Career Goal Workshop and Accountability Coach

As part of the program, we’ll assign you an accountability coach to guide you in effectively using and applying the program materials to systemize your progress.

Shortly after you join the program, one of the FPGD accountability coaches will get in touch with you to schedule your onboarding and Career Goal Workshop. 

In this workshop, we’ll work with you to:

  • Identify your career goals 
  • Assess the gaps in your current skill set
  • Create a personalized roadmap to achieve your goals

In addition, your accountability coach will check in periodically with you to provide support and keep you on the path to achieving your goals more effectively.

2fpgd example career goal workshop 1

To help you land your dream job, I'm including 4 limited-time career bonuses

1. Portfolio & Resume Workshop ($190) $0

Build the portfolio and resume that attract more interview invites and job offers by learning
— How to improve the attention retention of recruiters and hiring managers
— How to communicate exactly what studios look for (including your design thinking)
— What and how many projects to include
— What skills and experience to highlight
Bonus #1

2. Job-Hunting System Workshop ($190) $0

In this workshop, you'll learn to get more done with less effort by setting up a structured job-hunting system tailored to the game studios' hiring process that streamlines, automates, and tracks the entire process.

So you can ultimately outcompete other candidates and win the job offers from your target studios without depending on luck.
Bonus #2

3. Organized Playtest Sessions

Nowadays, It’s difficult to find enough time to play even the games you paid for… not to mention finding people to play and give feedback on our own game projects.

That’s why as part of FPGD, we offer bi-weekly group playtest sessions where you'll be paired with 3-4 other members to play each other's games.

After each playtest, you’ll give feedback to each other on what worked and what didn't. We’ll guide you on how to turn this feedback into impactful iterations.
Bonus #3

4. Career Accelerator ($190) $0

As part of this program, you’ll get the career accelerator as a bonus to help you navigate the game design career landscape.

Inside are 9 videos that covers the career paths available to you and the 8 complementary skills you’ll need to thrive accordingly and how to acquire them.

(Includes Step-by-step Iterative Process Checklist and Prototype Game Guide)
Bonus #4

Curriculum overview:

The curriculum delves into the intricacies of player psychology, exploring the motivations, emotions, and cognitive processes that drive player behavior.

You’ll have a proven process to design gameplay that is intuitive, engaging, and aligned with player goals, ensuring that every aspect of your game contributes to a fun and memorable experience.

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Lack of clarity is the biggest killer to an otherwise fun and enjoyable game and the number one player frustration.

You’ll build awareness of what your players see and design your gameplay in a way that provides players with a clear understanding of your game.

In this module you’ll learn:

  • The 3 types of Clarity
  • Learn to use visual and sound cues, UI interface, tutorials to convey clear and compelling gameplay
  • Master an 8-step process to evaluate clarity and simplicity in your designs
  • Discover 5 player behavior signs for cognitive overload in your game
  • Utilize my “3 Ds system” to eliminate cognitive overload
  • Evaluation process for adding new features and phasing out old ones
  • How to strategically guide players attention with color, shape language and visual hierarchy
  • My private toolbox of 7 proven techniques to improve your game’s clarity 
  • Battleborn vs. Overwatch Comparison analysis (you’ll learn #1 reason for failure)
  • World of Warcraft, Warlock’s class complexity overload  (Case Study)
  • Clarity examples from 19 games such as:
    • League of Legends, Fortnite, Super Mario, Destiny 1, and many more

motivation iconUnderstand the player’s relationship with your mechanics and systems to identify what’s important to them and encourage them to engage with your game.

This will allow you to deliver exactly what the players expect from their game experience and satisfy their hidden wants.

In this module you’ll learn:

  • The big secret of Motivation in game design and how to use it in your design process
  • Learn proven techniques to motivate and compel your players to engage, invest time, and ultimately, finish your games
  • Uncover 5 effective tools to instill a stronger sense of care about your games
  • Discover my method for categorizing the experience into two distinct playstyles, which covers approximately 90% of all players to attract a wider player base
  • Learn how to design gameplay that appeals to both cautious and reckless players
  • Discover the 5 ways most AAA games use to draw your attention and engagement (P.S. “danger” is one of the them)
  • Craft gameplay that aligns with players diverse needs and wants, ensuring a truly personalized and engaging experience
  • Motivation examples explored in 13 games such as:
    • FarCry 4/5, Ocarina of Time, World of Warcraft and many more.

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The defining characteristic of truly exceptional games lies in presenting meaningful and engaging player responses that align with players’ motivations and goals.

By crafting situations that present players with compelling choices that shape their gaming journey, you can transform your games into interactive adventures that resonate deeply with your players.

In this module you’ll learn:

  • The 3 Response types
  • How to provide players a sense of agency and control
  • My battle-tested 6-step process for creating meaningful response
  • Powerful psychological triggers to captivate players and make them care more deeply about your game
  • How to create amazing game mechanics that hook players
  • Proven way to give players a deeper sense of satisfaction and enjoyment using my decision tree framework
  • How do Clarity, Motivation, and Response start to fit together?
  • Create more dynamic gameplay by using the 4 response categories
  • Responses analysis (including some of my work from Blizzard and Riot)
    • League of Legends warding
    • FTL combat
    • World of Warcraft
      • XT-002 Deconstructor’s Tantrum
      • Baron Nashar
      • Lady Onyxia
      • Shade of Aran
      • Mage’s Ice Cube spell
  • The dangers of designer-focused design and what to do instead
  • Response examples from 13 games such as:
    • Mega Man, Mass Effect, League of Legends, World of Warcraft and more.

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Every pixel, every sound, and every interaction has the power to captivate players and leave them craving for more. 

Have you ever wondered how best games evoke such intense emotions and leave players captivated – while always missing in your game…

This ends now with you learning how to precisely reward or punish the players based on their choices to feel the most satisfaction from your game.

In this module you’ll learn:

  • The key of emotional and physical satisfaction in design
  • How to increase satisfaction and dissatisfaction? (and when to do it)
  • How to fulfill the players’ “unmet needs” throughout the gameplay
  • How to identify and fix the common sources of dissatisfaction in your gameplay
  • The price power and how it can ruin your game balance
  • 5 ways to help you better understand other players and how to use it in your design process
  • The main tool to uncover the 20% of unmet “high emotional value” players want to experience
  • My rework of Xerath, League of Legends  (Case Study)
  • How to give the most powerful and emotional payoff players’ crave
  • Contrarian use of dissatisfaction and how to do it

viscerality icon

Viscerality is the tool to improve the immersion qualities of your game by evoking strong emotions that resonate with your players.

It’s the process of stimulating the emotional brain and creating more satisfying and compelling moments for your players.

In this module you’ll learn:

  • The significance of viscerality and how it impacts game feel
  • How to stimulate your player’s emotional brain to create more satisfying and powerful moments that feel REAL
  • 4 powerful emotions to use to enhance your game’s viscerality
  • Blueprint to design your controls so they feel intuitive and natural
  • How to use input queuing and animation canceling? (pros and cons)
  • What hardware and software considerations you must take into account
  • How do you know when you get it right?
  • Deconstructing the anatomy of attack animations and it’s importance in games
  • How to use properly use animations to “tickle” your player’s pleasure buttons
  • Viscerality examples from God of War, Dark Souls, Street Fighter and League of Legends.

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Strategy is the principle that completes emotional Satisfaction through focusing on reaching the intellectual part of the player’s mind.

