Arranging the Pieces

After wrapping Monument Valley 2, I moved onto the earliest design phase of Assemble With Care, helping establish the visual direction and interaction language that would shape the game. Lead Game Designer Lea Schönfelder had developed the initial concept, including its functional structure and broad color palette, and I worked to translate those ideas into a more distinctive visual system.

We wanted the experience to feel less conventionally “gamey,” moving away from an explicit shelf-like interface and toward something more tactile, graphic, and familiar. I developed the project’s early visual research and moodboard, drawing inspiration from top-down editorial photography and Instagram “purse haul” images, where personal objects are carefully arranged within a rectangular composition. I then designed an interface around that visual language and helped translate it into the game’s first 3D prototype alongside artists Max van der Mewe and Fen Beatty.

I left ustwo to join Apple while the project was still in development, and Art Director Chris Cox and the wider team carried that foundation forward into the final game. Assemble With Care went on to receive a BAFTA nomination, and it was especially rewarding to see ideas developed during those first explorations become part of such a beautifully realized final experience.