Project Overview
Flower was a new mobile RPG project aimed at a female-focused audience, combining squad-based tactical combat with narrative, collection and long-term live-ops.
The project started around 2017 as a start-up studio effort. The core team was formed by veterans from major Chinese game companies such as Tencent, Perfect World and Shanda (Shengqu). At the beginning, the product direction was not yet fixed: we knew we wanted a game for women with strategic depth and strong long-term retention, but we needed to define what that actually meant in terms of systems, combat and content.
We looked closely at successful titles of the time, including Onmyoji, Summoners War and popular palace-sim games, and explored how to adapt some of their strengths to a new IP and audience.
My Role & Responsibilities
Over the life of the project, my role evolved from combat specialist to overall execution lead on design:
I first joined as Lead Combat Designer, responsible for the core battle framework and tactical depth inspired by Onmyoji and Summoners War.
I was then asked to become Lead System Designer, building the overall system structure and validating our feature set against competitors.
In parallel, I took on the role of Lead Numerical Designer, setting up our numerical model, progression pacing and early monetization-related parameters.
Later I served as Acting Lead Game Designer / Execution Lead, overseeing design execution across systems, economy, combat and documentation for a team of ~20 designers within a ~120-person studio.
Key responsibilities:
Analysed competitor games and synthesized a clear product vision and target structure for Flower.
Built high-level system maps to align all designers and stakeholders on the game’s loops and progression.
Defined documentation standards, templates and review workflows for the entire design team.
Led the creation of core combat rules and designed ~50 hero skill kits to support strategic depth.
Established the early numerical model and progression pacing, balancing accessibility for a female audience with meaningful tactical choices.
Case Study 1 – Competitive Analysis & Product Vision
Context
When I joined the project, Flower was essentially a concept: “a strategy RPG for women.” Different team members had different mental pictures of what that meant. Some focused on narrative and palace drama, others on gacha and hero collection, others on deep turn-based combat.
Without a shared vision, it was difficult to make coherent decisions about systems, content scope and long-term roadmap.
Design
I led a structured competitive analysis focusing on three types of reference games:
Onmyoji – for turn-based squad combat and character-driven meta.
Summoners War – for long-term collection, build depth and PvE longevity.
Chinese palace-sim games – for female-oriented themes, narrative and lifestyle/meta loops.
My work included:
Breaking down these games into core loops, meta loops and system structure diagrams.
Mapping their strengths and weaknesses for our target audience (female players with varying levels of familiarity with RPGs).
Proposing a high-level structure for Flower that combined:
Squad-based tactical combat,
Character collection and growth,
Lifestyle / relationship / narrative elements appealing to female players,
A roadmap that could support long-term live-ops.
I then turned this into:
A system overview diagram for Flower that everyone in the studio could use as a reference.
A set of design principles (e.g. “depth through combinations, not complexity per click”, “emotional investment through relationships and customization”).
Impact
The competitive analysis and system overview gave the team a single, concrete picture of what Flower should be.
It became much easier to evaluate new feature ideas: we could clearly see whether they fit our loops and vision.
Leadership used this structure to decide which features were essential for our first demo and which could be deferred to later phases.
Case Study 2 – System Structure & Documentation Workflow
Context
The studio grew quickly to around 120 people, with close to 20 designers. However, documentation quality and workflows were inconsistent:
System specs varied in format and level of detail.
Communication between design, art, engineering and QA depended heavily on individuals.
It was hard for new team members to understand the full picture of the game, and there was a lot of rework due to misunderstandings.
For a new IP with complex systems and a large team, this was a serious risk.
Design
As Lead System Designer and execution lead, I focused on two things:
System structure map
I created a global system structure diagram for Flower that showed:
Core loops (combat, collection, progression),
Supporting systems (events, social features, shops),
Narrative and lifestyle layers.
I compared this structure against games like Onmyoji and palace-sim titles to ensure we had enough depth and content hooks, but also a clear, manageable scope.
Documentation and workflow standards
I designed a standard template for system design documents, including:
Problem statement & goals,
Player flows and wireframes,
Data structures and configuration needs,
UI requirements for art,
Technical notes and edge cases for engineering,
Test cases and success criteria for QA.
I defined a workflow from draft to final spec:
Initial draft by system owner →
Review in design meetings →
Alignment with art and engineering →
Final spec linked into our project management tools (task tracking, implementation and testing).
I also set up guidelines for tool-related specs (for example, how monster configuration tables should be structured so designers and artists could collaborate efficiently).
Impact
Designers had a shared language and format, which made specs easier to read and review.
Cross-team communication became more predictable: art, engineering and QA knew what to expect from design documents.
New designers could onboard faster by reading the system map and standard docs, instead of asking many one-off questions.
Overall, the team reduced rework and misunderstandings, which was critical for a new, complex game built by a large team.
Case Study 3 – Combat & Numerical Design
Context
For Flower to succeed, its combat needed to:
Offer genuine strategic depth (inspired by games like Onmyoji and Summoners War),
Still feel accessible and readable for a broader female audience,
Support a large roster of collectible characters and long-term progression.
We needed a combat framework that could scale, and an early numerical model to support both gameplay pacing and future monetization.
Design
As Lead Combat Designer and Lead Numerical Designer, I focused on:
Combat framework
Defined core combat rules: squad size, turn order / action system, resource mechanics (e.g. mana/energy), and positioning.
Designed how status effects, buffs, debuffs and synergies would work, so players could build meaningful strategies without overcomplicated inputs.
Hero roster and skills
Designed skills for around 50 heroes in the early roster.
For each hero, I defined a clear role and synergy pattern (e.g. control, support, burst, sustain), and how they would combine with others to create interesting team compositions.
Ensured skills supported both mechanical depth and expressive fantasy, which is important for character attachment in a female-focused game.
Numerical model & pacing
Built an initial numerical model for stats, growth curves and difficulty across early and mid game.
Tuned early-game pacing to be forgiving enough for new players, while still leaving space for high-level optimization and later monetization layers.
Analysed comparable models from Onmyoji, Summoners War and palace-sim RPGs, then positioned Flower’s numbers to create a distinct feel and strategy depth.
Impact
The combat framework and hero kits allowed us to build a playable combat prototype and demo that clearly showed the game’s strategic potential.
Internal playtests and leadership reviews confirmed that the core combat loop could support both collection and long-term engagement.
The numerical model became the foundation for later progression and monetization design, and the hero roster gave content and marketing a concrete reference for how the game would feel.
Results & Learnings
Even though Flower did not reach the same level of maturity as my later projects, it was an important step in my growth as a design leader.
Overall contributions
Helped turn an undefined idea (“a strategy RPG for women”) into a concrete product vision and system structure, grounded in real competitive analysis.
Established system maps and documentation standards that supported a large design team and improved cross-functional collaboration.
Designed the core combat framework, hero roster and early numerical model, providing a strong foundation for future content and live-ops.
Key learnings
A clear structure beats vague ambition.
Competitive analysis is only useful if it is turned into concrete loops and diagrams that the whole team can reason about.
Documentation is part of design.
For a 20-person design team, how you write specs and how they flow through art, engineering and QA is as important as the ideas themselves.
Depth must be designed with the audience in mind.
For a female-focused RPG, it’s not enough to copy hardcore systems; strategic depth has to be delivered in a way that feels approachable, emotional and visually satisfying.