It’s a vital component of the player’s experience that you can use to guide their interactions, problem-solving skills, and ability to reach their goals within your game.

This will help them feel clever as they carve a personal path through your game.

In this module you’ll learn:

  • Why having a strategy component in your game will keep players engrossed
  • The 4 main elements you can use to create satisfying strategic elements in your game
  • Use the 3 tools of tension, time, and resources to create multiple ways to experience the same challenge
  • A process to create strategies and counterplay strategies
  • Learn how to balance soft and hard counters in your game
  • Design gameplay that allows players to adapt on the fly and choose their own strategy
  • Step-by-step analysis from Smash Royale 
  • Strategy breakdowns and examples from Starcraft 2, Chess, Hearthstone, Fable and Skyrim

fantasy iconStrong games are characterized by the perfect blend of gameplay and narrative fantasies.

You’ll learn to create the emotional wrapper that ties the gameplay, story, narrative, levels and visuals into a believable cohesive experience that players can get lost in.

In this module you’ll learn:

  • How to tie all the elements of your game together into a believable and immersive experience to make your players lose track of time
  • The 5 fantasy layers all top player-rated games possess  
  • How to make mundane moments in your game feel like they fit the overall theme and reinforce your theme and fantasy
  • The simple, yet impactful “Nintendo Formula” you can use to get players hooked on your game mechanics naturally and effortlessly
  • A methodology to approach world-bulding
  • 4 common mistakes that break the cohesion of your game
  • How to apply thematic reinforcement to strengthen the theme of your game
  • 8 examples of thematic alignment (includes misalignment examples)
  • Used examples from 10 games including God of War 4, World of Warcraft, Super Smash bros, and Street Fighter.

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Here, you’ll learn the traits and skills essential for your future game design role. By internalizing program’s principles and continuously leveling up your skills, you’ll advance quicker than other candidates.

You’ll learn to grow your creativity by mixing new concepts, trying new games, and exploring alternatives to ideas you’ve never tried before.

The program equips you with the skills to articulate your ideas clearly, provide respectful feedback, address conflicts constructively and build rapport with your team and cross-departments.

In this module you’ll learn:

  • My 4-step process for making design decisions
  • How to get out of design ruts and back into the flow
  • The fastest method for getting better at design
  • How to collect unbiased feedback from players to make your game better (+ where to look for it)
  • Methodology to filter data to figure out what your players truly want
  • What to do when you lack player data
  • The exact idea generation method used by creators of Pokemon and Legend of Zelda to create interesting and inspiring ideas for your next game
  • The compass and the glass analogy
  • How to deal with team dynamics and creative disagreements
  • I’ll walk you through a step-by-step process of creating and polishing a World of Warcraft dungeon from scratch(includes cost of iterations)

What types of results can you expect to achieve after the program?
(7 Case Studies)

Whether you’re new or know a bit, this program will help you level up your skills.

You can gain noticeable design skills within 30-90 days by following the lessons, practicing, and building prototypes. Within 6-12 months, you could completely change your career!

These structured systems will enable you to learn and progress faster than those without.

Invest as much time as you want. The more you put in, the quicker you’ll see results.

I’ll help you “fill in the gaps” when needed.

See below case studies on real-world results from applying what you learn here 👇

Results: Multiple job offers.

Before: Couldn’t pass interview.
After: Passed interviews and got job offers

    1. Ass. Game Producer from Com2us (Gamevil)
    2. Jr. Game Designer from an Ai robotics company 
    3. Ass. Game Producer from Tencent Lightspeed LA

case study justin 1

Problem: Justin was stuck because he couldn’t pass the interviews, even though he got a game design degree from Full Sail University and made a bunch of games.

The main issue is that he couldn’t clearly and concretely explain how he can contribute to improving the players’ experience.

Solution: After going through the program, Justin was able to clearly communicate and demonstrated his understanding of the player motivations and the design process during his interview using the learnings from principles such as “Clarity” and “Motivation”.

He continued to refer back to the materials even after getting hired.

Result: Got hired by AAA studio.

Before: Couldn’t pass interview.
After: Passed interview and was hired as a Jr Level Designer by Calypte Studio (Virtuos)

case study abdul 1

Problem: Abdul couldn’t pass design interviews during the live mock design jam sessions, which tests his design analysis and decision making skills.

This is despite of receiving his B.S. in Computer Science with emphasis in Game Design from UC Santa Cruz and became technically proficient in Unreal Engine 5, Unity (C#), Maya, Far Cry Arcade, Blueprints, Java.

Solution: After going through the program, he used his learnings from the principles and applied them to his Elden Ring example during the interview with Calypte Studio to impress the hiring manager and ultimately receive the job offer.

Result: Got promoted to Lead Game Designer

case study jonathan 1

Studio: Tilting Point
First Position: Game Designer
Current Position: Lead Game Designer

Problem: Jonathan wanted to grow from a mid level designer to the team lead but he ran in to the following issues:

  1. Couldn’t facilitate his dev team’s collaboration
  2. Having trouble training junior game designers

Solution: Using the principles from the program as a guiding framework along with leadership coaching, Jonathan built his skills to

  1. Improve his team’s efficiency and output during design discussions to evaluate design trade-offs and decisions.
  2. Improved his training process for the new junior designers and fortified his rapport with his team.

Result: Improved team cross discipline collaboration and more efficient iteration cycles.

case study brian urbanek 1

Studio: Raven Software (COD Franchise)
Position: Lead Expert Systems Designer

Problem: There were significant communication barriers between the design team and the engineers. 

This disconnect often led to inefficiencies and misunderstandings during the design process, which lead to very very lengthy and costly iteration cycles.

Also, the absence of a unified design framework made it challenging for the junior designers to grasp certain the concepts.

Solution: The implementation of the Player-Centric Framework bridged the gap between the design team, engineers, and production to reduce unnecessary iteration cycles while increasing the impact of those iterations.

Result: Improved Aesir Inc’s team collaboration and their game’s Steam Ratings

case study dustin aesir 1

Studio: Aesir Interactive
Game: Police Simulator
Implementor: Dustin Kohnen
Position: Senior Game Designer

Problem: Dustin was an experienced designer but struggled to pitch his ideas & concepts clearly to leadership, which often led to confusion and ambiguity.

Moreover, Dustin’s team was struggling with decision-making processes and coming with player focused potential solutions, often leading to delayed iteration periods.

Solution: Dustin implemented what he learned to reshape his team’s approach and established the principles as a common language for discussing design issues and solutions.

Utilizing the skills he acquired from the program, he was able to successfully present his ideas to the leadership and create multiple iterations to Aesir’s Police Simulator game.

This effective application of his newly acquired skills resulted in the game receiving an impressive 87% positive review rate from over 9000 reviews on Steam following the updates.

(This is implemented directly by the instructor, the exact design breakdown will be inside the program material)

Results: Warlock class for Mists of Pandaria became the best player rated version through all of the World of Warcraft expansion packs.

  • 8 years after the design left World of Warcraft, players made 3D figures of one of the characters he designed.
  • Blizzard put two cards in Hearthstone named after his Warlock.
  • Over 97,000 Warlock players from China voted that the Mists of Pandaria Warlock design (his redesign) was the best version they’ve played.

case study wow mop warlock alex 1 min

Studio: Blizzard Entertainment
Game: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria 
Implementor: Alexander Brazie
Former Position: Game Systems Designer

Problem: The warlock class had become over homogenized with all specs feeling similar, too many abilities that were out of place and a significant lack of coherent fantasy.

