Studying an indie games master’s while working at Ubisoft Abu Dhabi

Jonas Noronha was already working in the games industry when he decided to return to study. Alongside his role as a Game Designer at Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, the MA in Indie Game Development (Online) at Falmouth gave him new ways to approach game systems, pitch ideas and work with his team.

We caught up with Jonas to talk about balancing study with a full-time career, what indie thinking brings to a live-service giant like Growtopia and the advice he still gives to people starting out.

How did you balance a full-time industry role with postgraduate study, and what made you want to add academic depth at that stage of your career?

Balancing both was definitely an exercise in scope control and time management, which are two skills every game designer needs anyway! The secret was treating my study and career as an extension of each other: what I learned at work improved my academic projects, and what I researched at Falmouth refined my design thinking at Ubisoft. The two fed into each other perfectly, as both are rooted in the games field.

I joined Falmouth just over two years into working at an AAA game company, so I already had a lot of experience on that side of the industry. But I'd always been curious about the indie scene: what it was like and how it differed, since a lot of the theory behind making games is fairly similar. When I heard about Falmouth, I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about Indie Game Development and expand my knowledge in an area of games I didn't have experience in. The Indie Start-up module specifically piqued my interest at the time.

Growtopia is a huge live-service sandbox game with an established player base. What did the MA teach you about structural pacing and economy design that you have been able to apply directly to a game of that scale?

While an indie project and a massive live-service title like Growtopia might seem worlds apart, the MA really reinforced the importance of holistic system design. In indie development, you have to be extremely intentional. Every single resource, mechanic and system must have a clear purpose because you don't have the luxury of bloat.

When you apply that mindset to an established, player-driven economy like Growtopia's, it becomes incredibly valuable. It taught me to evaluate new features not just for their immediate fun factor, but for their cascading impact on the entire market. Introducing something new to an ecosystem of that scale requires a micro-level understanding of how players value their time and assets. That's exactly the kind of deep dive you have to do when building an indie game's core loop from scratch.

In terms of structural pacing, the course emphasised mapping out the player's journey and understanding why certain features keep players engaged long-term. In a sandbox, players set their own goals. But as a designer, you still need to pace the introduction of new systems or live events so they feel rewarding without hyper-inflating the economy or overwhelming the community. The indie philosophy of "doing a lot with a little" helps immensely in designing updates that provide sustainable, meaningful engagement without disrupting the delicate balance of the live service.

You presented a mock pitch to an industry panel as part of the course. What was that project, and how did the experience of pitching to industry professionals change the way you present ideas at work now?

Along with a great team of other Indie Games Development and User Experience students, I had the chance to pitch a puzzle game called Missing Lynx. The game revolved around a lost animal collecting arrow keys to guide their way home. A major highlight from our presentation was that, in addition to the timelines and research, we already had a merchandising plan in mind for the game. One of the panellists loved this, as they could easily see our adorable animal lead tying into it.

A great thing to come out of working on the presentation was the practice we had beforehand with our course lecturer and each other, as it allowed us to refine the pitch down to the essentials. While practising beforehand definitely gives you the confidence to present your ideas, I learned that it helps you better understand the ideas as well.

Pitching to the industry panel itself was also a great opportunity to see what exactly publishers are looking for. As I began presenting at work as well, I followed the same philosophy, trying to figure out what elements of what I'm pitching the other members of the team are looking for. What do the artists need? What do the programmers need? And so on.

What was it like directing a project that pulled together two different disciplines?

Managing Missing Lynx was one of the most rewarding parts of the course because it mirrored real-world multi-department pipelines. It was also great because, at the time, I hadn't had the chance to work with dedicated design students from the MA User Experience Design (Online) course before. This meant I was able to learn a great deal about how they approached their work and the insights they could bring. One thing I've learned in my years of working in teams is that ensuring the goals of each member are aligned helps create the best project. This is important when team members come from different areas of expertise, as each field has specific requirements that need to be met. Fostering an environment where the team could communicate effectively and respectfully with each other really made the game a success.