Design x Haifa Tabbara
Lead Game Designer at Big Run Studios
Illustration by Bonnie Kate Wolf
Interview conducted by Z. Fleischer on October 27, 2020.
Why did you decide to become a lead game designer over other career options?
I have always had a strong desire to create. I am fortunate to have found an industry where my talent intersects with my passion. I realized I wanted to become a designer back in college, the first time I saw people play a game I had made the art, code, and sound for. They didn’t know that I was the designer. I watched them play the game, have fun, laugh, enjoy themselves, and even make fun of certain aspects of the game. Bringing joy to people through the medium of video games is the best feeling ever. As a lead game designer, I’m not only able to create enjoyment for players, but I’m also able to mentor and teach other designers.
What has been the most memorable moment of your career?
I was highlighted as a designer in the Apple App Store for Women’s History Month. It felt great, but my actual favorite moment was seeing someone play my game in line at Disneyland—literally the happiest place on earth.
How does it feel to be a female designer in the video game industry?
I’m excited about this and I don’t feel like such an anomaly anymore. More women are being inspired to come into the gaming industry, and the industry itself is doing a lot to make sure that women feel comfortable in a space where they have a voice. Women have tremendous design capabilities and need to bring their expertise and design games for all audiences, especially female players.
What brought you to working for Big Run Studios?
I adored their mission of making games for women by women and for underserved audiences. I saw their mascot, Chelsea, and fell in love with her because she’s body-positive, age-positive, and ethnically ambiguous. The founders of Big Run Studios, Andrew Bell, and Buren Renick share a similar mindset to me—they are passionate about the player experience and designing cutting-edge games.
Why is your company called Big Run Studios?
It’s a nod to a river that’s called the Big Run. It spans from West Virginia to Maryland, where the founders are initially from, and widens into the famous Potomac River. Both Andrew and Buren honor the studio’s humble beginnings and are thrilled to see the team, and its games flourish.
How are you designing games for traditionally underserved audiences?
We create games that represent the communities we live in today. We want players to see characters and hear stories that resonate with them. Another part of designing for traditionally underserved audiences is the creation of casual competition for female players. The Big Run team itself is diverse; we carefully research our players’ needs and keep inclusivity at the forefront of our development efforts. Our mascot Chelsea is ethnically diverse, body-positive, and age-positive, so we make sure the other characters connected with Chelsea are too. They come from different backgrounds, different sexual orientations, different gender expressions. We’re not just focused on the traditional gaming experience; at Big Run Studios, we are open and inclusive to all.
Why are you designing games for traditionally underserved audiences?
The mobile platform demands it. Mobile games are accessible to so many people. It’s essential to have something that feels welcoming to play. As part of a traditionally underserved audience myself, it’s nice to know there are games available that aren’t super hardcore with challenging entry barriers yet are still super fun and social. There should always be games delivering enjoyable experiences that you can play with your grandparent or young niece or nephew.
Can you give us a little background on one of your games and how it speaks to diversity within its design?
Blackout Bingo is one of our most popular titles. Millions of players adore the head-to-head competition and the chance to win real-world prizes. Blackout Bingo aligns perfectly with our core audience of female players, and Chelsea, our main character, is featured prominently throughout the game. She travels internationally to different destinations that correlate with the bingo board. Players appreciate seeing her in familiar cities or traveling to somewhere they would like to go someday. Chelsea helps bring people together from all over the globe to play one game. We’re continually seeking innovative ways to bring diversity into our current and future titles.
How do you feel about diversity within the mobile gaming industry now?
The mobile gaming industry is making tremendous strides in diversity and inclusivity as a whole. It’s better today than it was five years ago as the gaming industry overall is slowly moving further away from the “male trophy player trope.” That’s why I’m proud to be a part of Big Run Studios; they are leading the forefront with diversity being one of its core values. Our team loves creating games that resonate with audiences, especially those that have been traditionally overlooked. Creating games designed for everyone will change the definition of a gamer in the near future.
Can you speak a little bit more about the definition of a gamer and how this definition is changing?
Some of the players I interview now, even friends or family members, say, “I don’t consider myself a gamer, I don’t use a computer, I don’t wear a headset. I like to play fun, easy, casual games.”
My response is always, “That is a type of gamer—if you’re playing Blackout Bingo, Vineyard Valley, or even Candy Crush regularly, you’re a gamer.”
There isn’t one definition of a gamer anymore. It’s anyone that enjoys playing games for entertainment, with no gender, age, or ethnic background associated with it. The term “gamer” is going to evolve to become more inclusive overall.
