Hey! My name is Sebastian Jankowski, and I am a Game Designer with 4+ years of experience. I've been working on games since I was a teenager, but back then, I ran only Tabletop RPGs and played many video games. My first Game-related job was designing and running the Tabletop RPG named "Tol Calen" during the summer camps. Since then, I have been eager to try other media sources to create fun and engagement for people. I finished my bachelor's degree in economic analytics and got right into Game Dev in the position of a Game Designer. Since then, I've read a lot of books regarding Game design theories, frameworks, and tricks. I also took part in courses regarding Quest Design, Narrative in games, UI/UX Design, and some other topics related to the role of the Game Designer. The biggest turning point for me was learning how to use Unity and Unreal Engine, with some lessons taken regarding coding.
Projects:
The geolocalization game with the real-world buildings in the form of Monopoly Cards. I was designing this game since the first page of the Game Design Document. Each feature in that game was created with my vision of the product and according to my documentation. The game reached its Soft Launch and is waiting for the Global release.
Different types of tasks: Daily Tasks and Chapter Tasks
Chapters Feature - the pre-set railroad tasks within the Chapter (a group of tasks). They have a purpose of giving Long-term goals for the player, but also making first steps in the game. The Design also included the theme of the chapter for a deeper understanding of the game.
Tutorial
Dialogue of Mr.Monopoly introducing the game
The flow of the tutorial
The Property Cards
The categorization of venues and the split of colors for the database
Mechanics of the cards- rolling different amounts of dice for acquiring the card (inspired by ability checks in Dungeons and Dragons tabletop RPG)
Value (variable for the Duel feature) and Rent (variable for the Income feature)
Upgrade system
Crafting system related to the cards
Iconic cards- the mechanics behind the most famous places on earth, making them "joker" cards for the Players' Board
Transportation and Industry cards - the cards with special mechanics that can twist the chances of winning in the Duels
Duel feature
Starting cash for the players
The matchmaking of Duels
The balancing spawn rates of Duels on the map
The effects on the special tiles during the Duel (Chance Cards, Jail, Go! tile, Community Chest)
Predifined scenarios of the Duels
Dice Double mechanic
The rewards and penalties for the players for the Duels
Level System
Experience-based level system
distribution of experience throughout the game features
Experience Curve for each level
Evolved UI / feature unlock - the features that appear with certain levels, so players won't be overwhelmed with content they are receiving
Monopoly Board
The slots of the Monopoly Board for each level and size
The Passive Income mechanic
Leaderboards
The leaderboards' capability of showcasing top players
The new players' leaderboards with the preset bots that had their progression based on time
The event leaderboards
Live-ops Events
The configuration of live-ops events with the Kinoa software - events for collecting cards, Duels and special Influencers events
Special loot on the map
Daily Rewards
The feature that rewards players for logging in everyday and the longer-term rewards on top of it
Rewards on the map
The rewards to tap on on the map and collect - that engages players more to walk
Step Tracker feature
A feature that accumulate the steps made by the player and reward them for walking
Drone Feature
A feature that alows players to explore the map with no real movement
Mechanics of the flying using the joystick
Auction Feature
Auction allows players to sell their cards and trade with other players via bidding (like on the real-time auctions)
Configurating, economy and balancing
Each of the features was configured by me using Postman or GitLab (depending on the config)
The economy needed a lot of tweaks and was recalculated 2 times by me, and I believe it still needs some tweaks :)
Balancing was a huge part of the job with this product, with every feature we needed to make sense when it comes to resources
My first project. This game is based on the same idea as Monopoly World - the real world venues geolocalization game - but it's much older (Global release: 2014). The game was designed for collectors and business enthusiasts. In its peak, the game had 32% of D1 Retention, and its revenue spiked by 400+ % thanks to my feature I've designed. For now, the game is doing fairly well due to the live ops features I've introduced to the game.
