Sami Richards

A technical game designer focused on systems, narrative and usability with five years of professional experience across programming, design, production and UX, most recently working at Epic Games.

Light House

A short first-person narrative puzzle game.

Developed in Unity over three weeks, Light House sees the player explore an abandoned lighthouse while completing six puzzles across five levels. The puzzles represent their journey as they turn the light on and discover where they are and why they’re there. Each puzzle is built around finding a relevant word and has a unique format that ties into the environment and level design.

Game Page
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Education

BSC(HONS) Games Technology

University of the West of England
September 2014 - June 2018

A First-Class technical education, including Unity, Unreal, C/C++ and C#, systems architecture, gameplay logic, AI, UI & optimisation.

Accessible Player Experiences®

The AbleGamers Charity
June 2024

Practitioner certification in accessible experience design and disability advocacy built around The AbleGamers Foundation’s APX design system.

MA User Experience Design

Falmouth University Games Academy
September 2024 - Present

A part-time program focused on the iteration of game design empowered by the formal application of user research to guide innovation.

Professional Credits

Associate UX Researcher

Alan Wake 2

Remedy Entertainment, Epic Games Publishing

I supported the publishing production team at Epic with usability reporting for pre-release builds and helped to prioritise design towards release.

Associate UX Researcher

Alan Wake: Flashback

Epic Games with Remedy Entertainment,
Spiral House, and Zen Creative

I organised and conducted user testing to confirm the usability and narrative comprehension of the design ahead of release.

Associate UX Researcher

PC Building Simulator 2

Spiral House, Epic Games Publishing

I supported the design with usability reporting and produced user surveys to guide the game's development from pre-release to live service.

Associate UX Researcher

Touch Type Tale

Pumpernickel Studio, Mythwright

I supported the developers with sensitivity, usability reporting and script reviews to guide the development and reception of their game.

Associate UX Researcher

Going Medieval

Foxy Voxel, Mythwright

I supported the developers in live service with the design of their character creator, focusing on the user experience and reception of the design.

Associate UX Researcher

KID A MNESIA EXHIBITION

[namethemachine] x Arbitrarily Good Productions, Epic Games Publishing

I supported the production team with usability reporting and general feedback on the design and presentation of the pre-release project.

Associate Producer

PC Building Simulator

The Irregular Corporation

I assisted with milestones, organised meetings, coordinated porting and managed the educational release while collaborating on branded DLC.

Game Designer

BMO: Play Along With Me

Mobile Pie, Cartoon Network

I distilled the Adventure Time lore into puzzles and mini-games that honoured the conclusion of the series while engaging a young audience.

Unity Programmer

England Originals

Hex Digital, England's Historic Cities
and Visit London

I implemented UI, interactions and content that augmented museums and historic landmarks around the country with AR/VR visualisations.

References

Marcin Lella, Senior User Researcher and Mentor while on the Insights Team at Epic Games

“Sami and I worked on numerous research studies assessing unintended points of friction in the design of prototypes and early builds of games. Sami observed users interacting with various designs, and was quick to identify aspects in the designs that influenced users to behave the way they did. After identifying issues, Sami would work to have them fixed. Sami understood that design involves tangible human effort: the recommendations they made in reports and team presentations were feasible and sensible for the UX design team to implement.”