My name is Robert Hrouda, I am currently living in the Pacific NorthWest in the lovely state of Oregon. I consider myself a perpetual student of Design in that I am continuously playing games to experience the implementation and practices of others in order to better my own designs. I play a lot of different types of games as a result, and am always eager to find new gems in various genres.
In my career, I have often found myself gravitating towards the systems and content that directly challenge the player, or empower the player to take on the game's challenges. This is often expressed in NPC Design, Encounter Design, and Gameplay systems. I am a prolific GDD writer with a particular focus on communicating intentionality with Engineers.
I'm a strong advocate for Systems Design to be the "tip of the spear" and to lead discussions, brainstorms, and to play a part in guiding the discussions.
I consider myself a very Production-Minded Designer. It is often the case that when given a task, my first questions will be to determine what Engineering/Art resources will be available, the time-box expectations for my resources and myself. I then tailor my designs and concepts to the resource limitations (unless asked otherwise), to ensure I can paint a realistic picture of what to expect from a finished product to leadership.
I consider myself a very Production-Minded Designer. It is often the case that when given a task, my first questions will be to determine what Engineering/Art resources will be available, the time-box expectations for my resources and myself. I then tailor my designs and concepts to the resource limitations (unless asked otherwise), to ensure I can paint a realistic picture of what to expect from a finished product to leadership.
I believe interdepartmental collaboration is a beautiful thing that generates team buy-in on a concept, and helps promote healthy designs. I believe in raising up quiet voices and working with people to identify the core elements of their ideas and how they can fit in to the grander picture outside of a singular concept. I believe that as a Designer, it is my role to empower people to be generous with their thoughts and ideas, while managing the reality that not every notion can make it into the final game, and that a core vision must be upheld.