Anjali Shibu
About Me – The Short and Succinct Version
A passionate game designer with a proven track record of two shipped AAA titles under the belt.
My creative vision, practical design skills and programming knowledge enable me to enhance gameplay and accessibility experiences for players.
A holistic view and multidisciplinary approach are my forte!
I spend my free time being the chaotic neutral that I am while playing D&D, using situations and scenarios to inspire quests, lore and level designs. An amateur pianist, I play game tunes, some classical pieces and more. Besides that, I’m finding the best food – in town and at home, often trying recipes from different cultures to broaden my horizons. The characters, lore and stories I tell, that entice players, are oft inspired by my hobbies!
Shipped Titles
Skills
Generalist Designer
Worked across narrative, level, systems, quest and gameplay design. Always looking for innovative and low budget solutions to make the best experiences a reality.
Design Pipeline
Worked the full design cycle, from concept to shipping Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure. I understand the pipeline end-to-end, from concepts, to implementation and polish.
Effective Collaborator
Collaborated across departments, such as art, level, engineering, audio, cinematics, and more, to bring features to life, while meeting design goals and ensuring cohesive vision.
Excel and Balancing
As a Gameplay Designer, I’m familiar with the ins and outs of Excel, balancing the game-feel by tweaking the numbers and playing it myself till the work shines and flows smoothly!
Script, Bark, Lore and Descriptive Writing
Collaborated with a writer, wrote and edited scripts for Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure. Authored, and co-authored scripts for projects.
Technical Design
Spearheaded areas of improvements for tools (Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels), looking at areas that can be improved to ensure smoother pipelines and faster production.
Characters and World-Building
Cohesive world-building from gameplay to narrative and back. By collaborating across teams, I’ve crafted unique, engaging experiences for players.
Tools and Engines
I’ve used Proprietary Engines and Tools (Forza Horizon), Unreal Engine (3,4,5), Unity, RPG Maker MV, Twine and more. Also worked with Trello, Confluence, Perforce, GitHub.
Documentation
Documented and shared designs, using text, flowcharts and images, to ensure cohesive vision, inclusive design and break down complex concepts into simple solutions.
Testimonials
“I was very lucky to have worked with Anjali on the multi-award winning Forza Horizon 5 during my time as Principal Level Designer at Playground Games. Anjali is a highly creative and passionate Game Designer that approaches any given task with seemingly limitless levels of positive energy.
We worked very closely together on the Initial Experience of the Rally Adventure DLC where Anjali’s drive to create great narratively driven experiences really shone through and elevated the experience for millions of players worldwide. Beyond her talent as a Game Designer Anjali had a hugely positive influence on the studio as an active participant and champion for several of the Employee Resource Groups, giving a number of enlightening studio wide presentations in that time.
I highly recommend Anjali as a valuable asset to any team. She is a dedicated, joyous and talented professional that is always striving for things to be better every aspect – which is exactly what every studio needs.”
– Aaron McAree
Level Design Director at Maverick Games
“Anjali is a vibrant Game Designer who is a pleasure to work with!
She has a great, detail-focused approach on Narrative Design and is able to tackle a wide range of technical problems with ease, breaking down complex problems into simple solutions. She has an infectiously uplifting presence which will benefit any team she works with.”