March 21th, 2025
Infold Games recently captivated game development professionals with an insightful session on training first-time level designers at GDC2025. Led by Kentaro Tominaga, sub-director of Infinity Nikki, the talk explored how Infold Games transformed a team of young, passionate first-time designers into a skilled workforce behind the critically acclaimed 3D platformer.
The session drew significant interest from developers eager to learn how Infold Games scaled from a mobile-focused studio to a team of 1,000, delivering an ambitious open-world experience. Tominaga detailed the studio’s unique coaching framework, emphasizing three key pillars:
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Translate – Implementing translation tools and bilingual team members to ensure seamless communication and documentation.
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Communicate – Encouraging young designers to refine their ideas through iterative discussions and structured questioning.
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Discussion– Share each other's thoughts through communication, implement the specifications and conduct test play, discuss issues identified during test play to further improve quality, such as the widely praised "Momo Search" feature.
“If we invest time in good communication, discussions will be much smoother. And ultimately, this iterative learning process is what truly nurtures young designers.” said Tominaga during the session. “Through nurturing the young level designers, we were able to successfully release Infinity Nikki. Among the implemented features, there are of course some that I personally instructed, but many were proposals from younger level designers.
Since its debut, Infinity Nikki has received widespread acclaim, earning a nomination for Game of the Year from IGN and captivating millions of players worldwide. The talk underscored how Infold Games’ commitment to bottom-up creativity and continuous learning ensured that even as the team grew, it retained the curiosity and innovative spirit of a small indie studio.
Attendees left the session inspired, with many sharing their enthusiasm for implementing similar training strategies within their own teams. The discussion reinforced that investing in team coaching is not only worthwhile but essential for fostering future generations of great game designers.
For more information on Infold Games’ latest projects, visit [Infold Games Website].
About Infold Games
Infold Games is an international business brand created by Papergames. Based in Singapore, Infold Games strives to develop creative projects with strong emotional connections and immersive experiences to inspire and encourage players around the world. It is well regarded for the Nikki series and the Love series with more than 400 million downloads worldwide. The team is currently developing AAA projects including Ballad of Antara and Project: The Perceiver as well as the next installment of the Nikki series, Infinity Nikki, a whimsical open-world adventure.
Media Contact:
Infold Games Global PR Department