Different types of tasks: daily, weekly, monthly, event, and tutorial tasks
Tutorial
Dialoguesof the Charles character (main NPC in the game) explaining what to do in the game
Tutorial tasksto quickly refer to - what to do
The whole flow of learning the features one by one
Live-ops tools
Moving pins on the map- properties to buy in the game - is a core mechanic
Hidden pins - properties that were harder to find, you needed to be very close to the Pin to buy it, or the pins that appear only at set times
Global pins - the properties that are visible from every corner of the map. Players could view their statistics, and they were obtainable only via lootboxesor share fragments(check below for explanation)
Property Description - the text for the property to educate about the origin of the placethey are buying, or event lorefor that property, or hintshidden in this description to find other properties.
Property backgrounds - the display of unique properties that make them special. That caused collector players to go wild. When they were released, they could collect something with a special "skin". Very crucial mechanic for this game, since most of the players are collectors.
Property Special Perks - some properties give special bonuses for keeping the property in their Portfolios (example: Property Agent speed-up)
Event profile avatars-exclusive avatars only obtainable during the events
Event Frames for profiles - exclusive frames that were thematical related to the event and more attractive ones that were animated
Storyboards - the introduction to the in-game event in the form of a few slides with a description setting the narrative for the game
Social competitions on Discord - the easy way to give the engaged players small leaderboards that the live-ops team could track for players and reward them accordingly
Event Tasks - the possibility to use the designed Task system to create special event tasks
Lootboxes
Opening mechanic
Setting the probability for the loot
The design of displaying free lootboxes on the map during events
Share fragments - the item that was a part of the property share. Players need to collect a set number of them to collect a full share of the property
Event share fragments - the share fragments, but only available during the events
The special item, called the Paperwork Certificatethat allows players to shorten the time to purchase a property. This item was made with 12 different rarities and time cut according to their rarity
Fixes for the game
The negative income of players was caused by a design bug where they were losing money due to an incorrect mathematical errormade by a previous game designer. For this type of game, it is a big deal for players to earn, not lose, from the income
Rework of the Paperwork mechanic- Rework was needed for the design of the new item - Paperwork Certificates - there was an over-complicated equation in the code that needed to be changed and redone with a mathematical sense, so players will no longer wait 30+ days for their property to be processed due to purchase. Thanks to that rework, players waited max 10 days for the paperwork, and they could use the item (Paperwork Certificates) to shorten that procedure. In addition, including a crucial ad monetization tweak in that mechanic
Balancing the Passive Income, including ad monetization tweaks
Events
Christmas event 2022
Christmas event 2023
Easter and April Fools event 2022
Easter and April Fools event 2023
Halloween Event 2022 (first event ever made in Landlord)
Halloween Event 2023
St. Patrick's Event 2022
St.Patrick's Event 2023
Chinese New Year 2023
Ocean Odyssey event (the most profitable cyclical event so far - the event spiked with 300% of revenue - for the company)
Ancient Cities event (cyclical event)
Game Jam Projects:
The KrakJam 2014 project with a team of five people. The game is about adoring the girl. The two-player rivalry game. One player is playing as a Nerd and other is a Jock. My roles were: Product manager, Game Designer, Tester, and UX Designer.
The Global Game Jam link can be found on the Nerds' face.
The first Game Jam project I ever participated in. The Game Jam was United with the Ukraine Game Jam in 2022. TheGame is a city builder with the narrative in the form ofa few events popping up for the player. The game wasoperating on three resources: Food, building materials,and Morale.
The link to the Game Jam overview on the Cows' face:
Tabletop RPG games projects:
Tol Calen is a low-fantasy setting for the Tabletop RPG. This game system was made for summer and winter RPG camps for teenagers and adults. The system is ever-changing due to the specifics of the camp's storyline. Each Camp had a continuous story that altered this game system year by year. I was working on it for 7 years (2014 to 2021).
Click here to view details about my work
