Hello, my name is Chandra Kouns Turaga, a 3C Game Designer currently employed at Ubisoft Stockholm.
I’m a professional game designer with over 7 years of experience in AAA Console and Live-Ops productions.
My expertise mainly lies in defining 3C Systems, but I’ve also had the opportunity to work with multi-disciplinary systems such as Combat, UX, and Live Service specific features.
This is not a serious blog. The content I create here is just another form of self-expression.
I barely have enough time to properly update my blog these days. I don’t like my template or my presentation skills, but it is what it is.
I’m beginning to forget things as I get older. I guess this blog is a nice gateway to look back at my younger-self and cringe 😂
Well, as long as the blog helps me, I’m fine with it. If it also helps others, even better!
LIFE UPDATE: 12-02-25
Whenever someone asks me, “Where do you see yourself in the next five years?” I honestly have no idea where life might take me next. It’s kind of surreal that I’ve been doing these updates every three years, yet I still don’t know what’s ahead.
Now, at 28, I’m just trying to survive in the video game industry as it crumbles around me a little more each day.
https://publish.obsidian.md/vg-layoffs/Archive/2025
Everyone knows the challenges Ubisoft, my employer, is dealing with right now. I’ve worked on four unreleased games, one publicly canceled project, narrowly dodged a layoff, and who knows what else I can’t talk about because of NDAs.
It has become a joke that video games now feel like newspapers, a medium on decline.
Short-form content has taken over everything, making it harder for people to dive deep into other hobbies. Meanwhile, ChatGPT and generative AI are shaking things up, kind of like a second internet revolution.
While all of this has been happening, my self-confidence has been shattered. I’ve been stuck in a negative spiral, just trying my best to feel normal again.
But hey! Despite everything going on, there’s a bright side — the last few years have given me some respite. I had the opportunity to travel to eight different countries, and I got into a relationship.
I’m incredibly grateful for the journey I’ve had so far, but I think it’s time to welcome pressure back into my life.
LIFE UPDATE: 22-02-22
I’ve had a lifetime of experience these past few years in comparison to my previous updates.
I’m 25 years old now, and since the last time I posted here – I’ve had covid, lost both of my grandmothers within a week, gone through the most gruesome crunch experience of my life, survived a deadly mosquito-borne fever disease, and I shifted to a new country for the first time ever for a new job.
A lot to take in.
I’ve now realized that work-life balance is a real issue. Working every day till months on end… it’s not fun, and I completely burnt myself in the process.
I slowly shifted to think that maybe I don’t want to be a big face in the industry? Not everybody needs to create their own studio and direct their own games. Sometimes it’s just enough to feel relaxed, collectively work towards objectives, and enjoy life!
I feel like I shouldn’t put too much pressure on myself going ahead. It’s nice to see that I have a good team around me to avoid the issue.
So I gotta rebound! I feel like I’m yet to face the best years of my life!
LIFE UPDATE: 13-04-19
Time is like a river… It keeps on flowing.
Yep, I’m 23 years old now. There are quite a few differences from who I was 3 years ago, once again. But this time it almost feels like I haven’t seen much growth, or worse, I feel like I’ve deteriorated in quite a few areas.
The pressure I put on myself to achieve my goals keeps on increasing day by day.
But lately, I’ve understood that I’m slowly starting to burn in a little bit. From now on I’ll have to be careful of my mental & physical fortitude to continue my growth.
LIFE UPDATE: 19-11-16
This “About Me” is quite old.
I’m 20 years old now, I don’t play every game in the AAA market anymore, update my blog randomly whenever it’s possible, and I grew only to care about the design of games rather than other things in life.
Is this weird? If it’s weird I then like being weird. But yet, I want to keep this whole page for anyone who wants to know how I came to be to who I am today.
https://snoukdesignnotes.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/dumb-lazy/
So for the “New and short About Me”:
My name is Chandra Kouns Turaga – A game design student currently studying at Rubika Supinfogame Pune, Maharashtra, India. And in short, I’m the type of guy who is always chasing for “fun” in gameplay experiences.
It has been an amazing adventure so far in building this website – with all of my games up for showcase for anyone willing to see my potential. https://www.chandrakouns.com/
Yet this is not the end of the road. I still have miles to progress, learn, and climb towards my objective!
LIFE UPDATE: 09-11-13
Hello everyone!
My name is Chandra a.K.a WannaBDesigner.
I’m from the southern part of India, and right after my Intermediate education, I’m now studying the “Video Game Director” course at Rubika Supinfogame International Campus, pursuing my dream to be a Game Designer.
I’m 17 years old, and I mostly interact/make friends with everyone around me. More to say, I have an Xbox and I play online too. Message me on WordPress/FB if you want me to play as well.
But the sad part is, most of the time I may be busy because I have a lot of work in my academy (being a Game Designer ain’t easy!).
And so, I would try to update my blog twice a month, and also to add again, strangely I get into many interesting interactions, so I will be updating them too (If I feel they would be funny to share that is). So, that’s all if you want to know about me.
See you guys on my next post.
WHY DID I BECOME A GAME DESIGNER?
First, a little bit about myself…
Being a Game Designer in a third-world country is a rare privilege.
I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have had such an opportunity in my life, particularly knowing that many people I grew up with didn’t even have television sets in their homes.
It feels like a stroke of luck that I ended up where I am today.
My future could have taken countless different paths given how inaccessible certain resources and opportunities were in our economy.
As humans, we’re often drawn to the contrasting elements in our environment, no matter how out of reach they may seem.
For me, video games were one of them, an element out of reach, which I was dreaming to obtain one day.
And that interest slowly started growing into a profession…
Throughout my childhood, I have been accumulating knowledge about different genres of video games, viewing them through the eyes of an analytical gamer.
- I’ve had my fair share of time growing up looking at arcade cabinets in video game parlors.
- I grew up spectating video games at some of my friends’ places.
- It all eventually led me to accidently owning a console to experience the spectacle for myself.
I have literally played thousands of video games growing up on multiple consoles (SNES, Gameboy(s), PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, PS4, etc.)
An unbelievable amount consumed through the primary means of piracy till I reached the age where I could afford buying games by myself.
You can witness some of my remaining history through my Xbox Gamerscore / Steam accounts:
https://www.trueachievements.com/gamer/ViRaLZ+iMiracle?cb=2267
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198107429428/
From playing multitude of video games with my friends, my journey continued to expand until I first got my hands on “Little Big Planet” and its community creation tools on a PSP.
With Little Big Planet, I used to spend a lot of time deriving new games modes, levels, emergent rulesets, and ultimately – new player experiences.
I always get excited to explore new user-generated content tools that games provide to enhance player-created content.
This hunger to create content… only kept growing till I came across the “Halo” series, where I became serious in crafting new unique gameplay experiences (through new game modes & levels):
Over the years, when it was time for me to grow and become an adult, earn for myself, I naturally chose to expand my knowledge even further by becoming a Game Designer.
Being part of the development process I love allowed me to continue making my long-awaited passion come to fruition!
I also had a phase in-between where I wanted to compete in esports. It started with COD: Black Op 2, but India never had a prominent esports scene which people really cared about.
Gaming was not in the DNA of India back then, I don’t know if it’ll ever be there anytime soon…
Maybe I could’ve also ended up as a Level Designer or within other game development disciplines. But life has a way of figuring itself out.
Now my story is done, this post is not about me helping you decide why you need to become a game designer — you have to find that fire yourself.
At times, you might feel lost and helpless, but always remember the joy you first felt when you began your journey.
With that as a closing note… see you all in my next post.
SnoukDesignNotes 