Hello, my name is Aaron Larson, I'm a game designer with a career spanning over a decade. I specialize in systems design, level design, technical design, and new user experiences. Below you can find highlights of some of the work I have done over the years.

Stormgate (Frost Giant Studios)

Key Achievements as Lead Campaign Designer:

  • Spearheaded the rework of early access campaign content over 1.5 years, transforming mixed Steam reviews into “Positive” recent reviews upon the initial release of updated content. Final release received a 8/10 score from IGN.

  • Led the design and implementation of campaign progression systems, including army upgrades, hero ability unlocks, an item and gear system, and a randomized tech choice system to support replayability, alongside a cloud-backed persistence system to track player progress and branching choices across missions.

  • Designed and tuned the campaign economy, balancing resource flow, upgrade unlock pacing, and long-term engagement loops with replay-driven randomization mechanics.

  • Directed the design of 12 campaign missions, defining mechanics, encounter pacing, difficulty scaling, and rewards to create a cohesive progression arc that balanced challenge, accessibility, and long-term engagement.

  • Mentored and reviewed work from a team of remote designers, ensuring consistency, quality, and alignment across all campaign content.

  • Partnered with tools engineers to develop internal workflows and systems that improved iteration speed and expanded design capabilities.

  • Collaborated closely with art, narrative, audio, and engineering to ensure cohesive integration of storytelling, gameplay, and presentation.

  • Tutorialization

    Tutorials in Stormgate are integrated into the first few missions. The player is given a few seconds to complete each lesson before any tutorial appears, so advanced players can play through the missions without slowing down while beginners get all the instructions needed to play.

  • Mission Design

    Missions in Stormgate are designed with variety in mind. Each mission features a gameplay twist to encourage different strategies. The mission in the above screenshot features repairable city defenses that pushes the gameplay to feel a little like a tower defense game.

  • Systems Design

    In between missions the player spends time on their ship, in addition to talking to crew members the player can spend credits to gain powerful bonuses. The “Xeno Research Center” was designed with replayability in mind, the choices here are randomized on each playthrough, giving the player a new set of choices to encourage different strategies on subsequent playthroughs.

  • Technical Design

    Implementation of mission mechanics often required complex technical implementation. The above mission features a mobile weapons platform the player can relocate to different areas of the map to aid in attacking enemy bases as well as defending against enemy attacks.

  • Environments

    Missions in Stormgate take place in a variety of environments, from lush green forests to destroyed cityscapes reclaimed by nature. These maps aren't just backdrops; they feature dynamic elements like weather effects and time-of-day lighting that affect visibility and unit lights, ensuring that each mission feels distinct and visually immersive.

Mecha VR (Solo Development)

Key Achievements as Game Designer:

  • Created a mech piloting VR prototype featuring procedural level generation, upgrade systems, enemy AI, weapons/abilities, and inverse kinematic solutions for controlling virtual pilot and mech suit.

Starcraft II (Blizzard Entertainment)

Key Achievements as Game Designer:

  • Designed and tuned player progression systems for Campaign and Allied Commander modes.

  • Built upgrade trees, unit modifications, and power scaling systems supporting long-term replayability.

  • Contributed to balancing economy and progression systems for Campaign and Allied Commanders, adjusting resource flow, unlock timing, and difficulty scaling to support engagement and replay goals.

  • Created three campaign missions for the Nova Covert Ops DLC, handling mission scripting, gameplay mechanics, and early narrative writing.

  • Designed a new tutorial experience released with Legacy of the Void, onboarding new players through staged, faction-specific lessons.

  • Member of the multiplayer balance team, responsibilities included map creation, balance tuning, and community feedback integration using internal data tools and monitoring community perception.

  • Mission Design

    The Nova Covert Ops mission pack delivered fresh twists on classic RTS missions. Shown above is the boss unit created for the final mission “End Game”, the player can make choices about which weapons systems to disable first.

  • Hero Design

    Heroes for the Allied Commanders mode not only had their own sets of abilities, but also changed the units and upgrades you can unlock in game. Above you can see Zeratul’s artifact hunt minigame in action.

  • Technical Design

    The Legacy of the Void expansion featured many new abilities and upgrades for the Protoss faction. Shown above is an ability for the Spear of Adun system inspired by Fruit Ninja.

  • Tutorials

    The tutorial for SC2 was redesigned for the Legacy of the Void release and featured multiple lessons that teach basic commands as well as race specific mechanics for Terran Protoss and Zerg. The lessons were wrapped in a cohesive narrative experience with voice acting and cutscenes.

  • Multiplayer Balance

    The versus game mode required constant adjustments and tweaks to ensure players at the highest levels had a fair competitive experience.