Lauren Salk
Lead UI/UX Designer & Design Systems Specialist
Co-Founder of Black Heart Games
Designing scalable systems, shipping live products, and bridging UX, engineering, and art.
Home
About
Art
Lauren Salk’s
Portfolio
Some highlights from my UI/UX Career
UX Case Studies
Check out my case studies of some UX challenges I’ve brought from ideation to completion, as well as some in-game interfaces that I’ve designed and implemented. I have worked extensively on solving the design, info architecture, layouts, and looks for features, HUDs, menus, full games, apps, and tools.
In this section, I offer a deep dive into my end-to-end process.
CASE STUDY
Feature UX - Designing a New Gacha Vertical in a Complex Strategy Game
The addition of the complex “Heroes” feature in Game of Thrones: Conquest: adding a gacha mechanic to a top-grossing live mobile RTS game.
Wireframes
Design Docs
Process
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
iCasino Games - A Comprehensive, Scalable Design System for 10 genres and 50+ Games.
A design system to support several genres (Slots, Cards, Casual, Promo, and more) while supporting a universal flow, brand, architecture, and more. See my process for delivering consistency across a challenging team workflow.
Design System
Wireframes
Design Docs
Process
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
PlinkIdle - Scaling Indie Game Systems to Boost the Fun
How I worked through and directed end-to-end UI/UX, art, and design on a lean indie game.
Art
UI
UX
Game Design
Implementation
End-to-End
And more...
View Design Case Study
CASE STUDY
Live Ops Tool Design
Creating a Live Ops dev tool for scheduling thousands of live events per month.
UXR
Wireframes
Prototyping
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
Product Design: A Social Casino App
A top-to-bottom product design framework (research, art, and UX) for a mobile social casino app pitch.
Competitor Analysis
Wireframes
UI Art
Gamification
Product Design
View Case Study
Visual Art & Design
Professionally, I do high fidelity UI to support my UX Design work, adding visual layers and prototypes to Wireframes. I do pixel art and illustration as well (for my indie work, and for fun.) I work digitally now, but I did a lot of pen and ink and painting back in the day.
View Full Art Portfolio
Games I’ve launched since 2008.
Shipped Titles
I’ve been a professional UI/UX Designer on several games, as well as a Game Content and Narrative Designer. I’m proud to have contributed design work to Lord of the Rings Online, Game of Thrones Conquest, and many, many more.
Casual Games Suite for PENN Game Studios
2022-2026: Lead UI/UX Design for an enormous iCasino games suite, systems for casual games, slots, cards, etc.
PENN Play Site
Game of Thrones: Conquest
2019-2022: Lead UI/UX Design for a top-grossing mobile Real Time Strategy game.
GOTC Site
Messy Hearts
2026: Solo dev for a cozy, pixel art, slice-of-life, memoir-style visual novel.
MH Website
Lord of the Rings Online
2008-2015: Content Design for an MMORPG - Narrative and gameplay design and implementation. Tutorial design, FTUE design, festivals, and regional gameplay.
LOTRO Site
Star Trek: Timelines
2016-2017: Mobile Gacha UI/UX Design.
Google Play Store
Venture Valley
2018: Sole UI Artist & UX Designer for an educational strategy finance simulator for a client.
Fandom Wiki
The Walking Dead - March to War
2017: Mobile RTS UI/UX Design for numerous features - combat, character collection, menus, and more.
Venture Valley Site
In 2024, I co-founded Black Heart Games.
Indie Games
Most recently, I’ve been making a lot of indie games alongside my cofounder Dave and our awesome team at Black Heart Games.
Play the PlinkIdle Demo on Steam.
PlinkIdle is a retro-inspired game with an idle/incremental spin on a classic ball drop mechanic. Falling balls, rare buffs, and steady upgrades unlock colorful, cozy stages and immersive environments.
Available: 2026
Wishlist on Steam
Play Messy Hearts on Steam.
In this retro-inspired, pixel art, cozy visual novel, a workplace friendship begins to unravel.
FREE
Play on Steam
Play Rombo on itch.io (Vertical Slice).
A cozy sandbox adventure about a resourceful little robot on an alien planet. A little robot named Rombo is working hard to maintain an empty human colony on an alien planet.
Street Cleaning Day: Rat’s Revenge on itch.io (Game Jam).
In "Street Cleaning Day: Rat's Revenge," players immerse themselves in a silly world of retro-inspired 2D pixel art, where a courageous rat takes on the challenge of defending the streets against the soapy minions of a Street Cleaner.
