Nicolas Leal

I have worked on Just Dance 2023 Edition for three years, since the pre-conception, in 2019. I was also working on other yearly Just Dance, 2021 & 2022. The aim of JD2023 was to refresh Just Dance, with an heavy online multiplayer, adding competitive and coop layers. On this project, I was in charge of every multiplayer topics and gamemodes.

• Designer in charge of every Multiplayer Systems & Gamemodes

• Ranked Mode

• Matchmaking System (with Trueskill)

• Friends & Party Systems

• Designed in collaboration with UI / UX teams

• Worked on a long term team-based progression, guild system

• Designed with a systemic methodology

• Designed an asynchronous multiplayer gamemode

• Worked on ways to give useful game performances informations to players, so they can improve their gameplay based on stats

• Worked on various gamemode, bending the usual rules of Just Dance for different experiences, some of them more social, some of them more competitive

• Worked on a progression and reward system specific to some gamemodes to make them more engaging

• Designed features around an avatar system, with player customization at the heart of the design

• Various first party compliance related design tasks

• Worked on & implemented achievements

I started working on Just Dance 2023 in 2019.

The project aimed to be a total change from the previous iterations. Just Dance never had synchronous multiplayer which had to be done from scratch. I worked very early with online programmers and online services teams within Ubisoft to create a design in accordance with the technical limitations, the budget and time constraints.

I also had to design ranked mode, matchmaking and coop gamemodes while making it relevant to both casual and hardcore players. I worked a lot in collaboration with UI/UX teams to make sure everything was easily understandable. The game had a lot of systems interacting with each other, so I also was in charge of the systemic structure of the game and how the multiplayer systems would interact together.