Solution: Alex applied the principles to analyze and identify the problem after collecting feedback from players on the forum.

Then he used the Player-Centric Framework to refine the class so the players clearly understand which skills are meant to be used.

In addition, he made each skill more meaningfully impactful, ensured there was responses within all specializations for dynamic battle conditions, and that there was satisfying outcomes for players who learned their skills and applied them well.

All of this within an express of unique fantasy for each sub class.

(This is implemented directly by the instructor, the exact design breakdown will be inside the program material)

Results:

Before: Unbalanced (with 55% win rate) 3rd least played character picked only by low & mid-skilled players.
After: Perfectly balanced and more competitive (with 50% win rate) picked by professional  e-sports players.

case study lol xerath champion alex 1

case study lol xerath champion alex 2

Xerath Render v1

Studio: Riot Games
Game: League of Legends 
Implementor: Alexander Brazie
Position: Game Systems Designer

Problem: Before the rework, Xerath was an all or nothing Champion in League of Legends who needed to unload all skills at once then was useless

Therefore no one really played it. So it either has to be scraped or redesigned.

Solution: Alex first sourced and analyzed the players’ feedback in the League of Legends forums and Sub-Reddits

Then he applied his framework and principles and reworked Xerath to

  1. Give each skill more nuanced skill expressions
  2. Improved the pacing of combat decisions and a higher range fantasy than was thought possible at the time
14-Day Money Back Guarantee

A few more results from our members

(Feel free to chat with them in our Discord community about their journey)
Picture of Ruhan Bello

Ruhan Bello

Game Programmer at Photon Engine
LinkedIn

5/5
Picture of Michael Swedo

Michael Swedo

Game Designer II at Riot Games
LinkedIn

5/5
Picture of Miles Butler

Miles Butler

Indie Game Developer
LinkedIn

5/5

My learning experience at my undergraduate degree was akin to being thrown to the wolves, the lessons focused on basic instructions like how to achieve X or Y in Unity.

There was little guidance on what thought process behind why certain design decisions were made.

After the program, I have a clear understanding of how I want to assemble my ideas, structure them, and work more efficiently towards any game I decide to create.

Picture of Maria Deslis

Maria Deslis

Game Producer at Well Told Entertainment
LinkedIn

5/5

Just finished with 4 interviews at the same time! I’m pleased to announce that I have started my first day in the games industry as a Junior Level Designer at Calypte Studio.

The knowledge I gained from the FPGD Program proved very helpful during the interview process. My interviewer was very pleased and happy when I mentioned Clarity alone during our conversation.

I can’t thank Alex enough for creating this course. I’m excited to start my career in the games industry!

Picture of Crow Tomkus

Crow Tomkus

Narrative Designer at Big Blue Sky Games
LinkedIn

5/5

When I first started learning game design, I found out that I can only learn so much about design from playing games by myself. 

After I joined, I picked up Alex’s practical philosophy of design that I can apply to everything from the narrative to the music to the user experience of the game itself.

Now I’m working full time as a junior narrative designer at Big Blue Sky Games.

Picture of Justin Chin

Justin Chin

Game Producer at Tencent LA (Lightspeed)
LinkedIn

5/5
Picture of Dustin Kohnen

Dustin Kohnen

Senior Game Designer at Ubisoft Berlin
LinkedIn

5/5
Picture of Jonathan Alcontin

Jonathan Alcontin

Tilting Point's Lead Game Designer
LinkedIn

5/5

After going through Alex’s course and mentorship, I’ve refined how I articulate my design insights, strengthened my bond with my teammates, and solidified my overall skill set as a design lead.

I’ll always be thankful for the lessons I’ve learned from Alex.

Whether you’re a new designer looking to learn industry best practices or an experienced veteran who desires to sharpen your current skills, his courses will help you become a stronger designer.

Picture of Bader AlQahtani

Bader AlQahtani

Combat/Enemy Designer at Studio Pixanoh
LinkedIn

5/5

Thank you so much for everything you’ve taught me Alex!

I was able to take into account everything I’ve learned from this you and apply them in my first professional project where I’ve been leading the combat design.

Picture of Malcolm Yeo

Malcolm Yeo

Community Representative at Square Enix America
LinkedIn

5/5

I’ve known Xelnath from Riot — and read his blog prior — so when I saw the program, pretty much knew this was going to be a training with experience/practicality behind it compared to most others where i don’t really know for sure.

Picture of Victor Jesus Arroyo Reyes

Victor Jesus Arroyo Reyes

Game Developer at Software and Tech
LinkedIn

5/5

The most enticing thing about joining First Principles of Game Design is learning game design without having to be an expert on the subject because everyone inside is welcoming and helpful. 

My favorite part is the feedback I get for my homework. This is helped me learn the concepts much quicker.

Picture of Jeremiah Franczyk

Jeremiah Franczyk

Systems Designer at Standing Stone Games
LinkedIn

5/5

Alex is very welcoming and knowledgeable.I really appreciated the in-depth examples Alex gave from his own time working on WoW and other games along with feedback on my exercises.

These really let me see the practical applications of the concepts discussed in the lessons and will help me in my own work going forward as an MMO Systems Designer.

l’d highly recommend this program for junior professional game designers or those looking to get into the industry.

Picture of Supitcha Chailom (Mellin)

Supitcha Chailom (Mellin)

Game Design Graduate & Intern

5/5

I want to express my gratitude to the FPGD team for helping me improve my portfolio.

A special thank you to Alex for the impactful game design course and invaluable guidance, especially during the last two office hour sessions addressing my game design interview concerns.

Thanks to your program, I gained confidence and successfully earned a full-tuition game design diploma scholarship along with a 6-month paid internship. Your support has been instrumental in achieving this milestone. 

Picture of Michael Breese

Michael Breese

Sr. Systems Designer at Riot Games
LinkedIn

5/5
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Brian Urbanek

Lead Systems Designer - Raven Software, Call of Duty franchise
LinkedIn

5/5

I encountered Alex’s program while working on X-Com 2 at Firaxis, and was immediately impressed with the clarity and craft inherited in his style.

I’ve used his framework to guide brainstorming sessions, train junior designers, and communicate iterative design processes with engineers & production.

Picture of Ses Goe

Ses Goe

Indie game dev
LinkedIn

5/5

The program was so exciting for me because Alex focused on the most important aspect of video games: the people who play them!

Also the live feedback is very helpful to circumvent time wasters.

Picture of Leerer G.

Leerer G.

Graphic designer transitioning into game design

5/5

For years I searched for a structured video game design course that could guide me into important aspects of making gameplay with real life examples and I finally found it.

I highly recommend this to anyone serious about getting into professional game design!

Picture of Elliot M.

Elliot M.

Cinematic Designer at Respawn Entertaiment

5/5

This program is an excellent foundational game design course. Not only is it a great option for a designer looking to fill in any blind spots they may have, but it’s also a great way for someone looking to level up their skills and to get into game design.

Picture of Simone Mändl

Simone Mändl

Co-Founder, DU&I Studios
LinkedIn

5/5

What I’ve learned in my 3-year university program on game design was very theory-heavy and not as immediately practical compared to what was taught in the First Principles of Game Design Program.

Picture of Abdul Banglee

Abdul Banglee

Jr. Level Designer at Calypte Studio (Virtuos)
LinkedIn

5/5

Just finished with 4 interviews at the same time! I’m pleased to announce that I have started my first day in the games industry as a Junior Level Designer at Calypte Studio.

