2022-2025
Dumb Ways to Party
Executive Producer
Party game entry in the Dumb Ways franchise, currently in development toward launch.
Game Development Portfolio
Will Goddard
Also credited and published as William Goddard.
Product vision, portfolio strategy, and games leadership.
The hardest problems in game development aren't technical. They're about vision and clarity: what are we making, who is it for, and why does it matter? I lead teams and portfolios where those questions are answered well, and where the answer shapes everything from creative direction to how the organization is built.
Work Snapshot
Selected projects and talks at a glance.
Building Dumb Ways
GCAP 2025 session on how the Dumb Ways division was built and scaled within PlaySide, including transitioni...
Talk
Dumb Ways to Party
Party game entry in the Dumb Ways franchise, currently in development toward launch.
Commercial
Dumb Ways: Free for All
VR multiplayer Dumb Ways title released on Meta Quest.
Commercial
Spin Rhythm XD
Arcade rhythm game blending classic genre DNA with a modern aesthetic, featuring multiple control styles including MIDI DJ hardware on Steam.
Commercial
Warcraft III Reforged
Co-development leadership on Warcraft III: Reforged, the remaster of Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne with revamped visuals, new campaign settings, and modern Battle.net features.
Commercial
Community Engagement
Community program leadership focused on access and inclusion in games, including expanding the IGDA Foundation Scholars program to Melbourne International Games Week.
Community
Project Stories
Detailed project highlights across shipped products, creative direction, and delivery leadership.
2023-2025
Dumb Ways: Free for All
Executive Producer
VR multiplayer Dumb Ways title released on Meta Quest.
2023-2025
Dumb Ways to Die (Original)
Executive Producer
Original mobile mini-game collection in the Dumb Ways franchise with ongoing updates.
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.
2011-2012
Bricknet Social Platform
Executive Producer
Cross-title social platform for Halfbrick's mobile catalogue, providing friends, leaderboards, cloud-linked progression, and account capabilities across titles.
2022-2023
Warcraft III Reforged
Senior Producer
Co-development leadership on Warcraft III: Reforged, the remaster of Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne with revamped visuals, new campaign settings, and modern Battle.net features.
2019-2022
Spin Rhythm XD
Product Manager and Developer
Arcade rhythm game blending classic genre DNA with a modern aesthetic, featuring multiple control styles including MIDI DJ hardware on Steam.
2023-2025
Dumb Ways to Survive
Executive Producer
Netflix Games survival entry in the Dumb Ways franchise.
2016
AstroSurf
Designer/Developer
Fast-paced multiplayer infinite runner built for overhead dome projection, inviting players to race through orbital debris in a shared, vertiginous social play space beyond single-user VR.
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.
2017
Get SWOL
Designer/Developer
"Workout your fingers to Get SWOL" - a competitive 80s Miami workout game with a button-mashing take on the QWOP formula.
Additional Work
Experimental and community work, plus smaller-format projects.
Additional 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.
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.
Game Jams (Selected Works)
2013
Joint Effort
Designer/Developer
48-hour game jam project where four players each control one joint of a shared arm.
2014
GuARRd the Rum
Designer/Developer
48-hour game jam project focused on trust-versus-sabotage multiplayer dynamics.
2015
Where's My Spaceship
Designer/Developer
48-hour jam experiment in venue-scale social play across physical screens with spectator misinformation dynamics.
Selected Work
Rabid Rabbits
Game-jam title grouped with other rapid experiments and short-scope prototypes.
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.
Watch on YouTubePapers
Academic publications and research outputs.
Playful game jams: guidelines for designed outcomes
Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Interactive Entertainment | 2014
Frames game jams as ludic craft and provides facilitator guidelines for designing intentional outcomes across research, education, and industry contexts.
Designing for social play in co-located mobile games
Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference (ACSW) | 2016
Derives co-located mobile game design principles for collaborative social play, including the “pocket magic circle” concept.
Interactive dome experiences: Designing astrosurf
20th International Academic Mindtrek Conference | 2016
Through AstroSurf, identifies three themes for designing enveloping dome play: co-location, dome interface interaction, and exhibition context.
Designing unconventional use of conventional displays in games: Some assembly required
1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG | 2016
Identifies six design themes for creating exhibition-style co-located play by repurposing conventional displays in DIY installation contexts.
Additional Papers
Playful hacking within research-through-design
OzCHI (Australian SIGCHI) | 2015
Reports two years of playful hacking in research-through-design, highlighting stronger collaboration, exploration, and unexpected reusable outcomes.
First-Person Walkers: Understanding the Walker Experience through Four Design Themes
1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG | 2016
Analyzes player experience across four walker games to define four core design themes: interaction, temporal space, player focus, and ambiguity.
Expect the Unexpected: Designerly Themes for Game Jams
CHI PLAY Workshop | 2015
Uses interviews with professional designers to surface motivations and themes that position game jams as a method for innovation and research.
Towards Genre as a Game Design Research Approach
DiGRA 2017 | 2017
Argues for genre as a rigorous framing for game design research to ground designerly claims and better situate findings.
A context-based design process for future use cases of autonomous driving: prototyping AutoGym
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces | 2015
Presents a context-based research-through-design process for autonomous-vehicle use cases, demonstrated through the AutoGym exertion interface for future commuting.
Coupling quantified bodies
Digital Culture and Society | 2016
Examines how coupling activity-tracking data to a living plant reframes self-quantification as a relational and ethical practice, not just self-optimization.
Contact
Melbourne, Australia. Open to senior studio and product leadership roles.