Madden 20
Publisher
Developer
Platforms
Genre
Dev Cycle
Release Date
Team
Role
Core Loop
Electronic Arts
EA Tiburon - Orlando, FL
Xbox One, PS4 & PC
Sports & Simulation
~ 1 Year (I joined the team halfway through)
August 02, 2019
Forge - Madden Ultimate Team Live Services
Game Design
Play > Collect > Upgrade
Systems & Live Services Design
Power Curve Design
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Madden Ultimate Team progression is based on a power chase. The power being OVR, which is a weighted average of player stats.
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For Madden 20, I came in halfway through the live service cycle so my duty was primary to maintain the established power curve.
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During live service cycle the rate at which the power curve increases was closely monitored. I worked with the players designers and live content designers to make sure the planned increases in power were being executed and coordinated efforts to make any necessary adjustments as needed.
Item Valuation
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In any heavily itemized system, all items need a system value assigned. From the core system value, all items derive their relative value.
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Through out the live service cycle, I determined and maintained core system values and the relative values of all items and currencies released.
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Through this process I determined dusting values, rewards, progression pacing, crafting costs, monetization and upgrade costs.
Item Upgrade Balance
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In Madden Ultimate Team some player items can be upgraded in OVR by spending dusting currency and/or inputting specific variations of that player item. This is the Power Up system.
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Player items can unlock special abilities and stat boosts by spending dusting currency on them.
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My duty was to maintain and enforce the already determined costing for upgrades on items.
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I worked with the player designers through out the live service cycle to coordinate when these upgrade opportunities unlock and how much dusting currency they cost or what item variations they require.
PVE Rewards Design and Tuning
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Ultimate Team has many different PVE activities a player can participate in to earn coins, collectibles and player items.
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I worked with content designers to design the reward structures of live content being built that would best fit their creative visions and adhere to the strict standards for progression and economy balance.
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For all new content releases, I simulated player behavior in spreadsheets and playtests to ensure no loopholes existed and that players were getting fair value for their time spent.
PVP Rewards Design and Tuning
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Madden at its core is a competitive simulation PVP experience. Ultimate Team has a robust set of PVP activities for all skill levels.
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Through out the live service cycle I designed the rewards for each mode based on its reward structure. These rewards were continuously redesigned and updated based on live data and power curve progression.
Economy Design and Tuning
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Madden Ultimate Team has a complex economy with a very active auction house.
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Item and currency loops were very carefully designed, curated and maintained. Any mess up could be magnified and extremely damaging due to the very large active player base of the game at the time.
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Currency balances and flows as well as item prices on the auction house were monitored to determine economy health.
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Item/currency sinks and faucets were introduced or removed as needed to maintain a healthy and rewarding economy for all player types.
Monetization Design
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In Ultimate Team, the primary monetization method is from users purchasing points through first party portals or origin to spend on packs and items in the in-game store.
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I planned, designed and implemented most pack and item offers in the store after I joined the team.
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Working closely with PMs and analysts, the performance of the store was monitored and offerings were adjusted based on KPI impact and needs.
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The store also included many non premium offers that I designed and implemented to offer free to play methods for users to obtain valuable items. These were most often released alongside major content releases and weekly content beats.
