Hello!
Hi there! My name is Carl-Christian Frey.
I'm a seasoned multidisciplinary game designer interested in all aspects of user experience, user interaction and audiovisual design in online gambling industry.
e.g. OneTouch, Coingaming, ORYX, Playtech...
I help companies to create and to improve gaming experience focusing on their customer's needs.
Real player's needs.
I have over 20 years of experience in online gambling industry as a web/graphic designer, but over last 10 years my main focus is on creating video slots. And all types of gambling games.
Gambling has moved from land based to online, then to mobile and gadgets, then to social media. Thus it is increasingly more important to consider all media platforms in the game creation process. And to be acquainted to the process from the very scratch to the last finishing detail.
My key strength is multidisciplinarity: I can cover all areas of the complex game creation process. Starting from the idea and concept, followed by thorough research, drawing flow-charts and prototyping, sketching characters and storylines, creating graphics and animations, either 2D or 3D, composing background music and sounds, game naming and branding.
I want the final product to offer a pleasant user experience of course, but not only - i really want it to be a memorable adventure for the user.
Please view my portfolio to see and play the games i have created.
You will also find some information about my experience as a designer and an overview of my skill set. And finally i have here a short description of how i like to work, my design process. That gives some insight to what to expect if you'd like to work with me.
Feel free to contact me and ask me anything!
I am always interested in new projects. I am also interested in abstract oil painting, check my portfolio!
Thank you and good luck!
e.g. Blackjack, Baccarat, Roulette, Sic Bo, Texas Hold'em, Russian Poker, Bingo, Live Games...
2003-2013
Tartu Art Colledge
Lecturer of Web Design
"Web design in practice" and later "Web design theory". Both gave me a possibility to educate myself at first place, as discussing it with young creative people is really quite an inspiration.
1999-2001
Vanzetti Advertizing Agency
Web/E-media Designer
The dawn of graphic e-mails, banner-marketing, micro-sites.
And the clientele ranging from
Ally McBeal to SEB Bank.
In a very young and ambitious group of very creativly thinking people.
2014-2018
OneTouch Technology Ltd
Casino Game Designer
I created over 10 different casino games: Baccarat, Blackjack, Jackpot Lotto, Roulette, Sic Bo, Texas Hold'em, Wheel Of Fortune, Russian Poker, different Video Pokers, "Legend of Satoshi" slots.
Our focus was on mobile, but the games are available on desktop.
Play "Sic Bo" here.
2008-2013
ORYX Gaming
Casino Game Designer
I created several Video Slots back then. Some are still alive and you can play a quite mystic egyptian "Sceptre Of Cleo" slots here.
1996-1999
Web Designer
As a part of the international DDB chain i had the possibility to experience working in a global and very ambitious young company.
Halo Interactive DDB
2013-2014
Makitone Gaming
Casino Game Designer
I created several sofisticated slot games. Most notably "Gang Job", an art deco styled cascading reels slot game with 6 different characters, a proper 1930s mafia world experience.
You can play it here.
2019
betPawa
Slot Game Designer
I created two slot games for African market: a football themed game and a horizontal reels slots named "Trafrica", which You can play here.
2001-2008
Playtech Group
Casino Game Designer
I was initially there to cater Sunny Group of Companies: websites, ads, promo, e-marketing. But i evolved into a Slot Game designer. You can play "Cherry Love" here!
2019-2021
Playtech Live
Live UI/UX Designer
My first experience designing Live games: Blackjack, Baccarat, Roulette and importantly - Live Game Shows like "Deal or No Deal The Big Draw", "Money Drop Live" and engaging Live wheel game "Adventures Beyond Wonderland". You can see it in action here.
Baccarat
Designed for Asian market.
First ever Baccarat for mobile, which can be played either in vertical or horizontal mode, either with left or right hand. It is also available for tablet and desktop - I designed all the three simultaneously.
User interface enables players to switch in/out side bets and even "squeeze" the cards with finger.
I also created three different sets of cards for that game.
You can play it here.
Design Process
is a journey from the dark towards the light.
The success of a game depends on many factors.
1) the rules of the game and the mathematics behind it;
2) the UX/UI and audiovisual design;
3) the implementation, the quality of coding;
4) the marketing of the game;
UX/UI and audiovisual design comprise only one factor, tightly interrelated to the others. Game design is a complex process, and there is no "perfect set of rules" here. Every company and person has its own process scheme and it can vary depending on each project’s specifics. I like to think of the design process as a journey from a problem to solution. It involves the designer, the client, and also most importantly: the target user of the game.
1 ) Is there already a game of that type on the market;
2) If affirmative: what are the main problems with the previous designs
available?
3) Who is the intended target user playing that game?
Research
First i do some research together with the client to understand better, what type of game it is we are going to create. Sometimes it is clear from the start, but still it never hurts to ask some simple questions.
After the research phase we should have better clue about the game, its basic form and qualities:
1 ) the type of the game;
2) the main features of the game;
3) the audiovisual style of the game;
4) the user of the game.
The last point is the most important one: we should know what the intended target user expects from the game, how the game affects the player.
Ideally we should interview the players, but it is a very time consuming and complicated process. Alternatively we should try to understand who is the main target group of players and what sub types - personas - exist in this group: old vs young, experienced vs newbies, high rollers vs low rollers, etc.
The problem is, that different users have different needs. After a proper research the designer knows those needs, and - although it is a very difficult task - ideally those should be catered using only one perfect design.
Brainstorming
After gathering initial information there should be a phase to process it, sleep on it, and then: shoot ideas! Most of the games are not 100% original and are based on some old game. The goal here is simple: we have to find ways to improve and innovate. Whether it is as big as a novel game feature or as small as simplifying some minor task.
Information Architecture
This phase includes task analysis and enlisting all the screens, components, menus, buttons, texts, etc., as each element plays an important part in serving the features of the game.
We should organize all the elements in some structured form: establish the importance hierarchy of features and components. There are multiple ways and several useful tools to achieve that.
1 ) lists and tables;
2) function descriptions;
2) flow-charts;
3) schemes and loose wire-frames;
4) loose sketches of interface objects.
The goal here is to have a bird's-eye view of the whole in relation to its parts, that enables to move on to prototyping.
Prototyping and Sketching
In this phase the goal is to explore preliminary design ideas and problems quickly an inexpensively and communicate them to the client.
There are several ways to do it.
1 ) mock-ups of screen layouts;
2) storyboards and animation mock-ups describing user interaction;
3) mood boards and style examples;
4) audio mood-boards and examples;
5) character design sketches;
6) guidelines of general design principles for texts, colors and graphic
elements of UI.
The aim is to get a clear glimpse of the look and feel of the game.
Multimedia Design
In this phase the game gets its final face. Every detail is worked through and finalized. That includes all types of media.
1 ) 2D graphic design;
2) 3D graphics;
3) UI visual design;
4) animations;
5) sound/music;
6) logo and branding;
7) marketing materials.
That phase could take a lot of time depending on the complexity of the game. It means iterating, as every game media element is polished to the last detail. The goal is to finish everything and get it approved by the client, so it can be handed over to the developers.
Delivery
The last thing to do is to prepare all files for the development team, so that they can start coding the game. Each image, sound and animation of the project is to be saved out and optimized in collaboration with the development team.
That phase also includes some verification and design supervision, so that the implementation would be consistent with mock-ups and the intended quality of the product.