Will Goddard

Projects

Portfolio projects with contribution framing and linked outputs.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.
  • Developed through iterative making in a shared office "hacker's playground" over two years, emphasizing minimal viable prototypes and fast evaluation.
  • Combined software, electronics, and interaction experiments to generate reusable artifacts and pre-study findings.

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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.

Highlights

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

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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.
  • Published game design research focused on social play and audience participation.
  • Exhibited alternative-controller and interface-based games in public and commercial spaces.

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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.
  • Maintained as process context similar to Sketches rather than a flagship portfolio item.

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2013

Joint Effort

Designer/Developer

48-hour game jam project where four players each control one joint of a shared arm.

Role

Co-created in a 48-hour jam, exploring embodied multiplayer control through shared input constraints.

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2014

GuARRd the Rum

Designer/Developer

48-hour game jam project focused on trust-versus-sabotage multiplayer dynamics.

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2015

Where's My Spaceship

Designer/Developer

48-hour jam experiment in venue-scale social play across physical screens with spectator misinformation dynamics.

Highlights

  • Winner: Pro Team Award.

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Selected Work

Rabid Rabbits

Game-jam title grouped with other rapid experiments and short-scope prototypes.

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2021

Hoverslam

Designer/Developer

Solo rapid prototype produced in a sub-24-hour context.

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Selected Work

Hermit

Small-scope adventure prototype listed on Itch.io (Windows/Linux).

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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.

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