My design philosophy begins with Sid Meier’s idea that a game is a series of interesting choices.
I believe in making players feel that their actions matter – I want players to face choices with real weight, and I want those choices to ripple through systems, story, and moment-to-moment feel. I also believe audio, visuals, and interactivity should not sit side by side but play off each other to create a coherent, immersive and heart-pounding experience.
These principles guide both the games I build and the advice I offer to the studios I work with.
Music has always been my strongest creative anchor. I move between the heavy, atmospheric pull of metal, the melodramatic presence of musicals, while also drawing from the hypnotic momentum of techno and trance. Games matter to me on two levels: I care deeply about mechanics – how systems create tension, mastery, and expression; but I also care about their cultural dimension, the way they carry stories, values, and shared references. In film, my inspiration comes from a few specific places: Bollywood with its emotional scale and energy; anime and its visual discipline, deep emotions and bold ideas; and indie horror with its creativity fuelled by constraints.
My path into game development began in high school, creating point-and-click games and mods for Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind, and continued through university, where I developed a major interest in OpenGL, which made me build a hack-and-slash game and a 3D terrain/world simulation engine. I also earned some pocket money as a professional Dungeon Master.
Before graduating, I entered the industry professionally, working on mobile games and apps from 2008 to 2012. During that period I contributed to titles such as Castlevania, Metal Gear, Worms, and Sonic. I also helped pioneer early AR experiences with Worksnug and the Parrot Drone controller app, and worked on Blade Lords, an early AAA mobile fighting game built with Unreal Engine 3.
In 2012 I joined Guerrilla Games at PlayStation. I helped ship Killzone: Shadow Fall as a PlayStation 4 launch title and then played a key role in building the Horizon franchise, developing narrative and other systems for Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. Those projects earned numerous awards, including two BAFTAs, and in 2023 I was recognised as one of the top 25 game developers of the year by Digital Confex.
After more than a decade in the industry, those experiences have lead me wanting to build something of my own, that would allow me continue having an impact on the industry and build on top of all the lessons I’ve learned so far. I co-founded Chaos Manufacturing to develop AA games and later established Leshy Interactive, a consultancy through which I advise other studios on design, engineering decisions, game direction, and production.