Hi, I’m Justin Lippert
I’m a game design leader with 13+ years of experience building first person shooters, third person shooters and action games with experiences across AAA, independent, and startup studio environments.
My design background is grounded in hands-on craft across mission, encounter, level, combat, and systems design. I’ve built content, new IP, design teams, and studio structures from the earliest pre-capital stages through full production. I’m at my best when a team needs to turn ambition into something playable, understandable, and achievable.
As a leader, I focus on clarity, collaboration, and mentorship. I believe strong teams do their best work when the direction is clear, the goals are practical, and individual contributors are trusted to bring their expertise to the problem and grow into strong owners of their craft.
I care deeply about game design as a discipline. I play broadly, study systems across genres, and still get excited by the details: a clean traversal read, a well-paced combat beat, a smart economy decision, or an emergent gameplay moment that only happened because the design left room for it.
Outside of work, I’m a father, run a weekly Warhammer group, and still believe games are at their best when they give players a story to tell afterward.
Team Leadership
For the past 8 years, I have led small to mid-sized cross-disciplinary teams across AAA, Independent, and startup environments, guiding teams and projects from studio formation through production and ship. My leadership style is rooted in clear and collaborative direction with an emphasis on professional mentorship, and empowering individual contributors to do their best work.
Craft Expert
My design craft expertise is grounded in years of hands-on content creation across encounter, mission, level, and systems design for major first person shooters, VR, third-person shooters, and third-person action projects. With deep experience in both proprietary engines and Unreal Engine, I can translate high-level creative direction into practical implementation, scripting, blockout, iteration, and polish. As both a leader and individual contributor, I bring the craft credibility of having built the playable spaces, gameplay experiences, and content pipelines I ask my teams to deliver.
Team Builder
I have built multiple successful design teams from scratch, growing them from their first hires into 10+ person departments capable of supporting complex, cross-disciplinary development. Through thoughtful recruiting, mentorship, and clear team structure, I have consistently hired and developed designers who become high-impact contributors, trusted owners, and long-term assets to their projects.