Aurélien NICOLEAU

34 years old - Lyon, France

Cofounder & Managing Director at Piwag
System & Metacognitive Game Designer

Game Designer

Specialist in system and metacognitive design, interaction between games and gamer psychology, optimization, frustration and motivation.
Creator of a psychographic segmentation of gamers.
GD Consultant, Author and former GD Employee.
Worked on all kind of games, from AA to indies, from mods to maps.

Related skills & knowledge:
Nested loops, retention mechanics, frustration management, rational game design, F2P/GaaS businesses models, incentives, balance mechanics, learning curve, rhythm curve, visual/audio feedbacks, core gameplay, 3C, etc.

Entrepreneur

Co-founder and Managing Director at Piwag (5 years).
Lyon-Startup contest laureate.

Related skills & knowledge:
Adaptability, find low-cost & effective solutions, manage people & projects, leading, recruitment, being a creative force, conscious about market and profitability, responsible, familiar with startup ecosystem, interested in team and HR management etc.

Game Design Jury Member

Indie Prize 2019: London / USA / China 2019.
Indie Prize 2018: USA / London / Serbia / Asia 2018.
Indie Garden Assembly Awards 2018.
Geneva Gaming Convention 2017: Special Indie Prize (Casual Connect USA 2018) / GGC Awards.
Bellecour School since 2017: Evaluation of GD students end of studies projects.

Related skills & knowledge:
Always willing to share knowledge, able to be impartial and do honest/constructive feedbacks

Speaker

Gamagora 2017 - Perceived Reality & Psychographics
Videogame Economics Forum 2016 - Psychographic segmentation
Central European Game Conference 2016 - Visibility
Lyon Start-Up 2015 - Entrepreneurship feedback and advices
La Saga des Jeux Vidéo 2014 - Round Table about future of game design (aside Éric Chahi, Émile Morel & David Mekersa)

Related skills & knowledge:
Speak publicly, ability to summarize, used to international professional events

Gamer & Community Manager

Former admin/moderator of online communities, up to thousands people.
Former admin / officer / raid leader in EU ranked guilds on several games (MMO/Browser games).
Former Spartan Vanguard (community events, tournaments organization, online rules support) for Spartan Games, Member of the Month 2013.
Former member of pro-ranked teams on several games (FPS/RTS).

Related skills & knowledge:
Always willing to help, meticulous, set myself high standards, diplomacy

Human Being

Science (all kind), Sci-Fi & Communication between people enthusiast.
Particular cultural love for Card Games, Comics (french-belgian style and mangas), Cinema & Heavy Metal.
Interested in societal differences from people around world.

Diagnosed with intellectual giftedness and hyperlexia; non-racist, non-sexist, non-xenophobic, encourage diversity; do not smoke, do not drink alcohol, do not do drugs

Get in touch

  • Email

    aurelien.nicoleau @ gmail.com
    aurelien.nicoleau @ piwag.com