The Settlers Online
Restore value to a living economy. Give a mature game the opportunity to keep growing.
FROM PLAYER OPERATIONS TO PRODUCT LEADERSHIP
Player Support &
Worldwide CoordinationSupport leadership, payment operations and the player perspective.
Game &
Monetization DesignerEconomy, progression, content and commercial design.
Game Lead
Product direction, development priorities and long-term sustainability.
CONNECTED RESPONSIBILITIES
Working directly with player problems informed my systems design. As Game Lead, that perspective became part of how I led the product and its development.
- Players & service
- Player support · Payment operations · Worldwide coordination · Service experience
- Systems & economy
- Open player market · Resources & production chains · Economy design · Balance · Progression & endgame
- Content & LiveOps
- Content · Quests · Events · LiveOps · Monetization · Pricing psychology
- Experience & evidence
- UX · Player behavior · Analytics & KPIs · Experimentation
- Product leadership
- Game Lead responsibility · Production planning · Development priorities · External partners · Product strategy · Business turnaround
An economy with
years of history.
An open player-to-player market. Hundreds of resources, buildings and production relationships. Years of accumulated player wealth. The depth that made The Settlers Online compelling also made its economy difficult to balance.
Some resources had become heavily overabundant. Players produced far more than meaningful systems consumed, and their market value collapsed.
Create demand.
Restore value.
Rather than deleting wealth or artificially restricting supply, I designed new buildings, resource sinks and progression systems that gave surplus resources meaningful new uses.
Those demand structures helped reduce accumulated surpluses, restore value to devalued resources and stabilize the open market. A healthier economy supported engagement and contributed positively to revenue.
Surplus resources
Supply outgrows meaningful consumption.
New uses
Buildings, resource sinks and progression.
Renewed value
Demand supports a healthier open market.
Make the next chapter
worth investing in.
The Settlers Online was a mature product whose future was uncertain, with sunset a real possibility. As Game Lead, I coordinated development, content, LiveOps, monetization, analytics, releases and external partners. My design and product work was a major part of the team’s turnaround.
Better LiveOps, economy design, monetization and content strategy worked together with production discipline and a focus on player value. Across three consecutive fiscal years, the product delivered approximately 50% year-over-year EBIT growth.
The result changed the product’s future. The game became commercially strong enough that winding down was no longer the logical direction. Ubisoft committed substantial resources to a full Unity rebuild and migration so the live service could continue.
A sustained team turnaround: from the possibility of sunset to a substantial investment in the game’s future.
That experience changed how I think about mature products. Design and commercial discipline can reinforce each other, creating enough player and business value to change what becomes possible for the game.