Play on Itch.io
Home
About
Art
Lauren Salk’s Portfolio
Lauren Salk
Lead UI/UX Designer & Design Systems Specialist
Co-Founder of Black Heart Games
Designing scalable systems, shipping live products, and bridging UX, engineering, and art.
Some highlights from my UI/UX Career
UX Case Studies
Check out my case studies of some UX challenges I’ve brought from ideation to completion, as well as some in-game interfaces that I’ve designed and implemented. I have worked extensively on solving the design, info architecture, layouts, and looks for features, HUDs, menus, full games, apps, and tools.
In this section, I offer a deep dive into my end-to-end process.
CASE STUDY
Feature UX - Designing a New Gacha Vertical in a Complex Strategy Game
The addition of the complex “Heroes” feature in Game of Thrones: Conquest: adding a gacha mechanic to a top-grossing live mobile RTS game.
Wireframes
Design Docs
Process
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
iCasino Games - A Comprehensive, Scalable Design System for 10 genres and 50+ Games.
A design system to support several genres (Slots, Cards, Casual, Promo, and more) while supporting a universal flow, brand, architecture, and more. See my process for delivering consistency across a challenging team workflow.
Design System
Wireframes
Design Docs
Process
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
PlinkIdle - Scaling Indie Game Systems to Boost the Fun
How I worked through and directed end-to-end UI/UX, art, and design on a lean indie game.
Art
UI
UX
Game Design
Implementation
End-to-End
And more...
View Design Case Study
CASE STUDY
Live Ops Tool Design
Creating a Live Ops dev tool for scheduling thousands of live events per month.
UXR
Wireframes
Prototyping
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
Product Design: A Social Casino App
A top-to-bottom product design framework (research, art, and UX) for a mobile social casino app pitch.
Competitor Analysis
Wireframes
UI Art
Gamification
Product Design
View Case Study
Visual Art & Design
Professionally, I do high fidelity UI to support my UX Design work, adding visual layers and prototypes to Wireframes. I do pixel art and illustration as well (for my indie work, and for fun.) I work digitally now, but I did a lot of pen and ink and painting back in the day.
View Full Art Portfolio
Games I’ve launched since 2008.
Shipped Titles
I’ve been a professional UI/UX Designer on several games, as well as a Game Content and Narrative Designer. I’m proud to have contributed design work to Lord of the Rings Online, Game of Thrones Conquest, and many, many more.
Casual Games Suite for PENN Game Studios
2022-2026: Lead UI/UX Design for an enormous iCasino games suite, systems for casual games, slots, cards, etc.
PENN Play Site
Game of Thrones: Conquest
2019-2022: Lead UI/UX Design for a top-grossing mobile Real Time Strategy game.
GOTC Site
Messy Hearts
2026: Solo dev for a cozy, pixel art, slice-of-life, memoir-style visual novel.
MH Website
Lord of the Rings Online
2008-2015: Content Design for an MMORPG - Narrative and gameplay design and implementation. Tutorial design, FTUE design, festivals, and regional gameplay.
LOTRO Site
Star Trek: Timelines
2016-2017: Mobile Gacha UI/UX Design.
Google Play Store
Venture Valley
2018: Sole UI Artist & UX Designer for an educational strategy finance simulator for a client.
Fandom Wiki
The Walking Dead - March to War
2017: Mobile RTS UI/UX Design for numerous features - combat, character collection, menus, and more.
Venture Valley Site
In 2024, I co-founded Black Heart Games.
Indie Games
Most recently, I’ve been making a lot of indie games alongside my cofounder Dave and our awesome team at Black Heart Games.
Play the PlinkIdle Demo on Steam.
PlinkIdle is a retro-inspired game with an idle/incremental spin on a classic ball drop mechanic. Falling balls, rare buffs, and steady upgrades unlock colorful, cozy stages and immersive environments.
Available: 2026
Wishlist on Steam
Play Messy Hearts Volumes 1 & 2 on Steam.
In this retro-inspired, pixel art, cozy visual novel, a workplace friendship begins to unravel.
FREE
Play on Steam
Play Rombo on itch.io (Vertical Slice).
A cozy sandbox adventure about a resourceful little robot on an alien planet. A little robot named Rombo is working hard to maintain an empty human colony on an alien planet.
Street Cleaning Day: Rat’s Revenge on itch.io (Game Jam).
In "Street Cleaning Day: Rat's Revenge," players immerse themselves in a silly world of retro-inspired 2D pixel art, where a courageous rat takes on the challenge of defending the streets against the soapy minions of a Street Cleaner.
