A Free Agent
EA Sports' Madden NFL is one of the best selling live-service video game franchises of all time. Within its most popular game mode – Ultimate Team – gamers can build their own fantasy NFL team by opening packs and unlocking NFL players.
Here, I saw an opportunity — I wanted to fundamentally rebuild this pack system from the ground-up. The team historically viewed packs as an afterthought, but I would create a scalable, best-in-class design system that would captivate gamers.
A Hail Mary
At the core of this project was one idea: "what if we used Adobe's 3D material library as the backbone of this whole system?"
We would set up a 3D scene, lock the camera settings, and then swap out Adobe's various materials. This would allow us to create variations incredibly fast, but also at incredible quality — we would render hundreds of materials to create a library of assets. They could then be Photoshopped by any designer, regardless of 3D experience.
This sounded great, but it was an unproven workflow. Every year, thousands of packs would need to be created for the game's various live events and these would generate billions of dollars. Would this work?
A TOUCHDOWN
This approach was a massive success. Not only was I able to single-handedly produce every pack for the entire game, and not only was I able to set a new visual standard in the process, but I also attracted the attention of world class brands like Nike and Doritos.
They requested bespoke packs that adapted their brands to our visual design language — a previously impossible task, considering our timelines. However, because my workflow included 3D assets, I was able to satisfy this request.
A Team Sport
I designed, modeled, and executed every feature of this design system, yet it would have been impossible without the support of my team at EA Sports. They encouraged my initial pitch, supported me through stakeholders, and critiqued the final assets.
Here are some early sketches that show the project at the very beginning.
Special Thanks
Jenna Piscione
Rob Diaz
Marcela Londono
Experience Manager II
Experience Designer
Graphic Designer
"Usually the team with the
most points wins the game!"
most points wins the game!"
John Madden