The knowledge I gained from the FPGD Program proved very helpful during the interview process. My interviewer was very pleased and happy when I mentioned Clarity alone during our conversation.

I can’t thank Alex enough for creating this course. I’m excited to start my career in the games industry!

14-Day Money Back Guarantee

So, how is the program priced?

I don’t like talking about money, but it’s important to be transparent about why I priced the program the way I did.

First, I created this program because there’s a noticeable gap in education for aspiring game designers. 

Even most college programs often miss the mark on providing the practical design-specific knowledge and skills needed for success in the industry.

That’s why the majority of our members are:

  1. Recent game design/development graduates
  2. Professionals transitioning into game design
  3. Game designers looking to improve their design skills

I’m an active practicing game designer and consultant, so this program is not my main source of income.

I charge studios between $1,000/hour to $40,000/month through my consulting company, Atomech to help their projects or train their design teams.

However, I understand not everyone can afford those consulting rates or the college tuition costs ranging from $83,500 for undergrad to $31,880 for grad school.

This program is my passion project. 

So I wanted to make it affordable so anyone can access this at a reasonable price, at the same time fair to me by covering the necessary program support costs (such as weekly office hours and chat support) and updates to deliver real tangible results.

That’s why I priced it at only

$480

I have full confidence that the material in this program is accurate to what is promised here.

To reiterate, you’ll learn one of the in-demand game design skills you need to analyze any game and identify exactly what’s losing the players’ attention and have the tools to address them. So you can 

  1. Build a portfolio that gets you hired faster
  2. Showcase your strengths to ace job interviews and design tests

In short, you’ll learn the skills you need to secure your first design job in a fraction of the time it took me to acquire them.

So whenever you are ready, scroll down to enroll

P.S. Don’t forget to introduce yourself 👋 

– Xelnath

Start building your design skills and portfolio today

Transform your passion into a career
The Next Live Office Hour Session Starts This Thursday @ 6pm PST

SINGLE PAYMENT OPTION
480
USD
14-Day Money Back Guarantee
PAYMENT PLAN OPTION 2
190
USD
/ MONTH
FOR 3 MONTHS
14-Day Money Back Guarantee

Frequently Asked Questions:

Yes, we have a 14-day satisfaction guarantee.

If you’re not satisfied with the program or my mentorship within 14 days of purchase, you can get a full refund—no unnecessary hoops.

I’m NOT here to pressure you to make some rushed decision; I want to make sure:

  1. You’re a right fit.
  2. You get what you’re expecting.

Coding & knowing how to use game engines such as Unity, Unreal, etc, are complementary skills for game designers. Therefore, they are not prerequisite skills for joining the program.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn how to use game engines as a game designer. It will definitely help improve your chances of getting into a studio.

With that said, you will get more results by implementing what you learned in this program in the medium of your choice.

If you’ve never built anything before, and have zero experience with game engines, you can take our free course Build a Game Challenge, where we provide templates and exact directions to help you build a playable virtual tabletop game prototype from scratch in 6 days.

Then you can apply the learnings from the this program to your tabletop game prototype.

If you don’t put in any effort, you’ll get zero results.

However, assuming you participate fully, here are some example results you can achieve.

Also check out the testimonials from other members to get a better idea what outcome to expect.

First:

You’ll receive an email from me or our Skill Acquisition Coach within 24 hours of enrollment to schedule your onboarding call where we help you set up the following:

  1. Weekly live group office hour with the instructor
  2. Private course channel for exercise feedback and interact with the instructor, devs and other members
  3. Discuss how to tailor the program to reach your goal

If you don’t see an onboarding email within 24 hours of your purchase, then

  1. Double check your Promotions Tab, Updates Tab, or Spam Folder
  2. [If you still don’t see the email] Reach out to us at support[at]gamedesignskills.com

Next,

If you paid up front:

Once you purchase, you’ll get immediate access to everything inside the program. Nothing is “dripped out” – you’re free to jump head first into things.

If you split your payment into 3:

You’ll get immediate access to the first half of the program (month 1):

  1. Modules 1-4
  2. 3 live office hours
  3. Chat feedback
  4. Accountability coach

The moment the second payment goes through, you get immediate access to the rest (month 2):

  1. Modules 5-8
  2. Next 3 live office hours
  3. Chat feedback (continued access)
  4. Accountability coach (continued access)

The moment the third payment goes through, you get immediate access to the rest (month 3):

  1. Career Accelerator Bonus
  2. Board game Prototype Guide
  3. Iterative Process Checklist
  4. The next 2 live office hours
  5. Chat feedback (continued access)
  6. Accountability coach (continued access)

This program is designed to help you become a game designer, but it’s up to you to follow the program.

Just like a personal trainer can’t go to the gym for you, I can’t make your games for you. 

However, I’ll equip you with the tools, resources, and skills you need to succeed and provide guidance and accountability along the way.

So if you do the following things, you’ll get results from this program:

  1. Take part in the Career Goal and Portfolio Workshops to set your goals, build a portfolio, and create a roadmap to achieve them.
  2. Attend the live office hours to get personalized mentorship and learn faster.
  3. Do the practice exercises and drills to turn your knowledge into real design job skills.
  4. Get hands-on by building game projects, modding, or recreating a part of a popular game to apply what you learn.
  5. Use the program’s principles and exercises to practice improving the gameplay of your target studio’s games – this will help you pass their design tests and interviews.
  6. Ask for feedback in Discord to minimize your trial and error.

The program works, and many of our members now work across 51+ studios like Ubisoft, Riot, Bethesda, Blizzard, and many more. 

However, it’s up to you to practice and apply what you learn.

I recommend this program to beginners with 0 experience if you meet the following criteria:

  1. Big passion for games and care about creating games that players will enjoy.
  2. Willingness to play games outside of your preference to study and improve your design skills.
  3. Enjoy the process of making games and trying to improve them over time despite the challenges and the effort required.
  4. Determination to start your game design career(solo dev or in-studio) and understand that you need to take action outside of the program that we cannot do instead of you, such as:
    • Build or mod your own games – we can guide you.
    • Create your portfolio – we can help you improve it
    • Source and apply for entry-level game design jobs.
    • Learn how to use a game engine and basic scripting

I recommend that you first check out my start-here guide for complete beginners to see if a career in game design is right for you. 

Once you have reviewed the 4 recommended articles and confirmed that you are interested in game design, you can come on over, and we can design some great things together!

Yes, the only difference between Indie developers and those who choose the game designer career path inside a studio is outcome.

As an Indie developer, instead of using the knowledge skills for the end result of getting hired / promoted, you’ll be applying it to directly

  • Improve your game experience, which is the leading indicator to player retention and better monetization.
  • Improve your team’s collaboration. Even if you’re just working with contractors, you’ll communicate more clearly and efficiently.
  • Clarify your vision and communicate with investors (if you’re getting funding).
  • Increase the potency of your iteration cycles to get more out of betting with limited resources.

This program contributes to that goal, but the program alone won’t get you hired for other game dev roles, since it doesn’t teach specific role-related skills like coding or 3D modeling.

It specifically teaches game design analysis, decision-making, and communication.

To be more specific, here is how the program compliments non game designer roles:

1. Game Programmer (or Technical Designers) – Helps you interpret designers’ intentions and desired player experiences, so you can help them find better technical solutions and implementation choices for optimal player responsiveness.

