Will Goddard

Work Snapshot

Selected projects and talks at a glance.

2022-2025

Dumb Ways to Party

PlaySide's push to evolve Dumb Ways from a free-to-play mobile brand into a premium multiplayer franchise.

Commercial

2023-2025

Dumb Ways: Free for All

The franchise's first VR title, extending Dumb Ways into multiplayer party play on Meta Quest.

Commercial

2019-2022

Spin Rhythm XD

Product leadership in partnership with the founders on a five-person indie rhythm title built for mastery, community, and long-tail engagement.

Commercial

2022-2023

Warcraft III Reforged

Senior production leadership on a high-scrutiny Activision Blizzard co-development engagement under tight external constraints.

Commercial

GCAP | 2025

Building Dumb Ways

GCAP 2025 session on building the Dumb Ways division within PlaySide into a 65+ developer portfolio.

Talk

Project Stories

Detailed project highlights across shipped products, creative direction, and delivery leadership.

2022-2025

Dumb Ways to Party

Executive Producer

PlaySide's push to evolve Dumb Ways from a free-to-play mobile brand into a premium multiplayer franchise.

Role

Led product vision, the greenlight case, and delivery direction as the franchise moved toward premium multiplayer.

Steam Official Site

Highlights

Led the title from pitch through announcement, shaping the product vision and business case for the franchise's move into premium multiplayer.
Positioned the title around the brand's long-term move into co-op and multiplayer, aligned to changing player behaviour and market timing.
Shaped the business and delivery case around changing commercial requirements, balancing revenue timing, scope, quality, and brand fit.

2023-2025

Dumb Ways: Free for All

Executive Producer

The franchise's first VR title, extending Dumb Ways into multiplayer party play on Meta Quest.

Role

Led title vision, pivot leadership, partner alignment, milestone planning, and reliable delivery.

Meta Store

Highlights

Delivered a 6-player, 100+ minigame title in a 16-month cycle, on time and on budget, with milestones passed internally and with the client, then selected for Meta Horizon+.
Took ownership after concept stage and reshaped the title into a stronger party-game product for the platform, audience, and brand.
Led the move away from a royale-elimination concept with accessibility and platform-fit issues toward a more playful multiplayer structure.

2023-2025

Dumb Ways to Die (Original)

Executive Producer

Original mobile mini-game collection in the Dumb Ways franchise with ongoing updates.

Role

Executive producer leadership for live operations prioritization, release planning, and product-health governance.

Open on App Store Google Play

Highlights

Improved ARPU by 12% in one month with a minimal-service team by prioritizing high-ROI quality-of-life fixes affecting churn.

2016

AstroSurf

Designer/Developer

A multiplayer infinite runner built for overhead dome projection, exploring co-located, audience-scale play beyond single-user VR.

Role

Designed and developed a dome-screen multiplayer format for co-located, participatory play.

Watch AstroSurf Video Design Play Coverage

Highlights

Presented at Academic Mindtrek with companion publication on interactive dome design.
An early proof of the participatory, audience-scale formats that later became a throughline in my experimental work.
Exhibited at the RMIT Design & Play Exhibition (April-May 2016).

2018

Art, Darling

Designer/Developer

A public-play art game exploring audience participation without fixed win-loss meaning, where one wired player and four wireless globe controllers co-created artwork in real time.

Role

Designed and developed the asymmetric interaction model and live handoff structure that let audience members participate as audience, not just as additional players.

Highlights

Explored how playful mechanics and shared authorship could invite participation without locking players into rigid game-rule interpretations.
Received strong positive feedback for the wireless globe controllers, which proved unusually inviting for casual audience participation and controller handoff.
Public showcase at Bar SK, Melbourne (September 2018).

2017

Community Engagement

Program Coordinator (Volunteer)

Community program leadership focused on access and inclusion in games, including expanding the IGDA Foundation Scholars program to Melbourne International Games Week.

