TruPlay Games
Designing a cohesive, scalable entertainment ecosystem across platform, games, web, and internal tools.
TruPlay is a subscription-based interactive ecosystem featuring games, comics, and video. As the Lead Product Designer, I spearheaded the 0-to-1 design and scaling of the entire TruPlay ecosystem. I unified disparate touchpoints—mobile platform, web marketing, internal operations, and the games themselves—into a single, cohesive brand experience that prioritized discoverability and long-term user retention.
TruPlay Games
Senior UX/UI Designer
Senior UI Designer
Free-to-play mobile game - In-App Purchases (iOS & Android)
Nov 2021 - Sep 2024
Mobile game (iOS & Android)
Team
Art Director, Developers, Product Manager, Product Director
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, Jira, Slack
Constraints
Live platform & active users, multi-surface ecosystem, diverse content types, cross-functional dependencies, scalability & future-proofing, accessibility & family-friendly standards
Studio
TruPlay Games
Product
TruPlay Games (F2P mobile game platform)
ROLE
Senior UX/UI Designer
Project Overview
TruPlay needed to transition from a collection of individual products into a unified "Super App." The challenge was creating a design system flexible enough to house high-intensity games, passive video content, and complex commerce flows, all while providing internal teams the tools to manage a growing content library.
The Challenge
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Unified Design System: Architected a cross-functional design language that ensured brand constancy across 4 distinct surfaces.
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End-to-End Ownership: Led UX/UI for the core platform, two shipped game titles, and the internal admin engine ("The Ark").
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Growth-Focused UX: Optimized the onboarding and subscription funnel, reducing drop-off during the First Time User Experience (FTUE).
High-Level Impact
Lobby: Phone
Lobby: Tablet
Landing
Sign-up
Subscription
Smart Onboarding:
Redesigned the FTUE to minimize cognitive load, leading to a smoother entry into the content ecosystem.
Landing Page → Subscription Selection → Account Creation
The Modular Lobby:
Developed a flexible tile system that scaled to support games, comics, and videos without layout overhauls.
The Platform Experience (Core Product)
Splash
Gameplay
Level Win
Map
Chirp Song: Wings of Praise
As the Lead UI Designer for Chirp Song: Wings of Praise, I developed a vibrant, matte-finish UI architecture that uses strategic background blurring and high contrast to ensure a clear visual hierarchy. This design approach highlights the game’s 2D art style and charismatic characters, providing an intuitive and immersive user experience that guides players seamlessly through the restorative journey.
Splash
Gameplay
Pause Menu
Ship Selection
Lucas: Mission Starhope
As the Lead UI Designer for Lucas: Mission Starhope, I developed a UI that immerses players directly into the action with a futuristic, heads-up display aesthetic. The interface leverages a distinct gold, blue, and green color palette and dynamic digital panels inspired by Eldavarian architecture, creating a high-tech, in-world feel. This intuitive design ensures fluid navigation and responsive feedback, enhancing the core mobile space shooter experience for all players.
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Systemic HUD Design: Created interaction systems that balanced gameplay immersion with accessible navigation.
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Visual Language: Ensured the game-specific UI felt like a natural extension of the broader TruPlay brand.
Bridging Immersion with Usability.
I spearheaded the end-to-end UI design for flagship titles Lucas: Mission Starhope and Chirp Song: Wings of Praise, while providing strategic UI support for several other games across the TruPlay platform.
Game UX/UI Design
Game UX/UI Design
The Shepherd
The Vine
The Ark - Dashboard
Designing for Operational Excellence.
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The Solution: A role-based dashboard that streamlined user management and content deployment, reducing operational friction for the Customer Service and Ops teams.
Internal Tools: "The Ark" (Admin Hub)
Goals:
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Broaden Appeal
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Bring more energy and life
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Make it look more FUN!
Current State
Future Vision
Toward the end of my tenure, I led a UI exploration to evolve the TruPlay brand from 'clean utility' to 'vibrant entertainment.' This vision was about emotional resonance—making the first touchpoint (onboarding) feel as lively as the games themselves.
The objective was to introduce a more dynamic, engaging aesthetic through the following design principles:
Future Vision — The "Fun" Factor Exploration
Future Vision — The "Fun" Factor Exploration
Current State
Future Vision
Broaden Appeal with Vibrant Color:
Swapped neutral foundations for brighter, more vibrant colors and dynamic shapes to immediately signal a "fun" atmosphere.
Create Desirable Interactions:
Focused on chunkier modals and buttons with a subtle 3D look and feel—elements you actively want to press.
Inject Life and Narrative:
Integrated bolder, more playful fonts and stunning character illustrations to visually expand on the "Playing in the Light" theme.
Optimize for "WOW" Moments:
Simplified large areas of text in favor of stunning visuals and graphic elements to create instant "WOW" moments during the initial FTUE flows.
Current State
Future Vision
The glue that held the ecosystem together.
The Foundation: Scalable Design System
The Foundation: Scalable Design System
Strategy:
Product UX/UI (0→1), Cross-Platform Architecture, Retention Strategy.
Execution:
Design Systems (Figma), Game UI Flows, Rapid Prototyping, Internal Tooling.
Leadership
Design Systems (Figma), Game UI Flows, Rapid Prototyping, Internal Tooling.
Skills & Mastery
1. Scalability Requires Early Standardization
Designing for four different surfaces (Web, App, Game, Admin) taught me that a Design System is only as good as its flexibility. Early on, I learned that strict components worked for the Web but failed for Game HUDs. I pivoted to a "Token-First" approach, which allowed the brand identity (colors, typography) to remain consistent while allowing the layout structures to adapt to the unique constraints of each environment.
2. The "User" is also the "Employee"
Designing The Ark (Internal Tools) was a pivotal moment. I realized that reducing friction for our internal Ops team was just as impactful as reducing friction for the end-consumer. By streamlining the content-upload workflow, we shortened the production cycle for new game releases, proving that B2E (Business-to-Employee) design is a multiplier for B2C success.
4. What I’d do differently
If I were to start this project today with the data we have now, I would have integrated user sentiment tracking directly into the "Quest" feature earlier. While the engagement numbers were high, having qualitative feedback loops built into the reward system would have allowed for even faster iterations on content discovery.