CASE STUDY / 02
COMPANY
Rovio Entertainment
PRODUCT
Angry Birds Dream Blast
ROLE
Senior UX Designer
TEAM
Product Manager · Game Designers · Developers · LiveOps stakeholders
RESPONSABILITIES
UX Strategy · Live Ops Feature Design · Player Experience · Prototyping · Cross-functional Collaboration
01 / OVERVIEW
The event wasn’t only about progression. It was about memorable moments.
River Rush was a limited-time LiveOps event designed from scratch to create a competitive and emotionally engaging player experience. The challenge was not only to build a race mechanic, but to understand what would make players feel excitement, ownership and motivation throughout the journey.
I brought a player-centred design approach into the process, using player motivations and behavioural insights to align the team and shape both the game mechanics and emotional moments of the experience.
02 / DISCOVERY
Understanding what makes players come back
Before defining mechanics, I introduced a player-centred discovery phase to understand what would motivate players to compete, engage and return to the experience.
Through collaborative workshops with Product, Game Design and cross-functional stakeholders, we explored player motivations, emotional goals, existing behaviours, success criteria and key assumptions behind the event.
This shifted the conversation from "What feature should we build?" to "What experience do we want players to have?"
DESIGNING THE “DON’T LET IT CATCH ME” MOMENT
03 / DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Introducing a player-centred LiveOps process
01
Start with player motivation
Align the team around what makes players care before defining mechanics.
02
Create emotional peaks
Use rewards, celebration and character moments to make progress memorable.
03
Design together, earlier
Bring UX into the definition phase through workshops, discovery and shared decisions.
THE KEY INSIGHT
Players don’t just remember what they achieved. They remember how the experience made them feel. The discovery process shifted our focus towards emotional peaks, playful character moments and experiences players wanted to return to.
04 / SOLUTION
From a functional event to an emotionally engaging player experience
PLAYER AGENCY
A reason to compete
REWARD & DELIGHT
Make winning feel worth it
CHALLENGE
EXCITEMENT
ACHIEVEMENT
AGENCY
RETENTION
One of my main focuses was introducing emotional design into the experience. The objective was to go beyond functional feedback and create moments that generated positive emotional responses. We designed interactions where players’ favourite characters reached moments of maximum excitement, supported by playful animations and expressive reactions. These moments transformed progression milestones from simple rewards into memorable experiences. The goal was simple: make players smile.
COMPETITIVE DRIVE — "I want to reach the finish line first"
EMOTIONAL PAYOFF — "I want winning to feel special"
PLAYER AGENCY — "I want to feel in control of my journey"
05 / IMPACT
TOP 2
Among the strongest LiveOps events for player engagement and retention.
A player-centred process that aligned the team before execution.
06 / REFLECTION
Design influence starts before the first screen is created.
River Rush reinforced one of my strongest beliefs about UX: the biggest achievement was not a specific interaction or visual solution. It was helping a team shift from designing features to designing experiences. By creating space for research, alignment and shared understanding, UX became a strategic partner in deciding what was worth building.