For Madden NFL 26, I took over my first feature as design owner from start to finish. I was responsible for Gameday Beats in the Madden Superstar mode. The idea behind Gameday Beats was that we had a problem: every single game felt exactly the same week after week in our mode. Not only that, it was difficult to incorporate anything from your story off the field to show what is happening on the field. The way we decided to fix that was creating Gameday Beats. Gameday Beats allowed us to impact the way the game feels on the field to correlate what is happening off the field as well, while also allowing us to just change up the week-to-week feel of games even when there is no big off-the-field story that week. I worked directly with a team of engineers to ensure we had all the functionality needed to create this feature from scratch. On the design side, I collaborated with a contractor who helped develop content for Gameday Beats. Gameday Beats were brand-new to Madden in Madden NFL 26. They aimed to make the week-to-week simulation meaningful and different. Every week introduced a new “Gameday Beat” based on your matchup or story happening off the field. For example, “Hot Pocket,” where you, as the user Quarterback, face an opponent known for frequent blitzes. The mechanics on the Gameday Beat would then have the opposing AI call blitz plays more often. The system also added different modifiers to the gameplay. Some modifiers involved rating changes on players to impact stats. Others gave teammates or opponents specific abilities. Some affected an entire side of the ball, such as “Offense has trouble blocking.” Each Gameday Beat also had specific quests tied to the Sphere of Influence, another new feature in the game. Designing two interconnected, brand-new features brought both challenges and opportunities to enhance the user experience. I managed this feature from design all the way through launch and into live service. We updated and tuned it for weeks after launch.

While Gameday Beats were my main focus, I also owned the design and implementation for the import of a character into Madden Superstar from College Football Road to Glory. Aiming to drive more players to go from one game to another to continue their character’s journey from college all the way to the NFL Hall of Fame. We ensured we had tie-ins within Madden to give that feeling that this is still the same character from college. Things such as: your college awards being referenced both on the field and off with the commentators, giving your character bonus skill points for importing based on what your player’s college stats were, referencing your college records and school to ensure you are getting all of your credit from before. These helped to bridge that gap and make those early weeks/years of your NFL experience more authentic to real life, with people constantly bringing up your college accolades while you build your professional ones for the future.