Role

Planned and coordinated the first MIGW Scholars program rollout with IGDA Foundation stakeholders, from partner enablement through scholar mentorship.

IGDA Scholars MIGW Announcement

Highlights

Led the introduction of the IGDA Scholars program to Australia, expanding it internationally to MIGW and connecting emerging developers to GCAP, PAX AUS, and Unite Melbourne through travel stipends and mentorship.
Built local education and industry partnerships, coordinated scholar selection, and mentored participants through industry-network connections.

2017

Get SWOL

Designer/Developer

A competitive workout parody built around balancing button mashing and button holding into a fragile rhythm challenge.

Role

Designed and developed the core concept, input model, and audience-interference layer for the jam build.

Play on Itch.io

Highlights

Exhibited at Bar SK in September 2017, where audience-controlled difficulty changes helped turn the game into a live spectacle.
Translated a childhood coordination challenge into a mechanic about finding and holding unstable rhythm under pressure.
Used an audience-operated hand crank to escalate resistance and deliberately break player flow for comic effect.

2022-2023

Warcraft III Reforged

Senior Producer

Senior production leadership on a high-scrutiny Activision Blizzard co-development engagement under tight external constraints.

Role

Led production delivery, delivery planning, and partner management within PlaySide's contracted scope.

Official Site

Highlights

Delivered across major feature workstreams in a reputationally sensitive co-development setting, preserving partner confidence and leading to a follow-up contract offer.
Led PlaySide's delivery across key feature workstreams including clans, lobby, tournaments, Battle.net features, and balance updates.
Maintained alignment across stakeholders in Australia, Canada, California, and broader North American collaborators.

2019-2022

Spin Rhythm XD

Product Manager and Developer

Product leadership in partnership with the founders on a five-person indie rhythm title built for mastery, community, and long-tail engagement.

Role

Owned product strategy, roadmap, lifecycle design, and commercial framing across Early Access, pricing, DLC/UGC, and live operations.

Steam Official Site

Highlights

Helped shape a breakout product that reached 150,000+ units sold, 97% Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam, and 88 OpenCritic.
Built around how committed rhythm players behave, with a focus on mastery, community, chart creation and sharing, and long-tail engagement.
Helped differentiate the title with MIDI DJ controller support and later accessibility recognition.

2023-2025

Dumb Ways to Survive

Executive Producer

A Netflix Games survival-adventure title that became an early proof point for a more scalable product-leadership model.

Role

Defined the product-leadership approach on the title, shaped the post-Netflix strategy, and built team alignment systems that reduced executive dependency.

Play on Netflix

Highlights

Delivered on time and on budget, reached a 4.6-star user score, and won AGDA 2024 Excellence in Mobile.
Used the title to test a more scalable product-leadership model for growing teams and portfolios.
Shaped the follow-on strategy around validation and sequencing portfolio risk instead of rushing broader platform exposure.

2010-2012

Fruit Ninja

Software Engineer (2010), then Executive Producer (2011-2012)

Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick, 2010) is a touch-slicing action game where players slice flying fruit and avoid bombs.

Role

Software engineering contribution on feature updates and new platforms and variant SKUs including the FX Arcade version (2010), then executive producer leadership across Bricknet integration, social platform strategy (2011-2012).

Halfbrick Game Page App Store Google Play

Highlights

Over 2 billion installs worldwide. One of the most downloaded games ever.

2017

Sensible Taxi

Designer/Developer

A public-play driving game where players raced digital slot cars while the crowd could interfere through pedestrian crossings, turning spectator disruption into part of the core play.

Role

Solo-developed the game systems and custom controller hardware, using familiar everyday controls to invite participation and social sabotage in exhibition play.

Highlights

An early proof of designing for audience interference as a feature, not a side effect, in public-play games.
Used familiar everyday controls, including an Australian-style pedestrian crossing button and pedal-style gas input, to make participation legible and inviting in exhibition play.
Exhibited at Bar SK, Melbourne (2017).