2. Game Artist – Helps you see beyond aesthetics and creating art in isolation, considering how your art contributes to the broader story, characters, and overall gameplay experience.

3. Game Producer – Helps you make better decisions, prioritize tasks effectively, and steer the team toward a unified goal, which ultimately results in an engaging and cohesive player experience.

The design skills taught in the program can enhance your appeal as a candidate and your effectiveness as a team member compared to those who only possess role-specific skills.

We have many FPGD members who used this program to get job offers as game producers and programmers.

Here are the genres this program does apply to

GENRE TYPEEXAMPLES
RPGFinal Fantasy, Dragon Quest
MMORPGWorld of Warcraft, Everquest, Overwatch, Final Fantasy XI & XIV
TACTICAL RPGValkyria Chronicles, Orgre Battle
SANDBOX RPGGrand Theft Auto, Deus Ex, Skyrim Elderscrolls, Fallout, Fable
ACTION RPGDiablo 3, Darksouls, Wizard of Legend, Bastian
MOBALeague of Legends, Defense of the Ancients
STRATEGYOff World Trading Company, The Banner Saga
RTS / RTTStartCraft 1 & 2, Age of Empire, Warhammer 4k
TURN BASED STRATEGYCivilization, Heroes of Might & Magic, Excyom
WAR GAMEDiplomacy
2D – SIDE SCROLLINGMario brothers, Metal slug, Mega man, Death’s Gambit, Super Meat Boy
2D – METROIDVANIASuper Metroid, Ori and The Will of The Wisps, Rain World, Hallow Knight

BOARD & CARD GAMES

(Digital & Tabletop)

Monopoly, Chess, Pandemic, Paraforming Mars, Mechs vs Minions, Legends of Runeterra
TOWER DEFENSEWarCraft 3, Plants vs Zombies
ACTION/ADVENTURE GAMELegends of Zelda, Darksiders
STEALTH GAMESAssassins Creed, Metal Gear Solid, Thief, Seikiro
FPSCOD, Modern Warfare, Battlefield, Insurgency, Half LIfe, Crisis
SURVIVALBattleground, Fortnite, Battle Royal, Apex legends
ROGUELIKEBinding of Issac, Rogue Legacy
PLATFORMERSupermario 64. Hat in Time, Jack & Dexter

Here are the genres that this program is NOT optimal for

GENRE TYPEEXAMPLES
RHYTHMGuitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution
TEXT ADVENTUREText Adventure, Ai Dungeon
INTERACTIVE MOVIEBlack Mirror, You vs. Wild
SIMULATION/SERIOUS GAMESWorld Without Oil, PeaceMaker, Cities Skylines
SPORTSBasketball, football
RACINGNeed for Speed, Gran Tourismo
GAMBLINGSlot machines, black jack
ADVERGAMESChipotle Scarecrow, Lego Apps
SURVIVAL HORROROutlast, Darkweb Streamer, Doki Doki Literature Club
PUZZLE

Merge Mansion, Candy Crush, Prof. Layton’s Adventures

Each module is about 40-60 minutes long. I get straight to the point. So consuming all of the videos will take you about 16 hours. 

But I recommend setting aside 2 hours for each module to give you plenty of time to digest what you learn and begin applying it. Then comes getting feedback and re-evaluation of your decisions and etc.

The amount of time you can spend applying these lessons to your own work or personal projects, which is the most effective path, is uncapped.

Our members often refer back to the material when they

  1. Need to pass job interview.
  2. Need to apply the learnings to a game they’re working on.

So you’ll likely spend additional time to return to refresh the principles and skills when you need to apply them again.

It’s our goal for every member to complete the program and successfully apply the program to their context.

We will help you accomplish this by:

  1. Assigning you an accountability coach who will check in with you regularly to see if you’re stuck anywhere and ensure you are getting the most out of the program.

  2. Evaluate your skill level and define your goals through the Career Goal Workshop and then connect you with a few fellow FPGD members who are at a similar level. 

    This will allow you to build relationships, stay accountable, and collaborate to progress at an accelerated pace.

  3. Lastly, we’ll send you module emails that serve as helpful reminders, helping you maintain a consistent learning pace and stay on course.

Most companies appreciate it if employees want to improve their skills and are happy to pay for programs and mentorship such as this one.

If you need help you with requesting reimbursement, please reach out to su*****@ga*************.com  and we’ll guide you through it.

There are countless ways to go about building a game, and accommodating every tech preference with a one-size-fits-all program is an uphill battle.

We won’t require you to make a game – but if you’re already working on a game or planning to work on one, you can apply directly what you learn to improve your game.

This program is designed to help you create gameplay that constantly hooks your players by:

  1. Using the program’s principles to identify and analyze player challenges.
  2. Designing meaningful and satisfying design choices that will emotionally and mentally connect players to your game.
  3. Improving your problem-solving skills to present multiple viable design solutions to your players.

This way, you can start crafting player experiences that will keep your players saying to themselves, “just one more hour.”

The members who have achieved the most consistent results typically fall into one or more of the following categories:

  • Developing a game solo or with a friend.
  • Participating in game jams.
  • Working on a game within a studio.
  • Building and launching an indie game.
  • Engaging in modding or recreating game elements.

If you’ve never built anything before, and want to take the program, you can take our free course Build a Game Challenge, where we provide templates and exact directions to help you build a playable virtual tabletop game prototype from scratch in 6 days.

No, it does not teach coding. This program is singularly focused on the game design aspect of game development.

It is designed to specialize in the challenges and issues of crafting fun players’ experiences consistently.

Well… you could. You can obviously figure out what works for you through trial and error, but that’ll take a while.

And we encourage you to try it! Because if it works for you, great!

But chances are, you’ve tried learning this on your own before and you found (or will find) yourself in the one or more of following situations:

  1. You don’t know where or how to start or what to even learn.
  2. You’re not sure what information is credible.
  3. You’re paralyzed by both conflicting and overwhelming amounts of information.
  4. Your initial motivation suddenly drops from a lack clarity, accountability and feedback from someone credible.

And between the hours it would take you to aggregate all of the free stuff and the headaches you would have trying to teach yourself…

We think the $480 is well worth it, which covers the following:

  • Personalized feedback from an instructor with both breadth & depth of game design specific knowledge who worked on the biggest games in the world – at your finger tips.
  • Full year access to the instructor for full year with 8 live (face time) office hours sessions – instead of paying more than cost of the program just for an hour of consultation.
  • Increased earning potential from acquire high lever skills to getting hired or promoted – while having the privilege to work on your passion.
  • You can find out if game design suits you for only $480, a far more budget-friendly alternative to enrolling in a 4-year university program that could cost you $50k-85k.
  • Avoiding costly mistakes – such as wasting your time and energy on things that don’t work. 
  • Accountability – so you don’t lose momentum.

We do our best to accommodate every time zone like adjusting the set weekly time that’s convenient to the most students – but, we can’t promise anything.

If you can’t attend a live session, we record each of them and distribute them to program participants so you can get the learnings out of them.

We just recently transition from Slack to Discord as a community platform, that’s why many screenshots from our previous conversations and discussions were from Slack.

P.S. – Skipped to the bottom to skim? Here’s everything in 156 words…

First Principles of Game Design Program helps aspiring designers, recent design graduates, professionals transitioning into game design, and game designers already in the industry improve their design skills and achieve their career goals. 

