Matt Molloy

Matt Molloy

Project Design Director

  • - 20 years in game development to a design capacity, leading multi-disciplinary design across AAA experiences.
  • - Shipped strong AAA titles including Days Gone, Age of Empires IV, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Returnal, Amazon: New World, and Elite: Dangerous.
  • - Established scalable design structures, standards, and review frameworks to elevate design quality across teams.
  • - Senior client-facing design authority, translating creative ambition into production-ready, commercially viable direction.
  • - Played a strategic role in securing competitive RFP wins, shaping executable design strategy from pitch through delivery.
Portsmouth, UK
Matt Molloy

Project Design Director

Climax StudiosPortsmouth, UK

2014Present

Directed multi-disciplinary design teams across concurrent AAA and £multi-million productions.

Design Vision & GovernanceMulti-Project Experience OversightOrganisational Leadership & MentorshipDesign Quality FrameworksClient & Stakeholder StrategyPitch & RFP DevelopmentGameplay & Systems Direction
  • Directed multi-disciplinary design teams across concurrent AAA and £multi-million productions.
  • Defined design standards, validation frameworks, and cross-discipline review processes to ensure experience cohesion at scale.
  • Led hiring, mentoring, and performance development for senior and mid-level designers across multiple productions.
  • Drove continuous improvement in studio-wide design practices, documentation standards, and review cadence.
  • Served as senior client-facing design authority across long-term publisher partnerships.
  • Played a strategic role in securing competitive RFP wins and project approvals, supporting studio growth and long-term publisher partnerships.
  • Accountable for overall design quality across assigned productions.

Lead Designer

Frontier DevelopmentsCanada

20122014

Lead Designer for Frontier Developments in Canada.

Gameplay SystemsDesign Quality Frameworks
  • Lead Designer for Frontier Developments.
  • Led the design on a F2P title - owning monetization, core loops, player engagement, calendar mechanics and balancing.
  • Lead Designer on Elite: Dangerous - prototyping and developing the galaxy map, as well as economy balancing.
  • Lead Designer on various Microsoft MR HoloLens apps - including Fragments and real-time translation.

Lead Designer

HB StudiosCanada

20112012

Lead Designer for HB Studios in Canada.

Gameplay SystemsDesign Strategy
  • Lead Designer for HB Studios.
  • Led prototyping on a rhythm game for Kinect to secure a project.
  • Led the design on Baller Beats - a Kinect rhythm game using a basketball.
  • Design support and feature design across several projects - from FIFA to Madden.

Earlier Career

Various StudiosUK

19902011

Codemasters, Eidos, Rage Games, Silicon Dreams

Game Design

Earlier career spanned multiple studios involving small to large teams. I begin my journey as a QA Tester, working up to Producer, and ultimately found my passion and skills for design.