IMG_EXF-01 — SPLASH ART
Exfil
Bringing extraction shooters to mobile
Exfil took the extraction shooter genre (the tension of high-stakes raids and escape popularized by games like Escape From Tarkov) and rebuilt it for a mobile audience. Real-time multiplayer twin-stick combat and extraction mechanics were paired with monetization design built specifically for the genre's risk-and-reward loop.
The project sat at the intersection of two of my core specializations: adapting a hardcore PC/console genre into something a mobile audience could actually pick up and play, and designing a monetization system smart enough to support that loop without breaking it.
Three design bets that had to land together
Genre Casualization
Extraction shooters like Escape From Tarkov are built for players willing to sit with complexity: deep inventory management, punishing loadouts, long learning curves. None of that survives a straight port to mobile. The design challenge was figuring out which parts of the genre's tension were essential (the risk of losing everything on a bad run, the relief of a clean extraction) and which parts were just PC-native friction that mobile players would bounce off.
That meant rebuilding controls around a twin-stick scheme suited to touch input, trimming the inventory and preparation loop down to something readable in seconds rather than minutes, and keeping session length short enough for mobile play patterns without losing the core loop's stakes.
Real-Time Multiplayer
A lot of mobile games solve for network unpredictability by going asynchronous. Exfil didn't take that route: the tension of the extraction genre depends on knowing another real player is in the same space as you, right now, and might already be watching. Going real-time meant taking on the technical and design complexity of live multiplayer on mobile networks rather than the easier async alternative.
That decision shaped everything downstream: matchmaking had to account for mobile connection variability, encounters had to resolve fast enough to feel fair on inconsistent latency, and the map/session design had to keep real players crossing paths often enough that the "someone else is out there" tension stayed real.
Monetization Design
Extraction games already have a built-in monetization hook: the fear of loss. Die on a raid and you lose what you brought in; extract successfully and you keep it. The monetization design leaned into that structure directly instead of bolting on a generic mobile gacha or energy system that would have fought against the genre's core tension.
The result was a system built around gearing up for a raid and insuring against loss, rather than around timers or paywalls: monetization that made sense within the fiction of the genre instead of interrupting it.