Work Case Study
Atlantis Redesign
Recovering an underperforming Seafight expansion
Feature RedesignGame DesignProgressionOnboarding
Role
Game Designer
Status
Shipped
Tools
Analytics dashboards, Jira, Confluence
Context
- Atlantis was a major Seafight expansion, but its initial reception and adoption were weak. The opportunity was to understand why players were not investing in it and redesign the experience around motivation, clarity, and a better early loop.
- The relaunch focused on making the feature easier to enter, easier to understand, and more rewarding to progress through without undermining existing player investment.
Problem
- Atlantis had weak adoption and players were not starting or sustaining engagement with the expansion.
- The entry experience and time-to-reward curve were tuned too heavily toward the top segment.
- Players needed clearer reasons to invest in the feature area.
My role
- Game Designer
- The redesign had to respect existing progression, inventories, and economy expectations.
- Changes needed to recover trust without making the expansion feel like a separate game.
- The relaunch had to be understandable to both veterans and returning players.
Design decisions
- Reworked onboarding so the expansion had a clearer first step, not just a larger endgame promise.
- Adjusted quest flow and progression pacing to make early commitment feel achievable.
- Improved reward clarity so players could evaluate what they were chasing and why it mattered.
- Kept changes compatible with existing progression, inventories, and economy expectations.
Outcome
- Relaunched Atlantis and reached 50% DAU participation within its first month.
- Improved onboarding, progression loops, reward clarity, and player motivation.
- Turned an underperforming feature area into stronger proof of live-service feature design and iteration.
What this shows
- The relaunch reached 50% DAU participation within its first month, a major recovery for a feature that had previously struggled with adoption and community reception. The result showed that the core issue was not player resistance to the feature theme, but the structure and clarity of the experience around it.
- For recruiters, Atlantis is a concrete example of diagnosing a live feature, improving the player experience, and tuning it into a healthier engagement loop.