Find the friction.
A focused review of your build, feature, onboarding sequence, or core flow with prioritized recommendations your team can act on quickly.
What We Do
Hidden Current Studios helps game teams turn complex systems into experiences players can understand, enjoy, and master.
Founded by John Jones, a Senior / Lead Game UX Designer with 20+ years of experience across AAA games, mobile strategy, live-service products, e-commerce, fintech, and large-scale digital platforms, Hidden Current specializes in the parts of games where clarity matters most: onboarding, gameplay UX, player learning, progression, menus, systems comprehension, and long-term engagement.
If you are building a prototype, preparing for a vertical slice, improving a soft-launch build, or trying to understand why players are getting lost, Hidden Current can help diagnose the friction and design a clearer path forward.
Experience Behind the Work
I’ve designed at-scale experiences for Electronic Arts, Amazon, Capital One, Discovery, and other major digital products.
Most recently, I worked on EA / Full Circle’s skate., where I focused on foundational UX systems, onboarding, first-hour gameplay, player education, Skatepedia, stats, settings, accessibility, progression, and core player flows.
I led the conception of and designed the UX for Isle of Grom, a dedicated onboarding experience that taught complex movement, timing, trick chaining, and world interaction through guided experimentation. That work contributed to a scalable player-learning framework and strong early experience outcomes, including 90%+ FTUE completion.
Across games, e-commerce, fintech, and digital platforms, my work centers on one consistent goal: make complex systems easier to understand, easier to enter, and deeper to master.
Crowd Guess
One question a day. Guess what the crowd will choose.
Crowd Guess is a daily social prediction game where the challenge is not only picking your own answer, but reading how everyone else will think. Quick to play, easy to return to, and built around the tiny arguments, instincts, and surprises that make people interesting.
Consulting Services
Senior Game UX support for studios that need practical clarity, sharper player flows, and actionable next steps.
Clarify the system.
Hands-on design support for menus, HUDs, progression surfaces, gameplay systems, player education, or high-friction features.
Support the milestone.
Senior UX direction for prototypes, publisher reviews, vertical slices, live-service improvements, or product strategy.
Selected Focus Areas
Hidden Current works best where player comprehension, moment-to-moment clarity, and long-term mastery all need to connect.
Onboarding, FTUE, tutorials, and first-hour design.
Build player education that teaches through play, reduces confusion, and gives players confidence without over-explaining the game.
Progression, economy, HUD, menus, and live-service UX.
Turn dense systems into readable decisions, cleaner flows, stronger feedback, and interfaces players can actually reason through.
Let’s build a clearer player experience.
Whether you are improving a prototype, preparing a vertical slice, launching a game, or looking for senior UX support, Hidden Current can help identify the friction and shape a stronger path forward.
