Gameplay Systems
Structures for moment to moment gameplay, gameplay system models, and character progression systems. Created from scratch and refined through iteration.
Worms Rumble · Overcooked! 2 · Speedball · Honey, I Joined a Cult
Senior Game System Designer
Adam Carter‑Groves
I design the systems that give games their depth and keep players coming back: progression, economy, metagame and AI.
9 years in game design and 6 years as a developer before that, so I'm as happy building a system in Unreal, Unity or Godot as I am writing the design doc for it.
Currently Senior System Designer at Steel City Interactive, working on metagame and economy systems for an unannounced project.
Studios
- Steel City Interactive
- Rebellion
- Coatsink
- Team17
- Auroch Digital
What I design
Systems, from the first model to the final tuning pass
Metagame and Economy
Long term progression models, campaign structures and metagame plans. Modelled, built and tuned.
Worms Rumble · Steel City Interactive
AI and Combat
Weapon and enemy stats, teammate and opponent behaviours. Designed and implemented using Blueprints, Behaviour Trees and Scripting.
Worms Rumble · Speedball · Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics
In Engine & On Paper
Prototyping, implementing and documenting designs, using my extensive design and development background.
Unreal · Unity · Godot · Blueprints · C# · Design documentation
Selected work
Featured projects
Speedball
As a senior system and AI designer on Speedball, I owned the game's systems, metagame and AI, and implemented them myself in Unreal.
- Designed the game systems and economy, and the metagame that ties matches together.
- Designed and implemented the AI in Unreal Engine 5.
- Prototyped features and created content for the game.
- Wrote and maintained design documentation, and helped plan sprints.
- Mentored the junior designers on the team.
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics
I was the sole designer on this turn-based strategy game, from the first prototype through to release, responsible for all of its design work.
- Concepted and prototyped the turn-based combat system.
- Designed the progression system and the characters' abilities.
- Designed the campaign structure and mapped out the story beats.
- Designed the game's levels.
Worms Rumble
I joined Worms Rumble early in development and owned its progression system, taking it from first design through modelling and iteration.
- Designed, modelled and iterated on the player progression system.
- Set up reward and config data in Unreal to drive progression and rewards.
- Concepted weapons for the arsenal.
- Designed one of the game's maps and built the Lab Modes.
Overcooked! 2: Night of the Hangry Horde & Carnival of Chaos
I worked on two DLC expansions for Overcooked! 2, balancing game modes on one and designing new mechanics and most of the levels on the other.
- Night of the Hangry Horde: joined late in development to balance and iterate on levels and the new mode.
- Carnival of Chaos: pitched new mechanics and themes for the expansion.
- Carnival of Chaos: designed most of the expansion's levels.
Carnival of Chaos on Steam → Night of the Hangry Horde on Steam →
More projects
Mars Horizon
Designed the mission system, making missions play differently depending on their payload, and worked on the endgame and several other systems.
Honey, I Joined a Cult
Started as a design consultant and became the main designer, working on the economy, progression and overall structure with the developers.
Going Under
Design consultant for the publisher: reported on the game's progress, gave advice on mechanics, and acted as the design department's eyes on the project.
Astronimo
Designed levels and puzzles with in-house terrain and interaction tools, and restructured sections into chains of missions that feed into each other.
Death by Misadventure
Personal projects
In my spare time I make small games under the name Death by Misadventure, experimenting with board game mechanics in single-player games, storytelling through systems, and playful design. More about Death by Misadventure →
Get in touch
Looking for a system designer?
I'd love to hear about what you're building.