The program is exceptionally affordable at only $480.

To address any concerns if it’s going to work for you and remove any risk on your side, I offer hassle free 14-day 100% money-back guarantee.

The program offers 41 video lessons and exercises for the total of 16 hours of content. We are also offering for a limited time four career, job-hunting, resume and portfolio workshops. 

You get lifetime access to the program’s materials and upcoming updates, along with six months of weekly live office hours and one-on-one chat mentorship. 

Through this program, I’ve helped dozens of members get hired and promoted at over 51+ studios like Riot, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Blizzard, and many more. 

For any questions on the program, you can ask me directly or any member in the program’s Discord 👈

Copyright © 2023

Some studios where our members got hired or promoted at:

AND MORE...

Still got questions this page didn't address?

First, check out the Common Questions section to see if the answers to your questions are there.

If not, then you can schedule a live demo call here – We’ll jump on a Zoom call to clarify any remaining questions you may have.

EXPERIENCE & BACKGROUND:

[STUDIO] Blizzard Entertainment: Content, mechanics, and systems designer

(Creator of Apex Legends & former Creative Director at Respawn)

[GAME] World of Warcraft: MMORPG with 8.5 million average monthly players, won Gamer’s Choice Award – Fan Favorite MMORPG, VGX Award for Best PC Game, Best RPG, and Most Addictive Video Game.

  • Classic:
    • Designed Cosmos UI
    • Designed part of Raid Team for Naxxramas
  • Burning Crusade:
    • Designed the raid bosses Karazhan, Black Temple, Zul’Aman
    • Designed the Outlands content
    • Designed The Underbog including bosses:
      • Hungarfen, Ghaz’an, Swamplord Musel’ik, and The Black Stalker
    • Designed the Hellfire Ramparts final bosses Nazan & Vazruden
    • Designed the Return to Karazhan bosses: Attumen the Huntsman, Big Bad Wolf, Shades of Aran, Netherspite, Nightbane
  • Wrath of the Lich King:
    • Designed quest content, events and PvP areas of Wintergrasp
    • Designed Vehicle system
    • Designed the Death Knight talent trees
    • Designed the Lord Marrowgar raid
  • Cataclysm:
    • Designed quest content
    • Designed Deathwing Overworld encounters
    • Designed Morchok and Rhyolith raid fights
  • Mists of Pandaria: 
    • Overhauled the entire Warlock class – Best player rated version through all expansion packs
    • Designed pet battle combat engine and scripted client scene

[GAME] StarCraft 2: Playtested and provided design feedback during prototyping and development

[GAME] Diablo 3: Playtested and provided design feedback during prototyping and development

[GAME] Overwatch: Playtested and provided design feedback during prototyping and development

[GAME] Hearthstone: Playtested and provided design feedback during prototyping and development

[STUDIO] Riot Games: Systems designer, in-studio game design instructor

(Former Global Communications Lead for League of Legends)
(Former Technical Game Designer at Riot Games)

[GAME] League of Legends: Team-based strategy MOBA with 152 million average active monthly players, won The Game Award for Best Esports Game and BAFTA Best Persistent Game Award.

  • Redesigned Xerath Champion by interfacing with community
  • Reworked the support income system for season 4
  • Redesigned the Ward system
  • Assisted in development of new trinket system
  • Heavily expanded internal tools and features for design team
  • Improved UI indicators to improve clarity of allied behaviour

[OTHER GAMES] Under NDA: Developed multiple unreleased projects in R&D

Game Design Instructor: Coached and mentored associate designers on gameplay and mechanics

[STUDIO] Moon Studios: Senior game designer

(Former Lead Game Designer at Moon Studios)

[GAME] Ori & The Will of The Wisps: 2m total players (423k people finished it) with average 92.8/100 ratings by 23 top game rating sites (including Steam and Nintendo Switch).

  • Designed the weapon and Shard systems
  • Worked on combat balance
  • Designed most of the User Interface

[GAME] Unreleased RPG project

  • Designed core combat
  • High-level design content planning
  • Game systems design
  • Game design documentation
  • Gameplay systems engineering
  • Tools design
  • Photon Quantum implementation of gameplay

[VC FUNDED STARTUP] SnackPass: Social food ordering platform with 500k active users $400m+ valuation

[PROJECT] Tochi: Creative director (hybrid of game design, production and leading the product team)

  • Lead artists, engineers, and animators on the release the gamification system to incentivize long-term customers with social bonds and a shared experience through the app

[CONSULTING] Atomech: Founder / Game Design Consultant

[STUDIOS] Studio Pixanoh + 13 other indie game studios (under NDA):

  • Helped build, train and establish the design teams
  • Established unique combat niche and overall design philosophy
  • Tracked quality, consistency and feedback methods
  • Established company meeting structure and culture

Game Design Keynotes:

(Former Global Head of HR for Wargaming and Riot Games)
  • Tencent Studio
  • Wargaming
  • USC (University of Southern California)
  • RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology)
  • US AFCEA (Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association)
  • UFIEA (University of Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy)
  • West Gaming Foundation
  • Kyoto Computer Gakuin – Kyoto, Japan

Case Studies

(For First Principles of Game Design Program)

Results: Multiple job offers.

Before: Couldn’t pass interview.
After: Passed interviews and got job offers

    1. Ass. Game Producer from Com2us (Gamevil)
    2. Jr. Game Designer from an Ai robotics company 
    3. Ass. Game Producer from Tencent Lightspeed LA

Problem: Justin was stuck because he couldn’t pass the interviews, even though he got a game design degree from Full Sail University and made a bunch of games.

The main issue is that he couldn’t clearly and concretely explain how he can contribute to improving the players’ experience.

Solution: After going through the program, Justin was able to clearly communicate and demonstrated his understanding of the player motivations and the design process during his interview using the learnings from principles such as “Clarity” and “Motivation”.

He continued to refer back to the materials even after getting hired.

Result: Got hired by AAA studio.

Before: Couldn’t pass interview.
After: Passed interview and was hired as a Jr Level Designer by Calypte Studio (Virtuos)

Problem: Abdul couldn’t pass design interviews during the live mock design jam sessions, which tests his design analysis and decision making skills.

This is despite of receiving his B.S. in Computer Science with emphasis in Game Design from UC Santa Cruz and became technically proficient in Unreal Engine 5, Unity (C#), Maya, Far Cry Arcade, Blueprints, Java.

Solution: After going through the program, he used his learnings from the principles and applied them to his Elden Ring example during the interview with Calypte Studio to impress the hiring manager and ultimately receive the job offer.

Result: Got promoted to Lead Game Designer

Studio: Tilting Point
First Position: Game Designer
Current Position: Lead Game Designer

Problem: Jonathan wanted to grow from a mid level designer to the team lead but he ran in to the following issues:

  1. Couldn’t facilitate his dev team’s collaboration
  2. Having trouble training junior game designers

Solution: Using the principles from the program as a guiding framework along with leadership coaching, Jonathan built his skills to

  1. Improve his team’s efficiency and output during design discussions to evaluate design trade-offs and decisions.
  2. Improved his training process for the new junior designers and fortified his rapport with his team.

Result: Improved team cross discipline collaboration and more efficient iteration cycles.

Studio: Raven Software (COD Franchise)
Position: Lead Expert Systems Designer

Problem: There were significant communication barriers between the design team and the engineers. 

This disconnect often led to inefficiencies and misunderstandings during the design process, which lead to very very lengthy and costly iteration cycles.

