My first major task at Grease Monkey Games was redesigning the First Time User Experience (FTUE) for Torque Drift. Despite the tutorial having been rebuilt twice already, player feedback and in game analytics showed that new players were still struggling to grasp the core mechanics leading to frustration and poor retention.

My approach was to strip it back to basics. (A very basic approach if you will) break the core gameplay down into individual skills and teach them one at a time, letting players practice each at their own pace before moving forward. Simple in concept, but the right call for a niche title with an incredibly mixed audience. Some players had come in as seasoned drifting enthusiasts, while others had never touched anything like it.

The design had to serve both. For newcomers, it provided a clear, low-pressure path through the fundamentals. For experienced players, every section was designed to be replayable a way to brush up on the basics whenever they wanted without feeling talked down to.

I also led the design of tutorials for the Paint Shop and Tuning systems, as both are core to the Torque Drift experience. While budget and timeline constraints meant only the core gameplay tutorial shipped, the Paint Shop and Tuning tutorials were fully designed and came close to making the final cut.