More Projects

Experimental, community, and smaller-format work.

Research and Experiments

Research, unusual formats, and smaller projects.

5 projects

2015

Playful Hacking in a Lab

Designer/Researcher

Research-through-design project using playful, rapid hacking to prototype social and embodied interactions across IoT, Arduino systems, play theory, and social nudging.

Role

Led a cohesive research-through-design thread spanning concept framing, prototype development, and dissemination across paper and conference presentation.

Read Paper

Highlights

Published and presented at OzCHI 2015, reporting improved collaboration, exploration, and unanticipated reusable design outcomes from the playful hacking approach.
Included experimental prototypes such as a cloud-connected "Let's grab a coffee" button designed to reduce office distance and trigger informal social interaction.

2016

Vaporwave Fishing

Designer/Developer

Meme-game about fishing vaporwave tunes and vibing to them by loading cassettes into a tape deck, with intentionally retro aesthetics and jam-scale scope.

Role

Included as a smaller-scope portfolio piece to show creative range, not positioned as a flagship multi-year production.

Itch.io

Highlights

"clever af would play an entire album of this" - athanasium

2015-2018

Nook

Co-founder

Co-founded Nook Games Lab (2015-2018), an experimental game lab working at the intersection of industry and academia.

Role

Led project direction across experimental game design, participatory formats, and research-driven prototyping.

Highlights

Built a sustained practice that connected experimental game production, public exhibition, and academic publication.
Led experimental games centered on audience participation and social play.

2005-2025

Tools & Technology

Developer

Low-emphasis archive of technical tools built across two decades, including custom engine, editor, and pipeline experiments.

Highlights

Built a crude 2D engine using SDL, OpenGL, and Box2D integration.
Created a custom level editor and sprite-sheet metadata GUI.

Selected Work

Sketches

Early concepts and unfinished experiments (including Zen Pond and Electron One) retained as process snapshots rather than primary portfolio pieces.

Role

Selected process artifacts from early concept exploration; included as background context only.

Game Jams

Short-form multiplayer and experimental prototypes.

6 projects

Talks

Public speaking and conference presentations.

Building Dumb Ways

GCAP | 2025

GCAP 2025 session on how the Dumb Ways division was built and scaled within PlaySide, including transitioning from work-for-hire to original IP, growing to 65+ developers, and establishing product leadership and greenlight practices for a multi-title portfolio.

Contact

Melbourne, Australia. If you're working on something that needs strong product and portfolio leadership, I'd love to hear from you. LinkedIn or email, get in touch.

Dumb Ways to Party

Work Snapshot

Dumb Ways to Party

Dumb Ways: Free for All

Spin Rhythm XD

Warcraft III Reforged

Building Dumb Ways

Project Stories

Dumb Ways to Party

Role

Highlights

Dumb Ways: Free for All

Role

Highlights

Dumb Ways to Die (Original)

Role

Highlights

AstroSurf

Role

Related

Highlights

Art, Darling

Role

Highlights

Community Engagement

Role

Highlights

Get SWOL

Role

Highlights

Warcraft III Reforged

Role

Highlights

Spin Rhythm XD

Role

Highlights

Dumb Ways to Survive

Role

Highlights

Fruit Ninja

Role

Related

Highlights

Sensible Taxi

Role

Highlights

Bricknet Social Platform

Role

Related

Highlights

More Projects

Research and Experiments

Playful Hacking in a Lab

Role

Highlights

Vaporwave Fishing

Role

Highlights

Nook

Role

Highlights

Tools & Technology

Highlights

Sketches

Role

Game Jams

Joint Effort

Role

GuARRd the Rum

Where's My Spaceship

Highlights

Rabid Rabbits

Hoverslam

Hermit

Talks

Building Dumb Ways

Related Work

Contact