Also, the absence of a unified design framework made it challenging for the junior designers to grasp certain the concepts.

Solution: The implementation of the Player-Centric Framework bridged the gap between the design team, engineers, and production to reduce unnecessary iteration cycles while increasing the impact of those iterations.

Result: Improved Aesir Inc’s team collaboration and their game’s Steam Ratings

Studio: Aesir Interactive
Game: Police Simulator
Implementor: Dustin Kohnen
Position: Senior Game Designer

Problem: Dustin was an experienced designer but struggled to pitch his ideas & concepts clearly to leadership, which often led to confusion and ambiguity.

Moreover, Dustin’s team was struggling with decision-making processes and coming with player focused potential solutions, often leading to delayed iteration periods.

Solution: Dustin implemented what he learned to reshape his team’s approach and established the principles as a common language for discussing design issues and solutions.

Utilizing the skills he acquired from the program, he was able to successfully present his ideas to the leadership and create multiple iterations to Aesir’s Police Simulator game.

This effective application of his newly acquired skills resulted in the game receiving an impressive 87% positive review rate from over 9000 reviews on Steam following the updates.

(This is implemented directly by the instructor, the exact design breakdown will be inside the program material)

Results: Warlock class for Mists of Pandaria became the best player rated version through all of the World of Warcraft expansion packs.

  • 8 years after the design left World of Warcraft, players made 3D figures of one of the characters he designed.
  • Blizzard put two cards in Hearthstone named after his Warlock.
  • Over 97,000 Warlock players from China voted that the Mists of Pandaria Warlock design (his redesign) was the best version they’ve played.

Studio: Blizzard Entertainment
Game: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria 
Implementor: Alexander Brazie
Former Position: Game Systems Designer

Problem: The warlock class had become over homogenized with all specs feeling similar, too many abilities that were out of place and a significant lack of coherent fantasy.

Solution: Alex applied the principles to analyze and identify the problem after collecting feedback from players on the forum.

Then he used the Player-Centric Framework to refine the class so the players clearly understand which skills are meant to be used.

In addition, he made each skill more meaningfully impactful, ensured there was responses within all specializations for dynamic battle conditions, and that there was satisfying outcomes for players who learned their skills and applied them well.

All of this within an express of unique fantasy for each sub class.

(This is implemented directly by the instructor, the exact design breakdown will be inside the program material)

Results:

Before: Unbalanced (with 55% win rate) 3rd least played character picked only by low & mid-skilled players.
After: Perfectly balanced and more competitive (with 50% win rate) picked by professional  e-sports players.

Studio: Riot Games
Game: League of Legends 
Implementor: Alexander Brazie
Position: Game Systems Designer

Problem: Before the rework, Xerath was an all or nothing Champion in League of Legends who needed to unload all skills at once then was useless

Therefore no one really played it. So it either has to be scraped or redesigned.

Solution: Alex first sourced and analyzed the players’ feedback in the League of Legends forums and Sub-Reddits

Then he applied his framework and principles and reworked Xerath to

  1. Give each skill more nuanced skill expressions
  2. Improved the pacing of combat decisions and a higher range fantasy than was thought possible at the time

Mentorship Examples

(Live Weekly Office Hour)
Daniel - How to apply Module 1 concept Clarity to my game?
Arda - Did I implemented your portfolio feedback correctly?
Adam - Can I get feedback for my university Capstone game Kitty Kart
Ronald - How do I get the most out of the FPGD course?
Daniel - How do I balance player abilities in my horror game?
Pray - Can I get feedback for my game Match Maker?

Privacy Policy

Funsmiths, LLC, (“Funsmiths, LLC” or “we” or “us” or “our”) recognizes the need to protect the privacy of the personal information you provide to Funsmiths, LLC with respect to your access and use of our website gamedesignskills.com and various related services (collectively, the “Site”).

Therefore, we have adopted this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”), which sets forth, among other things, the type of information that will be collected, the purpose and use of the collected information, and your rights with regard to the collected information. This Privacy Policy governs how we collect and use your personal information wherever you use our Site. By accessing the Site, you are consenting to the collection and use of your information by us, but only to the extent described herein. Should you wish to revoke your consent, you may do so by contacting us, information on which is set out in the Privacy Policy below.

Funsmiths, LLC may make modifications, deletions and/or additions to this Privacy Policy (“Changes”) at any time. Changes will be effective: (i) thirty (30) days after Funsmiths, LLC provides notice of the Changes, whether such notice is provided through the Site user interface, is sent to the email address associated with your account or otherwise; or (ii) when you opt-in or otherwise expressly agree to the Changes or a version of this Privacy Policy incorporating the Changes, whichever comes first.

Protection of Your Information
When we collect or use your information, we will utilize commercially reasonable safeguards to ensure its protection. It should be noted that no security procedure is currently 100% effective. Should any breach of your Personal Information occur, we will inform you as soon as reasonably possible, as required by applicable law.

Type and Purpose of Collection
We collect information at various points in the Site to facilitate its use by our users. Specifically, two types of information are collected:

  1. Non-Personal Information: Upon accessing the Site, certain non-personal information will be automatically collected without your knowledge or consent, such as your IP address, location data (where you log in through the Site you will be asked if you consent to the Site accessing your location, which can be updated at any time in your device settings) and the referring website (“Non-Personal Information”). We use Non-Personal Information to examine our traffic and to view how our users use the Site. This type of information will not allow you to be personally identified, although we might be able to associate it with your account. For example, we use “cookies,” which contain only certain statistical information. Additional information on cookies can be found below.
  2. Identifying Personal Information: If you initiate a transaction through the Site, we may collect and store information about you, such as your name, demographic information, phone number, address, and email, as well as any other information you provide to us (“Personal Information”), in order to facilitate you using the Site, send communications about the Site and related services, and populate forms for future transactions. This information may be shared with third parties for the same purposes. We may also, with your consent, post demographic information on the Site in relation to content you have submitted. Funsmiths, LLC does not disclose your Personal Information to third parties for the purpose of directly marketing their services to you unless you first agree to such disclosure. 
  3. Contact Data, Metadata, and Data for Interactions: To provide the Site, we may also collect e-mail addresses, phone numbers, text notes about customers entered by end users, related customers and organizations, business addresses, titles/positions, and other similar contact data, along with metadata of emails (time sent, etc.) that are linked to Personal Information, messages on Slack, location, and metadata about calls and meetings (timing, participants, etc.) that are linked to Personal Information. 

Additionally, Personal Information may be used and disclosed to the extent Funsmiths, LLC may deem reasonably necessary to enforce the terms of any agreement between you and Funsmiths, LLC, or to protect the rights, property or safety of any person or entity.

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

  • To provide customer relationship management services to you. We process personal data as necessary to perform these services. In addition to storing and retrieving data, we carry out necessary processing to generate reports and insights of your interactions with your customers on your behalf.
  • To personalize your experience (your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs)
  • To improve our website (we continually strive to improve our service based on the information and feedback we receive from you)
  • To improve customer service (your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service and support needs)
  • To provide to education and similar institutions (who may at times be interested in offering you courses or admission based on your performance)

Withdrawal of Consent
You may withdraw your consent to the collection of Personal Information at any time by sending an email to us. Upon receiving notice that you have revoked your consent, we will stop using your Personal Information within a reasonable time, which will vary depending on what information we have collected and for what purpose. Please note that we will send you an email confirmation upon receipt of your request. Therefore, if you do not receive a confirmation email, please contact us again with your request. If you do choose to withdraw such consent, your access to the Site may be diminished, or your ability to choose some of the options on the Site may be limited.

