Those words marked the beginning of our journey—before we had a name, a concept, a registered company, or the title of ID@Xbox developers.

Gaming has always been in my DNA. From flight simulators to first-person shooters to the intricate world of Civilization VI, I love them all. As free tools like Unity and Unreal grew in accessibility and popularity, my friend and I saw an opportunity—to create the games we’d always dreamed of playing. And Shwip? That was just the beginning.

• Intro
• How Does a UX Designer Break Into Game Design?
• Mistakes? Oh, We Made Plenty
• Improving the Player Experience—Before the First Missile Was Fired
• I love making games.

How Does a UX Designer Break Into Game Design?

Simple: play a lot of games, learn C#, download Unity, and dive in. For me, design is design—whether it’s furniture, web interfaces, or complex systems, the core principles remain the same. At heart, I’m a problem solver. I live for analyzing, iterating, refining, and improving. My curiosity about how things work drove me to learn the tools and languages that turn ideas into code—and eventually, into fully playable experiences on screen.

When indie developers finally gained access to powerful tools, we saw our chance to build something of our own. What followed was a frustrating, hilarious, and incredibly rewarding journey—one that led to our first game release and laid the foundation for future projects. We made plenty of mistakes, but we learned even more thanks to hands-on playtesting, countless debugging sessions, and invaluable feedback from players we met at conferences.

Mistakes? Oh, We Made Plenty.

Armed with a fresh game design degree, JP—the other half of Jamhammer—and I set out to build our own twist on Geometry Wars using XNA and C#. He tackled programming, while I took charge of design, creative direction, and production planning. My UX background proved crucial in shaping intuitive interfaces and smooth player flows. Of course, our tutorials came later—painfully refined through waves of hard-won feedback.

Releasing our game to the public was like throwing ourselves into a crash course in refinement. Players struggled with some of our mechanics—like the free-form whip or the unintuitive way missiles were activated. Balancing bug fixes, new features, and evolving design ideas quickly became our day-to-day. Launching in Early Access on Steam brought a tidal wave of feedback, analytics, and inspiration—each one shaping the final version of the game.

Improving the Player Experience—Before the First Missile Was Fired

Our game, Shwip (the ship with the whip), aimed to be more complex than traditional arcade shooters. Take Geometry Wars, for example—one weapon, a few bombs, and simple score-based progression. We asked: What if we added more? More weapons. Missiles! Proximity mines like green shells in Mario Kart! A dash button! Why not?

That “what if” mindset sparked some of our best ideas—but also created real challenges.

We now had a feature-rich game across four different modes, each with unique weapon sets and rules. We initially included a quick prompt before gameplay to explain the mode and weapons. Players could dismiss this screen after their first playthrough—or skip it entirely.

Spoiler: They skipped it.

Our first attempt was too text-heavy, and players were understandably eager to jump into the action. But without clear explanations, many had no idea what weapons they had—or even that some existed. One of the most frequent questions during playtests was, “How do I switch weapons?” or “What does this ability do?”

So, I went back to the drawing board.

In version two, I stripped out most of the text and leaned into visual design. I added controller-specific icons, clear ammo indicators, and quick-reference ability descriptions—direct answers to our players’ most common questions.

Then came another playtest at a major conference—and this time, the difference was clear. Players read through each section, understood the mechanics, and asked fewer questions mid-game. Some still skipped it—and that’s fine. I do the same sometimes. But we gave them the option to revisit the screen anytime via the pause menu.

For the final version, I merged the best parts of both earlier designs. Each game mode got a structured layout divided into four easy-to-read quadrants, with supporting icons and concise labels. It was reusable, scalable, and above all—effective.

When we debuted this iteration at our latest conference, we finally saw the result we were aiming for: players understood the game faster, engaged more deeply, and spent less time confused and more time having fun.

This was just a small look into of many large UX exercises in our game Shwip, I’d love to talk more but I should probably wrap this up…

I love making games.

My journey into game development started with UX design—but it didn’t stop there. What I discovered along the way is that games and interactive experiences are the ultimate expression of user experience. I built my career helping people navigate and understand the digital world, but nothing compares to the emotional impact of creating something playable—something that entertains, challenges, and connects.

There’s nothing like watching a group of strangers crowd around your game, pick up a controller, and end up laughing uncontrollably at something you built. That kind of joy is contagious—and it’s exactly what keeps me coming back. Making games that spark happiness in others is the most rewarding feeling I’ve found in my work.

For me, the thrill of game design comes from its mix of creativity and systems thinking. It mirrors UX in many ways: gather data, prototype, test, refine, ship, and iterate. But it’s wrapped in something more expressive—something playful. That balance between logic and imagination is what excites me most as I look toward the next chapter of my career.

Our game might look simple on the surface—but behind the scenes, we definitely over-engineered it. And while most players will never see the layers of systems that power the experience, we do. And we’re proud of them. Knowing what we built, and seeing people enjoy it, is one of the best feelings in the world.

Check out Shwip here on Steam. Thanks!