Endzone – A World Apart emerged during a pivotal time at Gentlymad Studios. After facing a creative crisis and ultimately shelving a lighthearted prototype—a quirky funeral home simulator called Rigor & Mortis—our team sought a more grounded and meaningful direction. This shift led us to create Endzone, a survival city-builder set in a post-apocalyptic world shaped by radiation, environmental hazards, and the resilience of human society.
Heavily inspired by classics like Banished, Frostpunk, and the Fallout series, Endzone combines the strategic depth of city-building with the high-stakes tension of survival mechanics. It challenges players to balance resource management, urban planning, and the well-being of a fragile community in a deeply atmospheric setting.
My Role & Contributions:
At the start of pre-production, I co-authored the Game Design Document with one of my co-founders. Given the scope and complexity of the project, we chose a waterfall development approach—defining all core features upfront and developing them in a linear sequence. While we remained flexible to evolving ideas and feedback, the overall vision of Endzone stayed consistent throughout production.
My primary responsibility was the implementation of the user interface and shaping the overall user experience. This involved everything from intuitive user flows and screen transitions to responsive camera controls and player feedback systems. Ensuring clarity and usability in a game as intricate as Endzone was both a technical and design challenge, and a critical part of making the experience accessible and engaging.
