The cults of game design and neuroscience

Game jams and changing industries

This episode’s guest is Michelle Choi, a Principal UI/UX Designer at PlayStation in the Creative Arts department, where she designs game interfaces for PlayStation Studios and partners. Most recently, she worked on the newly announced Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. We talk about transitioning from print & ecommerce design into game UX, being emotionally invested (or not) in your work, and using game jams to hone your craft. This episode was recorded on October 1, 2025. Music by ⁠Abstraction⁠ [https://abstractionmusic.com/].

Work-life balance and the AAA-indie dichotomy

This episode’s guest is Joie Cao, a visual design artist at Riot Games. She currently works on Teamfight Tactics, where she creates UI for future sets as part of the core gameplay team. Before that, she worked on League of Legends, where she designed interfaces for game modes and limited-time events. We talk about work-life balance, Roblox side projects, and what makes someone great to work with. Apologies for the bad audio! This episode was recorded on September 19, 2025. Music by ⁠Abstraction⁠ [https://abstractionmusic.com/].

Craft and care: the making of a UX director

This episode’s guest is Julie McConnell, a UX Director at ⁠Epic Games⁠ [https://www.epicgames.com] working on Fortnite. With almost 15 years of experience, she's a veteran of Riot Games, Google, and Bungie, working on some of the most prestigious franchises in the games industry. We talk about cursed UX problems in games, mentorship and knowing whether the manager path is for you, and why design orgs in tech tend to be more mature than those in games. Music by ⁠Abstraction⁠ [https://abstractionmusic.com/]. Topics How Julie got into the industry What was the industry like back then? How have you seen it change? Being self-taught and leveraging mentorship What’s stuck with you from observing senior UX designers? What to do when UX research and data contradict each other and dealing with a passionate playerbase Design maturity differences between tech and games How has your taste changed over the last decade? Have you closed the taste gap? How did you know you wanted to be a manager? Do you ever miss getting super hands on as a designer? Dealing with the stress of being a manager The hardest interview question you’ve ever been asked

The cults of game design and neuroscience

This episode’s guest is Noor Amin, a game designer at ⁠Riot Games⁠ [https://www.riotgames.com/en] working on League of Legends. She’s also a member of the Game Awards Future Class of 2023, and a BAFTA Connect member. We talk about content efficiency in games, “strong opinions, weakly held,” and the cults of game design and neuroscience. Music by ⁠Abstraction⁠ [https://abstractionmusic.com/]. Topics How Noor got into the industry Landing the first internship The process of learning to make games The hardest interview question you’ve ever been asked The transition from college life to working post-pandemic How did you get into doing talks? Noor’s experiences with neuroscience and game design Content efficiency in game design Has the industry changed? How have you changed? The hunter, gatherer, farmer framework for game designers “Strong opinions, weakly held” Choosing the IC or manager path

Game UI, impostor syndrome, and good collaboration

This episode’s guest is Allison Hao, a UI artist at ⁠31st Union⁠ [https://thirtyfirstunion.com/] working on ⁠Project Ethos⁠ [https://ethos.2k.com/], an upcoming third-person roguelike hero shooter. Prior to that, she worked on VALORANT with Riot Games. We talk about finding our voice at work as zoomers, how we got into the industry, and our goal to beat impostor syndrome by the time we turn 70. Music by Abstraction [https://abstractionmusic.com/]. Topics What does being a UI artist mean? Do you prefer UI artist or UI designer? What do you enjoy the most about your work? Pitching ideas to stakeholders in smaller and bigger companies How did you get into the industry? Experience coming into the industry as a newer grad and impostor syndrome What does your collaboration process with other disciplines look like? How have you changed since you’ve joined the industry? IC vs manager path Qualities of the best people we’ve worked with Using AI