Aleksandr Detushev
Lead Game Designer | 6+ years | MMORPG, Live Ops, Systems Design, Economy & Progression
Podgorica, Montenegro · Open to relocation
Profile
Lead Game Designer with 6+ years of experience on Warspear Online, a live-service 2D MMORPG with 5M+ downloads,
20+ playable classes, and deep progression systems.
Specializing in systems design, Live Ops, and long-term player engagement, with focus on class design, combat balance,
progression loops, guild systems, and economy-driven design.
Currently leading a team of 3 designers, owning system design and feature direction while remaining hands-on with
encounter design and implementation.
Designed and evolved interconnected systems where progression, economy, and balance directly impact retention,
monetization, and long-term player trust. Improved design department workflows, cross-team handoffs, documentation
standards, and internal editors/tools to make live content and system implementation faster and clearer.
Work Experience
- Lead and mentor a team of 3 game designers, coordinating work across Live Ops updates, feature ownership, and cross-team delivery.
- Drive feature development from concept to release, translating high-level goals into implementation-ready systems and prioritizing within live production constraints.
- Own class balance across a 20-class roster, competitive guild raids, the talent system, non-combat guild progression, and seasonal content delivery.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, art, UI/UX, and product to align design vision with technical and production realities.
- Improved internal workflows through structured reviews, clearer documentation standards, and more efficient cross-team handoffs.
- Improved internal editors and design tooling with clearer data flows, validation, and implementation-ready content structures.
- Deliver regular balance updates in a live economy where changes directly impact player investment, retention, and monetization, requiring careful trust management.
- Remain hands-on with systems design, encounter design, gameplay logic, and documentation alongside leadership responsibilities.
- Designed and balanced 4 new playable classes (Templar, Chieftain, Beastmaster, Reaper) for a live MMORPG with a 20-class roster, owning class identity, skill kits, gameplay roles, and long-term balance.
- Defined distinct design goals for each class, expanding gameplay variety and player segments: faction control, new weapon demand, onboarding-friendly gameplay, and transformation-based mechanics with custom UI.
- Created new itemization demand through class-specific gear paths such as dual magical maces and two-handed spears while preserving existing player progression and economy balance.
- Led large-scale class rebalances, shifting from direct nerfs to gameplay-loop changes and alternative buffs to maintain player trust and long-term engagement.
- Analyzed community sentiment, class usage trends, and monetization signals to guide balance decisions and manage meta shifts in a live environment.
- Rebuilt the Talent system into a core progression pillar, introducing per-class trees, multi-source daily caps, and talents that modify skill behavior rather than flat stats.
- Designed seasonal events and dungeons for a live MMORPG with a regular update cadence.
- Reworked dungeon structure and encounter pacing to reduce repetition across yearly content cycles and keep repeatable content feeling fresh over time.
- Prepared implementation-ready design documentation and collaborated closely with programmers and artists to ship content under tight live deadlines.
Selected Systems
Talent System
Rebuilt the talent system into a core long-term progression pillar, introducing per-class and per-guild talent trees with multi-source, daily-capped progression. Designed talents to modify skill behavior instead of flat stats, enabling meaningful build diversity.
Competitive Guild Content
Co-designed the competitive guild raid system and fully owned encounter design. Developed seasonal raid showdowns with up to 15 difficulty tiers, leaderboard-based progression, staged mechanic escalation, and strong economy sinks through preparation demand.
Class Ecosystem & Live Balance
Managed live balance across a 20-class roster in a high-investment environment. Shifted balance strategy from direct nerfs to gameplay-loop adjustments and alternative buffs, preserving player trust while guiding meta evolution.
Live Content Design
Designed and iterated on seasonal events, dungeons, and repeatable content systems within a regular Live Ops cadence, maintaining long-term engagement through post-release tuning.
Catacombs (PvPvE Mode)
Designed a session-based PvPvE extraction mode combining PvE progression with high-risk PvP loss conditions, lobby registration, group-based hostility rules, timed extraction, and dedicated reward storage.
Non-Combat Guild Systems
Designed three parallel daily progression systems, each with a distinct gameplay loop, integrated with guild talent trees to deepen long-term engagement without increasing combat complexity.
Skills & Tools
Systems Design (Live Service / Live Ops)
Class Design & Balance (20-class MMORPG)
Game Economy & Monetization Systems
Progression Systems & Build Diversity
PvE / PvP Systems Design
Guild & Social Systems
Retention & Engagement Design
Feature Ownership (Concept to Release)
Cross-functional Collaboration (Design / Engineering / Art / UX)
Team Leadership & Mentorship
Live Content Delivery & Iteration
Internal Tools & Workflow Improvement
Tools
- Confluence
- Google Sheets (data tracking, balancing)
- Figma
- Redmine
- MySQL Workbench
- TortoiseSVN
- Unity (hobby / prototyping)
Languages
- Russian — Native
- English — Professional working proficiency
Education
Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation (SUAI)
Computer Science (unfinished degree)