Jean-Luc Potte

UX Researcher · UI programmer

After working on open-ended, systemic games at studios like Rockstar Games and Creative Assembly, I now help game teams ship tutorials and UI systems that are cost-effective and less painful to iterate on.

Current location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Open to: projects in Europe/North America/South Korea, done remotely or in-person at your studio

Past projects (selected)

Grand Theft Auto VI · GTA Online · Total War: Warhammer 3 · Hyenas · Cities: Skylines · Far Cry 4 ·

Rockstar Games · Creative Assembly · Paradox Interactive · Ubisoft · Crytek · Ankama ·

What I do

Services For designers

Tutorials design and implementation: I help teams build onboarding and re‑onboarding systems that cost less to ship and to maintain, during production as well as post-launch.

Example

I often come in during production, where I have to adapt to the restrictions of the code base and find which triggers or states can be used without breaking or slowing the game down. Usually I focus on:

UI logic for triggering messages and UI elements
Logic for supressing those messages when needed
Triggers that don't break as the game keeps changing

For studio leads

Designer prototypes that free up programmer time: I make, and teach how to make, prototypes that work with any PC build. They let designers iterate on their own without depending on programmer assistance.

Examples

I came up with two tools to help teams iterate without taking up too much programmer time:

Interactive overlays

(using Destiny 2 as an example)

Use these when you want your lead or team to see, controller in hand, how a potential feature would feel in and fit with the game, without having to build it in-game.

⬆️ How it works: I write them in a way that allows the web prototype and the game to both receive inputs from the controller. Works on any PC build.

Complex prototypes

🚧 Work-in-progress! I have to replace this tech demo with a more informative one.

🚧 placeholder demo: 3D scene with touch, mouse+keyboard, and gamepad controls

Paused

Features list

✅ No compile
✅ Shareable over slack/MS teams (~20Mb files, just share a URL)
✅ Self-hosted, no dependency on an external service
✅ Mouse+Keyboard and/or gamepad and/or touch inputs
✅ Best for testing relationship between UI and 3D scenes

For game researchers and analysts

Custom tools to help you work around the constraints of game builds: Throughout my 12 years in games, I've made many tools, most of them focused on getting game telemetry and playtests online earlier than previously thought possible.

Example

Over the years I built tools that helped analysts and that work with any PC build

Allowed researchers and analysts to collect basic telemetry data, without requiring assistance from the game team
Gave researchers basic stats on when/how often participants pressed specific buttons or keys while playing
Enabled participants to leave feedback while playing
Automated tedious steps in playtesting (project allocation, lab booking, video editing, data analysis for large datasets)

The tools I use

C++, C# and/or UE Blueprints for implementing
Javascript to write interactive overlays that work with any PC game build
Figma for wireframes

Who is this for?

My last game director was the kind of person who needed to fiddle with things in game, and if it wasn't in game, no approval of wireframes, mockups, or prototypes was binding. [...] so much gets lost in translation from static mockups. — UX Designer (writing in the We'll fix it in UI discord server)

⬆️ My services are best suited to teams who relate with the challenge described above. How to resource a project efficiently, to let your team try new things AND ship on time?

✅ Best for: The services I offer fit well with systems-heavy and/or non-linear games. Live-service games that have been running for years and need to constantly onboard and re-onboard players benefit the most from this approach.

❌ Not a great fit: If your studio already knows how to ship tutorials on time and budget, and knows how to iterate cheaply, then you probably don't need me.

Working with me

I can be reached at enquiries@jlpotte.com, or via linkedin messages.

Below is a look at my capacity for the next 6 months. I try to update this weekly so you know exactly when we can chat or work together.