One of the Big Run Studios’ core values is creating strong player communities. What are the benefits of strong player communities, and how do you accomplish this?
Building strong relationships with players is the key to delivering the best experience. We are not making games for ourselves, except perhaps in our free time. We’re making games for our audience. When I design, I listen to our audience’s voices and hear their feedback. I want to know what they want so I can deliver an experience that will surprise and delight. Our team at Big Run Studios focuses on building fun, social experiences that connect people through their shared interest in our games. We listen to our players, make changes that are right for them, and develop platforms that allow them to connect with each other safely and efficiently.
Can you speak a little more about safety, listening to players, and designing a platform that makes it easy for players to connect?
Platforms that easily allow players to connect can come in many forms—social media outlets, in-game chat rooms, guilds, or teams that are readily approachable. We make sure people are allowed to speak freely without encountering a lot of negativity. I’m always reading App Store reviews. We foster communities who enjoy playing our games and want to share their likes and dislikes with us. We offer in-game surveys, so players don’t need to go out of their way to provide feedback. We have a solid customer service team who reads what people write and shares the feedback with the designers and leaders who can improve player experiences. Working with a customer service team is something everybody who makes games should do for at least six weeks. It’s especially important for designers—they’re your closest connection to your player (unless you happen to see them playing your game at Disneyland!). Don’t ignore player feedback. It’s essential. It’s valuable. This is, after all, who you’re designing the experience for.
Can you tell us about a notable experience of receiving feedback and how changes were incorporated?
At a previous studio I worked at, we had a character who players disliked and thought was a jerk. We tried to figure out what it was that was unappealing. Was it the personality, the way the character looked or was it the dialogue? We did lots of testing and listening and discovered that the dialogue lines didn’t match its image. We changed the character’s appearance a little bit—softened the features, reduced some of the muscle mass—and quickly changed our players’ perspective. They now considered the game “super hilarious and fun.” We have to find the balance between giving players what they want while considering the time and resources available. This is an enjoyable and exciting challenge for any designer, and it’s how we deliver happiness.
What is one of the key strategies for giving the players what they want while considering available resources?
We first have to consider what we can do with what we already have. Is there a different lens that we can use to look at this? Is there any way to look at this exactly how we have it but make it feel better? Are we looking at the game through the eyes of the player? Can it be monetized differently? Could the art be handled differently? How do we wrap a narrative around something to make it feel more important? We have to look at problems from different perspectives, collect all the data, and then ask ourselves, “Is there another way to design this with what we have?” The answer is usually yes.
Big Run Studios mentions promoting games as a lifestyle, as a core value. What do you mean by this, and how are you accomplishing this?
Mobile games have transformed how consumers view and define themselves as gamers. Players are now enjoying their mobile gaming experiences as part of their daily lives, whether they’re engaging while waiting in line or relaxing between tasks. We want to make sure those few minutes here and there allow for our players to have full immersion within our games. Our games are short, fun, exciting, and something you can jump quickly into or out from with what we call an easy on-ramp, and off-ramp. We make sure our games aren’t too stressful to play and are easily immersive. Our players look forward to our games to fulfill their entertainment needs. Games become a part of their lifestyles, bringing value to their everyday lives.
What kind of value do you bring to your players’ lives?
Bite-sized entertainment. Something that gives players a little bit of joy and pleasure while offering them a sense of having improved their skills. Every time our players pick up one of our games and play a session, they feel like they’re getting better at something that they weren’t a day before. Players also often appreciate being able to be socially connected with others online.
What is your favorite game, and why?
I have two favorite games, an all-time favorite and a most recent favorite. My all-time favorite is DuckTales for Nintendo Entertainment System. That was the first puzzle platformer that I just fell in love with.
I loved the art. I loved the mechanics and especially loved all the secret Easter eggs—all of the hidden things in that game. I played the reboot for PlayStation, which they designed amazingly well. My current favorite game right now is called What Remains of Edith Finch. It’s a strong narrative game. How the designers blended the story with the gameplay is fascinating. It’s a game that evoked so much emotion within me that I didn’t even believe it was a game for a second.
As far as storytelling and mechanics are concerned, what makes for a perfect synthesis of the two?
I don’t think I fully know the answer right now, and I think it could change depending on the story or the emotions involved. I know that you can find the synthesis of storytelling and mechanics with What Remains of Edith Finch. When you find that balance, it feels powerful. It’s more potent than a movie. You’re able to have a visceral experience that you don’t have in any other medium. Story and mechanics are different for every game and every platform; they’re different for mobile, different for consoles, and different for board games.
