We’re thrilled to announce new members of our developer team at Sparkypants Studios working on The Elder Scrolls: Legends. Three fantastic new additions are joining the card design team, joining Josh Utter-Leyton and Peter Janaros to make sure upcoming card content for Legends is not only balanced, but also interesting and impactful!
The first of our three additions, Ryan Siegel-Stechler, will be working on-site with Sparkypants in Baltimore, MD. An experienced card game player, he began playing CCGs nearly two decades ago with the Pokemon TCG, later switching to Magic: The Gathering in the early 2000s.
In addition to playing card games, he also scored a 5th place finish in Magic’s third Great Designer Search - an event which he says gave him a push to start looking into card design full-time. That effort seems to have paid off and now he’ll be bringing that design expertise to Legends.
“I’m definitely excited to get to work with the design team at Sparkypants. I’ve found the gameplay to be deep and strategically rewarding; my wife and I have spent more than a couple nights staying up late playing Arenas side-by-side!” says Ryan. “My goal is to contribute some awesome mechanics, flavorful additions from the super-rich Elder Scrolls mythos and make some sweet individual cards for players to tell each other stories about topdecking.”
Our second new designer is Jason Hager! Does that name sound familiar? It should! Known online as TDCJason, Hager has been a long-time force in Legends’ competitive scene with several high ladder finishes and a top four finish in the most prestigious event in Legends’ history: the Masters Series at QuakeCon 2018. Hager has also seen success in Magic: The Gathering and VS System, where he took home a $24,000 second place prize in the Pro Circuit. Throughout his time playing Legends, Jason has been known as one of the game’s premier innovators and an expert pilot of unconventional strategies - experience he’s sure to put to good use as a card designer.
“The TESL design team is full of driven and talented folks, and I'm humbled to be included. I hope to bring my love of TESL, quirky deckbuilding, and persistence to the design table, says Jason. “I'm sure there will be tough and exciting challenges ahead, but at the moment I feel giddy and honored -- a bit like I'm touring Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.”
Finally, we’re pleased to welcome a household name in the CCG world: Brazil’s Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa! PV is a prolific Magic: The Gathering player and writer who began his career in the early 2000s. A Hall-of-Famer like Utter-Leyton, he also has become the highest-earning player in Magic’s history with almost $500,000 in lifetime winnings. PV has taken his skills to Legends before, finishing high on the Ranked ladder as early as 2016 and competing in the Masters Series qualifiers this past Summer.
“I’ve been a card games player for most of my life, but this is my first time actually working as a designer, and I’m very excited to start,” says PV. “My first contact with Legends was when it was still in closed beta, when I visited my friends who worked on it, and I immediately fell in love with the game - the lanes mechanic was fascinating to me, and I thought it had the perfect mix of being challenging and skill-intensive while not being overly complicated. Since then, I’ve played a lot of ladder, I’ve participated in competitions, and I’ve even written a couple of articles on it, and now I look forward to helping make Legends the best game it can be as part of the design team.”
Jason started at Sparkypants last week, while Paulo will begin towards the end of November with Ryan joining the team in early December. Together with Josh and Peter, we’re confident in their ability to expand upon Legends’ history of awesome card design in the many expansions to come.