My name is Alexandre Mandryka and I am a veteran game designer working in Canada. I started my career in 2000 in France where I spent 5 years working on various game genres as a total scrub. In 2005, I was hired by Ubisoft Montreal where I participated on many of the company’s recent franchises (Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six …) as a lead designer, creative director or creative manager. More importantly for me, this is where, as a studio design director, I started digging into the nuts and bolts of the craft of design, and established a comprehensive description of the different disciplines of design. This is when I proposed a model that would be used globally by Ubisoft to assess and direct designers in their skill growth as well as allow their managers to support them efficiently. I was then lucky enough to strengthen these theories by applying them at Relic Entertainment, helping the deeply talented designers of the company see the bigger picture in which their technical knowledge applied, and structure the creative effort accordingly. I base my approach on my scientific training in math, biology and psychology and work at deconstructing the terms and processes of design and creativity. I establish links to academic fields as well as existing theories and studies to give proper tools to designers and limit the hit-and-miss approach that is unfortunately quite common in our industry. I recently started Game Whispering Inc., a company through which I propose consulting services in the fields of design and creativity. For more information, check gamewhispering.com.