How is a video game more immersive than a movie?
A movie is a passive experience where you are watching something play out, and it can be compelling; some movies obviously make people cry. One thing games do that movies or books don’t is that they put you in the protagonist’s shoes—you’re the protagonist, and you’re able to make decisions. Within games, the player has some agency and autonomy regarding how the story works and plays out. When this is done well, it’s a truly powerful experience. The game industry is still so new, but we are getting closer and closer to figuring out how to create these compelling experiences.
A viewer in a movie theater is usually stationary, but when viewing content on a mobile device, they might start in one location and continue in another—while waiting in line or at home on the couch. How do you approach creating an immersive experience for mobile design, and how vastly different is that from designing games for a console?
Hugely different. You do have a good point. There are many more exterior disruptions with mobile experiences. It’s definitely a little more challenging to design an immersive experience for mobile than you would for a console. Augmented Reality (AR) is probably the next frontier for immersive mobile gaming. Pokémon GO did a pretty good job of making the experience feel immersive on a mobile phone. Other mobile games are on their way to improving upon the immersive experience. You can be playing a mobile game at a park or in a car and get lost in it for hours when you intended only to be playing for a few minutes.
What advice would you give to someone who aspires to be a lead game designer?
Play lots of games, as many as you can, and then deconstruct them. A website called Deconstructor of Fun takes a game, and its systems then pulls them apart to see their inner workings. The most important thing is to start looking at games as having pieces, seeing them as systems with gears that are all doing something, versus just looking at the game as a whole. Volunteer to do any kind of game design work that you can get your hands on. Writing about games is really cool too.
I got my start as a game designer by working in customer service and then asking the designers before going home each day if there was anything I could do to help. They would tell me “no” every single day. One day they said, “Can you write some flavor text?” That’s the descriptive text for assets in the store. I said, “Sure.” I just asked them every day if they needed help, so I pretty much worked two jobs. When they needed a designer, they thought, “Well, why don’t we just ask Haifa? She’s already been helping us for the past six weeks.” Don’t be afraid to go the extra mile. Your effort will pay off. If it doesn’t, you’ve still improved your knowledge base.
Before I got into the actual game industry, I made a ton of games for festivals and shows. They were all small, pretty much what you would consider as a demo now. They were just a few levels, but they were enough to convey the idea behind the game. The more you make games on your own, the better you’re going to be. Start by making a small game that you can finish. Play them, make them, talk about them as much as you can, listen to podcasts and check out Deconstructor of Fun. Raph Koster’s Theory of Fun is an excellent book. Pick a game and pull it apart. Figure out how they did this or why they did that. You’ll know that you’ve been doing it enough when you start playing games, and that’s what you think about instead of the actual game. You’ll eventually come across a game like What Remains of Edith Finch, and you’ll forget that you were supposed to be asking yourself all of these questions.
What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?
In quarantine, not too much. I try to seek out other creative outlets in my free time. I think one of my favorite things to do—and I’m terrible at it—is dance. When I’m dancing, I forget about everything else that’s happening. It clears my space. I have a great dance friend who I take private lessons with, and I will ask her to choreograph a dance for me, to a song that I select. She choreographs, and we dance. It’s entertaining. And obviously, as a game designer, I can’t help but play games—I play them for work, and I play them because I love to. I also read a lot of books.
What is your favorite book right now?
One book that’s been important to me as a designer and when I was just starting out is Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. It’s a concise, quality book. It has really resonated with me as a young designer, and it’s something that I’ll give as a gift to new designers.
What or who inspires you?
I’m inspired by many things: music, movies, books, even just people watching. One person who is super inspiring to me—due to her multifaceted creativity as a writer, actress, and mom—is Tina Fey. I love her and hope to make a game for her someday.
What kind of game would that be?
This is my dream question. It would definitely encompass Tina’s humor and feel like she wrote the game, even though she didn’t. It would just be a silly, smart game, but if you actually unfolded it and peeled back the layers, you would see the intelligent architecture behind it.
If you could live anywhere, where would that be and why?
I would split my time between SF and Maui. SF has an energy that I just love, and the same goes for Maui, but I don’t like being in either of those places 24/7. I’d spend winters in Maui and summers in SF.
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Kind, witty, and driven.
What was your favorite childhood toy, and why?
My Nintendo Entertainment System. It was so fun and exciting. I just couldn’t stop playing. I thought for the longest time that games just fell out of heaven. When I realized game designers existed, my whole world changed.