Contact email: su*****@ga*************.com

Sharing Information
We will not sell, rent or disclose to outside parties the information we collect and save except that we may share the collected information with other parties as follows:

  1. Affiliated Site Providers: We have agreements with various affiliated service providers to facilitate the functioning of the Site, with whom we may share the information we have collected. For example, we may share your credit card information with the credit card service provider to process your purchase. All administrative service providers that we use are required to have the same level of privacy protection as we have, and therefore we expect that your information will be handled with the same level of care that we employ. Additionally, for example, we may use analytics services.
  2. Where required by law: We may share the collected information where required by law, specifically in response to a demand from government authorities where such demand meets the legal requirements.
  3. Statistical Analysis: We may share Non-Personal Information and aggregated information with third parties, including but not limited to for advertising or marketing purposes. No Personal Information will be shared in this manner.
  4. Transactions: In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition, or in any other situation where Personal Information may be disclosed or transferred as one of our business assets.

External Links
The Site contains links and references to other websites. We are not responsible for the collection, use and disclosure of information, or the privacy practices of such websites, and we expressly disclaim any liability relating thereto.

Terms of Site
This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and forms part of the Terms of Site, which outlines the terms and conditions you agree to when accessing and using the Site, and which can be found here: https://gamedesignskills.com.

Children’s Privacy
Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. Our Site is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 without obtaining parental consent. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access the Site at any time or in any manner. If we learn that personally identifiable information has been collected on the Site from persons under 13 years of age and without verifiable parental consent, then we will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child under 13 years of age has obtained an account on the Site, then you may alert us at su*****@ga*************.com and request that we delete that child’s personally identifiable information from our systems.

Cookies and Similar Technologies
When you interact with the Site, we try to make that experience simple and meaningful. When you use our Site, our web server sends a cookie to your computer or mobile device (as the case may be). Cookies are small pieces of information which are issued to your computer or mobile device (as the case may be) when you visit a website or access or use a mobile application and which store and sometimes track information about your use of a website or application (as the case may be). A number of cookies we use last only for the duration of your web session or Site session and expire when you close your browser or exit the Site. Other cookies are used to remember you when you return to the Site and will last for longer.

Some of the cookies used by the Site are set by us, and some are set by third parties who are delivering services on our behalf.

Most web and mobile device browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can change your browser to prevent that or to notify you each time a cookie is set. You can also learn more about cookies by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org which includes additional useful information on cookies and how to block cookies using different types of browser or mobile device. Please note, however, that by blocking or deleting cookies used on the Site, you may not be able to take full advantage of the Site.

California Privacy Rights
Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, if you are a California resident and have an established business relationship with Funsmiths, LLC, you can request a notice disclosing the categories of personal information that Funsmiths, LLC has shared with third parties, for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes, during the preceding calendar year. To request a notice, please submit your request to the address directly below.

International Visitors
The Site is hosted in the United States and is intended for visitors located within the United States. If you choose to use the Site from the European Union or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, then please note that you are transferring your personal information outside of those regions to the United States for storage and processing. Also, we may transfer your data from the U.S. to other countries or regions in connection with storage and processing of data, fulfilling your requests, and operating the Site. By providing any information, including personal information, on or to the Site, you consent to such transfer, storage, and processing. 

By using the Site, participating in any of our services, and/or providing us with your Personal Information, you consent to this transfer. In order to comply with the EU-US Privacy Shield and Swiss-US Privacy Shield frameworks, the Company commits to the resolution of complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information. In compliance with the US-EU and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Principles, the Company commits to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information. European Union or Swiss individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding this privacy policy should first contact Funsmiths, LLC at: su*****@ga*************.com . Funsmiths, LLC has further committed to refer unresolved privacy complaints under the EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Principles to BBB EU PRIVACY SHIELD, a non-profit alternative dispute resolution provider located in the United States and operated by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. If you do not receive timely acknowledgement of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed, please visit http://www.bbb.org/EU-privacy-shield/for-eu-consumers for more information and to file a complaint. Finally, as a last resort and in limited situations, EU and Swiss individuals may seek redress from the Privacy Shield Panel, a binding arbitration mechanism.

International Transfer
Both Personal Information and Non-Personal Information you submit via the Site is sent to our group companies and will be processed in the USA and stored on secure servers located in the USA. Such information may also be transferred by us to our offices and third parties. The countries concerned may not have similar data protection laws to your country. Where we transfer your information out of your jurisdiction we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected. By submitting your information to the Site, you agree to this storing, processing and transfer.

For Residents of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) – General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”)
This Privacy Policy describes how Funsmiths, LLC collects, uses and shares your personal information. If you are a resident of the EEA, you are subject to the GDPR, which becomes effective on May 25, 2018, and the following terms also apply to you. The Company is the Controller and responsible for your personal data.

Lawful Bases to Process Your Personal Data 
This Privacy Policy describes above the personal data we collect from you and how we use it. We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message.

You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us at su*****@ga*************.com . Specifically, we have a lawful basis for processing each type of personal data described in this Privacy Policy, which are as follows:

  1. The lawful basis for collecting your Identity and Contact Data to register you as a new customer is the performance of a contract with you.
  2. The lawful bases for collecting your Identity, Contact, Financial, Transaction and Marketing and Communications Data to process and deliver your purchases are (a) the performance of a contract with you and (b) it is necessary for our legitimate interests.
  3. The lawful bases for collecting your Identity, Contact, Profile, and Marketing and Communications Data to manage a relationship with you are (a) the performance of a contract with you and (b) it is necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services).
  4. The lawful bases for collecting your Identity, Contact, Profile, Usage, and Marketing and Communications Data to enable you to partake in a contest, competition or complete a survey are (a) the performance of a contract with you and (b) it is necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products and services, to develop them and grow our business).
  5. The lawful basis to collect your Identity, Contact, and Technical Data to administer and protect our business and the Site is that it is necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganization or group restructuring exercise).
  6. The lawful basis to collect your Identity, Contact, Profile, Usage, Marketing and Communications, and Technical Data to deliver relevant Site content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you is that it is necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy).
  7. The lawful basis to collect Technical and Usage Data to use data analytics to improve our Site, marketing, customer relationships and experiences is that it is necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our Site updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy).
  8. The lawful basis to collect Identity, Contact, Profile, Usage, and Technical Data to make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you is that it is necessary for legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business).

We do not collect any Special Categories of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offenses.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set forth in this Privacy Policy.

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes described in this Policy.

External Third Parties

  • Site providers acting as processors based in the United States who provide IT and system administration services.
  • Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United States and Australia who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
  • Specific third parties such as PayPal, Facebook, and Twitter.
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this Privacy Policy. 

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

International Processing

We are based in the United States, which is where all of your data will be processed.

Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data. In some circumstances we may anonymize your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS UNDER THE GDPR

Under certain circumstances, EEA residents have rights under data protection laws in relation to their personal data. If you are an EEA resident, you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request. 
  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you. 
  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated. 

Our Contact Information

Please contact us with any questions or comments about this Policy, your personal information, our use and disclosure practices, or your consent choices by email at su*****@ga*************.com .

Funsmiths, LLC, 
302 washington street Suite 50 #5389, San Diego CA, 92103