Matt Danuser-Grant
Principal Game Designer
Summary
I design the systems that bring players back. Over a decade in mobile F2P, across Marvel Strike Force, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Disney Sorcerer's Arena, owning character and combat design on titles with hundreds of millions of installs.
What I'm solving for is feel: the kit that finally clicks, the event that pulls someone back after weeks away, the character who becomes a player's favorite. I reach for systems because that's how you build feel at scale.
Experience
mattdanusergrant.com · Conductive (personal OS) · 12-repo portfolio
- Design and ship original games, apps, and creative-coding tools at mattdanusergrant.com: vanilla JS + Canvas, no build step, continuously deployed on GitHub Pages.
- Built Conductive, a multi-agent personal operating system on a Markdown knowledge graph, directing AI (Claude Code) as an engineering team across a 12-repo portfolio.
- Shipped full-stack products solo, a live team-scheduling app and an invite-only artist portal, on serverless Postgres (Neon / Supabase) with row-level-security auth and no dedicated servers.
- Advise founders and designers on AI-native build workflows and game systems design.
Casual rewards & loyalty games · crafting-driven
- Led game design as the studio's design lead: set the vision, core loops, and player experience from the ground up.
- Built crafting as the core engagement loop: progression, collection, and reward systems that turned everyday shopping into play.
- Prototyped and iterated new concepts fast with founders and engineering at an early-stage AI studio.
Marvel Strike Force · $300M+ lifetime revenue · 200+ character roster
- Owned and built the BattleWorld boss system: designed cooperative boss encounters end-to-end, from mechanics and phase structure to difficulty tuning for groups arriving with wildly different rosters.
- Owned character and combat design for one of mobile's top-grossing live games, shipping new playable characters on a monthly cadence.
- Designed kits, abilities, and combat systems balanced for both PvE and competitive PvP play.
- Mentored and gave design direction to other designers, raising the bar on kit quality and design consistency across the team.
- Partnered across production, engineering, and live ops to land content that drove player engagement and retention.
Disney Sorcerer's Arena · $22M+ in launch-quarter bookings
- Designed characters and combat systems for a Disney/Pixar collectible RPG.
- Translated beloved Disney and Pixar characters into distinct, satisfying kits across an expanding PvE and PvP roster.
- Tuned combat balance for both newcomer accessibility and competitive depth.
Crystalborne: Heroes of Fate
- Designed combat systems, hero kits, and progression balance for a story-driven mobile RPG.
Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall
- Led system design across a Game of Thrones mobile RPG: world map, crafting, castle upgrades, and the core progression loops that structured the player journey.
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes · $2B+ lifetime player spending
- Designed character kits, abilities, and combat systems for the most successful Star Wars mobile title ever made.
- Built faction-based team synergies and encounters spanning PvE campaigns, raids, and competitive PvP modes.
- Contributed to a deep, expanding roster of iconic Star Wars characters, balanced across daily, weekly, and event-driven live ops cadence.
Super Hero Squad Online
- Owned character design for a free-to-play Marvel MMO: shipping 2–3 new heroes monthly and continuously rebalancing a 180+ character roster.
- Partnered across a small, multi-disciplinary team to overhaul the game economy for a major release.
Champions Online
- Owned PvE and PvP balance across 26 power frameworks, authoring hundreds of powers in the in-house scripting engine.
- Designed and shipped 2 new player classes from scratch, and helped move the game from subscription to free-to-play.
Earlier Roles: Quality Assurance
Soul Calibur Legends · Namco Museum Remix · Digimon World Dusk / Dawn
Super Contra · TMNT Arcade · DDR Universe · Karaoke Revolution / American Idol · Xiaolin Showdown · Death Jr. 2 · Winx Club
The Godfather · Mass Effect