Marvel’s Wolverine
Role: Game Design Intern (May-Aug), Contract Associate Game Designer (Aug-Dec)
Duration: May 2025-December 2025
Engine: Proprietary
Studio: Insomniac Games
What I did: I created and implemented combat encounters, worked on updating a main mechanic, assisted in collectible placement, utilized visual scripting to fix design-related bugs, and designed and implemented traversal paths.
Overview
I started working at Insomniac as a Game Design Intern, where I mainly created and pitched spaces for collectibles, fixed a wide variety of design related bugs, and helped to update a game-wide mechanic. My two week onboarding process included designing, implementing, and iterating on a two floor combat space, scripting a multi-wave combat encounter, and including the object-based mechanic I later worked on. This was my first time using visual scripting, which I then used to begin fixing bugs in different areas of the game including mechanics, cinematics, interact prompts, and traversal markups.
Directly following my internship, I was hired as a contract Associate Game Designer, which I am working as now. My work is now more focused to orbit around specific missions and mechanics, as well as continuing to assist in collectible placement and traversal paths.
Case Study - Collectible Placement
When pitching a space to house a collectible, I first played through the mission and considered where would have the most natural player exploration; gameplay flow, combat encounters, and narrative were all considered. Once I had selected a few location candidates, I created narrative and visual pitches for the space - What is this space used for, and why does it fit into this general mission location? Why would this collectible be here? How does this relate to other characters or lore of the game?
I then designed the spaces first from a top-down view using paper mapping, then in 3D as a blockout. I considered the player’s path through the space, experience of entering and exiting, and sightlines to the collectible. I cannot include any pictures of my process due to my NDA.
Key Takeaways
I have learned a lot in my time at Insomniac so far! One of the most important? When to move on. It can be hard (especially as a junior) to know how long to work on something before reaching out for help or even changing to a different task entirely. However, I’ve learned that my time is much better spent discussing the problem with other designers or even moving on to something I do know how to do, rather than spinning my wheels on a task I’m completely stuck on.
Another lesson I’ve learned is just how important communication is, both in game development as a whole and as a designer specifically. Since we touch so many areas and systems of the game, it is crucial to be able to adapt to new pods and communication styles, and quickly understand the other party’s (and describe your own) needs.
Both of these skills are vital to an efficient studio and a team where individual strengths are featured and well utilized.