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Designing a multiplayer poker game from scratch

UI/UX

Interaction Design

Prototyping

Animation

Research

Design Systems

Crypto/Fintech

At a crypto startup, I was the sole product designer tasked with creating a poker game from the ground up. Poker was chosen as a retention driver since it’s one of the most popular casino games worldwide.

TIMELINE

April 2025 - July 2025

TEAM

Engineers
Me as designer

TOOLS

Figma

THE CHALLENGE

The challenge was designing a multiplayer poker game from the ground up, that was engaging and consistent with our brand. It came with three layers of complexity:

Game mechanics - multiplayer actions, betting flows, and countless edge cases.
Crypto integration - deposits, buy-ins, and withdrawals had to be seamless.
Startup speed – designing for scalability without the luxury of time or a mature design system.

THE twist

I had to design a game I didn't even know how to play.

I wasn’t a poker player. My first step was learning the game deeply: how players think, how money flows, and how competitors structured engagement. Approaching poker with a beginner’s mindset let me strip away unnecessary complexity and rebuild the game into something intuitive, fair, and engaging for both crypto-first users and casual players.

research & insights

Learning the game through real players.

To bridge my knowledge gap, I relied on two approaches:

1. Competitor Audit – Played on platforms like Zynga and PokerNow, mapping flows from lobby → buy-in → gameplay → results.
2. User Interviews – Teammates (poker players + crypto users) became my test group. I asked questions like: What breaks your trust? What makes you choose one platform over another?

Initial Key Findings:
1. Players prefer simplicity: clear UI, actions upfront.
2. Animations help clarify game states, but too much feels distracting.
3. Trust is non-negotiable: smooth deposits/withdrawals and fair-feeling results matter most.

Competitor Research

BREAKING IT DOWN

Setting the rules before the first hand.

From research, I defined these project goals.

01 Create a smooth poker flow accessible to new users.

02 Keep UI consistent with brand + existing games

03 Build for easy implementation with engineers.

04 Use animations + micro-interactions to reinforce clarity and delight.

Turning poker's chaos into simple flows.

After immersing myself in the rules of poker, I mocked up the first full iteration of the game flow, from pre-flop to showdown.

The goal wasn’t polish yet, but to translate the rules into something tangible that players and engineers could look through. This early pass got all the core pieces on the table, so I could start validating with poker players for usability and with engineers for feasibility.

Exploring wireframes

1. Mapping the game before drawing the table

I wireframed every stage (pre-flop → flop → turn → river → showdown), mapping player seats, pot visibility, betting flows, and action buttons. To preserve the social side of poker, I layered in buy-ins, waitlists, timers, and even chat/video features.
On mobile, space was tight, so the challenge was scaling flows across devices without overwhelming the screen.
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Early wireframes mapping poker flow and table layout

VISUAL CONSISTENCY

2. Building the missing pieces of a design system

Poker revealed that our platform lacked a real design system. To avoid designing in isolation, I pulled components from existing games, defined new text styles, tokens, and palettes, and built them into reusable components, ensuring poker aligned visually with the rest of the platform.

Defining typography, color tokens, and buttons to ensure visual consistency

GAMEPLay experience

3. Designing the end-to-end flow

I designed the end-to-end gameplay flow, mapping transitions between states: card reveals, betting rounds, player actions, and showdowns. I validated with poker players for usability and with engineers for feasibility, ensuring accuracy and playability across edge cases.

First detailed iteration of the end-to-end gameplay flow

decisions that mattered

Translating player behavior into design choices.

In high-pressure games, every detail influences how players make decisions. To understand this, I observed how experienced players approached the game eg. what buttons they reached for first, how they read timers, and what slowed them down. Using those insights, I iterated on key components and interactions. Here are a few examples:

REFINING PLAYER AVATArs

What should players see first under time pressure?

• Player avatar had to pack seat position, chips, blinds, hand strength, and timers in one glanceable element.
• Initial feedback revealed timers weren’t visible enough → I iterated multiple approaches before finding the right balance between visibility and feasibility.

