Bryce Williams

Game Designer based in Brooklyn, NY

Hi! I am a game designer with a love for puzzle & arcade-like game experiences. I have been working in games for 5+ years both solo and with studios such as Playdots, Arkadium and more.

Two Dots

Two Dots is an award-winning mobile puzzle game on both the Google Play Store & Apple App Store. I was one of the core game designers on the game from 2019 to 2023, until ownership of the game changed hands to the studio Socialpoint.As a game designer, I wrote design documents and led the creation of multiple board mechanics for the game, created levels for the various modes within the game, and monitored the game’s balance.Game balance for Two Dots is incredibly delicate. Each mechanic for the game should have a strong and clear reason for its existence and use within a level. This can range from providing a challenging goal like Mirrors, helpful power ups like Potions or interesting ways to manipulate the board, such as Minecarts. I wrote the specs for these mechanics and more, while also leading the development team for each one. My mindset toward leading the team throughout development was aligning everyone towards the design written in my specs, while incorporating their own additions and suggestions to improve in ways I missed.In addition to normal mechanic releases, I also was the main game designer for three mechanics made to be used for a revised FTUE effort for the game - Pinecones, Ropes, and Party Poppers. These mechanics were made to be not only simple to understand and clear, but also satisfying or enjoyable to interact with.Of course, with every mechanic created, I also created and tested plenty of levels to tutorialize them to players, ways to interact with them and showcase their best characteristics. Most of these levels were created for the main Saga map, but I also created plenty of level packs for the secondary mode Treasure Hunt - where 7 levels are created based on a theme and try to tell a consistent story using layouts and mechanics.

Solitaire.com

In a collaboration with the studio TripleDot, Arkadium was asked to redesign and build a new version of website Solitaire.com. For release, we were tasked to have a lightweight version of Klondike & Spider Solitaire. In future updates, the website would add features such as daily challenges, skins and other aspects for players to enjoy.I was the primary game designer on this project, writing design documents for both the core rules and features. My goal was to encompass the main consistent features found throughout multiple Solitaire website competitors, embody the common ruleset that players who enjoy Solitaire would understand, while trying to offer a flair only found in TripleDot and Arkadium's titles.With the website, we also wanted to maintain some pairity with TripleDot's mobile apps, so some of the design document work was also based on researching and studying their app design as well.

Garden Tails

Garden Tails: Match and Grow is a Match-3 puzzle game focused around helping your rabbit friend Lilac by beautifying and restoring gardens. As you decorate and make your garden pretty, more animals will come to visit and share their stories. Garden Tails was exclusively released on Apple Arcade.In between my work on Two Dots, I helped work on multiple puzzle levels for Garden Tails. I also assisted drafting and writing specs for various unreleased game features.

Submarine Shreddin'

Made for the 2017 LOWREZJAM, Submarine Shreddin’ is a short time trial racing game inspired by F-ZERO, Kirby Air Ride and SNES Mode-7 effects. As a pilot of a slippery seacraft, your goal is to cruise along the water course to get the quickest lap possible.I worked on the game as the sole designer and programmer, with a friend providing most of the art. You can read my post-jam design thoughts in these two blog posts.Blog Post #1
Blog Post #2

BoulderDash

Made for the 2025 Secret Santa Jam, BoulderDash is a short 2D platformer lightly based around bouldering and aimed to be a quick time attack experience. Stuck at the bottom of a cave, your character must climb up and out by grappling on rock walls and jumping to increasing heights. The short game has one level, with a timer for racing against the clock and three coins hidden throughout the level to collect.Due to the game's time being during the holidays, I wanted to keep the mechanic simple and easy to pick up, but something that felt satisfying to really hone and get perfect at. From this and also a slight inspiration from the game DK: King of Swing, I designed the grappling launch mechanic. Minus the assets used from other pack sources, the character art, game design and code for the game were done by myself.

Hunted

Hunted is a small co-operative text adventure game made in Twine, taking inspiration from 80's & 90's 'buddy cop' movies. Two players take turns playing as different cops as they solve a murder case. Certain decisions made by one player can affect the case, without the other player knowing until the aftermath.Designed as a student project, I was the main programmer. I also wrote some of the dialogue while we split design duties evenly between the three person team.

Game Jam Game Design Talk

Initially requested for a series of short talks aligning with the 2025 Global Game Jam, I designed the Game Jam Game Design talk as a brief primer of the mindset to get into when joining a game jam for the first time.It goes over everything from what to expect when joining, how to approach ideas and mechanic design, knowing limits and smaller tips and tricks. I'm always working on the presentation and slides, as I hope it to be a consistent source of encouragement for everyone to give their first game jam a chance.