Play on Itch.io
Home
About
Art
Lauren Salk’s Portfolio
Lauren Salk
Lead UI/UX Designer & Design Systems Specialist
Co-Founder of Black Heart Games
Designing scalable systems, shipping live products, and bridging UX, engineering, and art.
Some highlights from my UI/UX Career
UX Case Studies
Check out my case studies of some UX challenges I’ve brought from ideation to completion, as well as some in-game interfaces that I’ve designed and implemented. I have worked extensively on solving the design, info architecture, layouts, and looks for features, HUDs, menus, full games, apps, and tools.
In this section, I offer a deep dive into my end-to-end process.
CASE STUDY
Feature UX - Designing a New Gacha Vertical in a Complex Strategy Game
The addition of the complex “Heroes” feature in Game of Thrones: Conquest: adding a gacha mechanic to a top-grossing live mobile RTS game.
Wireframes
Design Docs
Process
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
iCasino Games - A Comprehensive, Scalable Design System for 10 genres and 50+ Games.
A design system to support several genres (Slots, Cards, Casual, Promo, and more) while supporting a universal flow, brand, architecture, and more. See my process for delivering consistency across a challenging team workflow.
Design System
Wireframes
Design Docs
Process
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
PlinkIdle - Scaling Indie Game Systems to Boost the Fun
How I worked through and directed end-to-end UI/UX, art, and design on a lean indie game.
Art
UI
UX
Game Design
Implementation
End-to-End
And more...
View Design Case Study
CASE STUDY
Live Ops Tool Design
Creating a Live Ops dev tool for scheduling thousands of live events per month.
UXR
Wireframes
Prototyping
View UX Case Study
CASE STUDY
Product Design: A Social Casino App
A top-to-bottom product design framework (research, art, and UX) for a mobile social casino app pitch.
Competitor Analysis
Wireframes
UI Art
Gamification
Product Design
View Case Study
Visual Art & Design
Professionally, I do high fidelity UI to support my UX Design work, adding visual layers and prototypes to Wireframes. I do pixel art and illustration as well (for my indie work, and for fun.) I work digitally now, but I did a lot of pen and ink and painting back in the day.
View Full Art Portfolio
Games I’ve launched since 2008.
Shipped Titles
I’ve been a professional UI/UX Designer on several games, as well as a Game Content and Narrative Designer. I’m proud to have contributed design work to Lord of the Rings Online, Game of Thrones Conquest, and many, many more.
Casual Games Suite for PENN Game Studios
2022-2026: Lead UI/UX Design for an enormous iCasino games suite, systems for casual games, slots, cards, etc.
PENN Play Site
Game of Thrones: Conquest
2019-2022: Lead UI/UX Design for a top-grossing mobile Real Time Strategy game.
GOTC Site
Messy Hearts
2026: Solo dev for a cozy, pixel art, slice-of-life, memoir-style visual novel.
Messy Hearts Website
Lord of the Rings Online
2008-2015: Content Design for an MMORPG - Narrative and gameplay design and implementation. Tutorial design, FTUE design, festivals, and regional gameplay.
LOTRO Site
Star Trek: Timelines
2016-2017: Mobile Gacha UI/UX Design.
Google Play Store
Venture Valley
2018: Sole UI Artist & UX Designer for an educational strategy finance simulator for a client.
Fandom Wiki
The Walking Dead - March to War
2017: Mobile RTS UI/UX Design for numerous features - combat, character collection, menus, and more.
Venture Valley Site
In 2024, I co-founded Black Heart Games.
Indie Games
Most recently, I’ve been making a lot of indie games alongside my cofounder Dave and our awesome team at Black Heart Games.
Play the PlinkIdle Demo on Steam.
PlinkIdle is a retro-inspired game with an idle/incremental spin on a classic ball drop mechanic. Falling balls, rare buffs, and steady upgrades unlock colorful, cozy stages and immersive environments.
Available: 2026
Wishlist on Steam
Play Messy Hearts Volumes 1 & 2 on Steam.
In this retro-inspired, pixel art, cozy visual novel, a workplace friendship begins to unravel.
FREE
Play on Steam
Play Rombo on itch.io (Vertical Slice).
A cozy sandbox adventure about a resourceful little robot on an alien planet. A little robot named Rombo is working hard to maintain an empty human colony on an alien planet.
Street Cleaning Day: Rat’s Revenge on itch.io (Game Jam).
In "Street Cleaning Day: Rat's Revenge," players immerse themselves in a silly world of retro-inspired 2D pixel art, where a courageous rat takes on the challenge of defending the streets against the soapy minions of a Street Cleaner.
Play on Itch.io