Iterating on the player timer

Final player avatar designs and components

refining THE BET SLIDER

Players wanted fast actions without losing precision.

I studied how players made betting decisions - whether they relied on preset amounts like BB, sliders for quick adjustments, or custom inputs for exact values.
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Through several iterations, I tested layouts across different platforms and player behaviors. The goal was to find the right balance between efficiency and control, keeping gameplay both fast and satisfying.

Bet slider explorations

BET SLIDER PROTOTYPE

How do you balance speed vs. control in betting?

The final design surfaced BB (big blind) options upfront for faster play, while keeping custom inputs and sliders just one tap away for players who needed precision. Players can raise using quick BB buttons, a slider, or custom input. Whichever method they choose, the main raise button updates in BB so the action is always clear and consistent.

ANIMATIONs & prototypes

Why animations make poker feel real.

My first dive into game motion design:
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Since this was my first time designing a full game, I had to learn not only the rules of poker but also how animation could shape the experience. Early on, I started observing what made other poker games exciting, from the way cards flip onto the table to how chips slide toward the winner. I realized these micro-moments weren’t just visual polish; they were what gave players a sense of fairness, anticipation, and fun.

animating user actions

Animating player actions for clarity

Fold: Cards slide away and the avatar fades, making it instantly clear the player is out without needing labels.
All In: Chips shoot to the pot and the bold “All In” label stands out, to signal high stakes

User goes all in

User Folds

COMMUNITY CARDS REVEAL

Mimicking real-life card play

Poker is as much about anticipation as it is about decisions. To capture that feeling, I experimented with animations that revealed community cards one by one, just like a live dealer would.

Final player avatar designs and components

SHOWDOWN & ROUND RESET

How do you make resets feel fair, fast and natural?

Showdowns are high-stakes moments. I designed micro-animations that make the outcome instantly clear - chips smoothly move to the winner to provide immediate feedback.

For the round reset, I thought carefully about the sequencing of interactions:
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• Dealer label shifts after each round
• Chip movements and direction
• Pacing of card distribution

The goal of these micro-animations were to mirror real-life poker flow with clarity and speed and keep the rhythm of the game engaging, round after round.

Closing the gaps

Designing for the realities of edge cases.

Poker is a game of exceptions: timers expiring, players disconnecting, or chips running out mid-hand. I worked closely with engineers and players to stress-test flows against these edge cases, making sure gameplay stayed fair and functional under pressure. This not only improved usability but also reduced the risk of costly rework late in development.

Designing clarity for rare but critical edge case flows

Hand-off

Translating complexity into clarity for engineers.

After animating and prototyping key flows and edge cases, I consolidated the designs into a detailed, structured handoff. My goal was to ensure engineers could build quickly without ambiguity. I organized flows and edge cases, anticipated dev questions, and designed a poker lobby that balanced simplicity for implementation with the clarity players needed (buy-ins, seating, waitlists).

End-to-end flow with edge cases and lobby design

Testing assumptions and prioritizing for MVP.

Being at an early-stage startup, I had to prioritize what was essential for an MVP. I focused on what players needed most to start playing and trusting the product, while advanced features like stats and history were pushed to Milestone 2. To guide these tradeoffs, I asked players directly: What do you actually need during play? What feels helpful vs. distracting?

After finalizing the MVP, I designed additional features for Milestone 2, things that would enhance players' experiences even further. Example features: table info, hand recap stats, and waitlists

End-to-end flow with edge cases and lobby design

FINAL THOUGHTS

In new domains, rapid learning and feedback are everything.

This project pushed me into unfamiliar territory: designing a game I didn’t even know how to play. I had to speed-learn poker mechanics and animation principles, translating rules and edge cases into experiences that felt clear for players. I learned that in new domains, rapid learning and user feedback matter more than expertise. The best designs came not from me ‘knowing poker,’ but from listening, testing, and iterating fast.

I also gained many skills that I’ll carry into future projects: animating and prototyping to align with engineers, asking better questions, and using constant feedback to refine designs.