Thomas S.

Thomas S.

Senior Game Designer

São Paulo, Brazil
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About Me

Thomas is a Senior Game Designer with expertise in game development - combining the power of technology and creative vision to create experiences/solutions for mobile freemium, PC and VR Games. He is a die-hard advocate for player experience - creating quality, thematic content and features and producing solutions to balance new game features that drive engagement, retention and monetization on projects.

Work history

UpStack
UpStack
Senior Game Designer
2021 - Present (3 years)
Remote
  • Creating and developing innovative software solutions for clients across a broad range of industries.

  • Participate in scrums consisting of cross-functional teams, both software and hardware.

  • Ensure that features are being delivered efficiently and on-time.

LaBird Games
LaBird Games
Lead Game Designer
2020 - 2021 (1 year)
Brazil
  • Led processes to maintain the overall game feel and defined the systems and standards on the project.

  • Acted as a point of contact for game design issues on projects.

  • Identified and implemented new gaming trends, techniques, and processes for monetization and game economy design.

Dreams on Demand
Dreams on Demand
Game Development Consultant
2020 - Present (4 years)
Remote
  • Design, develop and implement software components and produce prototypes of gameplay ideas and features on solutions.

  • Document solutions for deeply technical and high-level projects - generating game scripts and storyboards on solutions.

  • Translate design specifications on projects into functional games - developing new frameworks to facilitate developments and deliver solutions.

Escola Rivers
Escola Rivers
Game Design Professor
2019 - Present (5 years)
Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Monitor student comments and chats - answering technical questions relating to game design, development and implementation.

  • Facilitate lesson plans and curriculum development in asynchronous, synchronous and blended eLearning modes for course delivery.

  • Manage course delivery, track student work, and organize in-class activities and projects on the course.

Skullfish Studios
Skullfish Studios
Lead Game Designer
2017 - 2018 (1 year)
Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Worked on game content, gameplay, and progression systems on Lila's Tale and Lila's Tale: Stealth games.

  • Created and maintained design templates and guided change through research and live game data.

  • Wrote and maintained specification design and level design documents for the games - contributing to modifications.

Oktagon Games
Oktagon Games
Senior Game Designer
2017 - 2019 (2 years)
Brazil
  • Took ownership of game systems and features from design to shipping - chipping in design ideas and knowledge for the team.

  • Evolved design needs, prototyped interesting game solutions and set down implementation guidelines and best practices on projects.

  • Created and maintained design templates on solutions - delivering high-quality features and content.

VR Monkey
VR Monkey
Senior Game Designer
2016 - 2017 (1 year)
Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Drove the design and enhancement of new and existing game features and systems to improve and extend the performance of games.

  • Prototyped, implemented, and balanced system variables to create entertaining VR gameplay experiences for players.

  • Designed solutions to ensure quality throughout the game lifecycle of VR games.

Dreams on Demand
Dreams on Demand
Game Designer / Producer
2013 - 2014 (1 year)
Brazil
  • Designed and implemented gameplay systems and features for the client consistent with project goals and tenets.

  • Validated gameplay hypotheses and storyboards through rapid prototyping and team feedback to eliminate unplanned technical debt.

  • Made gameplay inventions flavorful to players without compromising game function and health.

Oktagon Games
Oktagon Games
QA Engineer
2013 - 2013
Londrina, Brazil
  • Participated in all game testing sessions - tracking feedback and results to improve overall gameplay on Armies and Ants.

  • Documented all gameplay and game testing needs on the project.

  • Identified product defects and issues on the project - recommending solutions to increase playability for end customers.

Overtime Studios
Overtime Studios
Lead Game Designer / Producer
2013 - 2020 (7 years)
Brazil
  • Transformed ideas into concepts on projects - creating gameplay systems with improved UX, engagement and monetization features.

  • Worked with product leads to implement design concepts in creating level layouts feature documentation for new games and content.

  • Solved challenging and complex issues on projects - prototyping design ideas in-game and iterating through playtesting.

Best, Cool & Fun Games
Best, Cool & Fun Games
Game Designer
2012 - 2012
Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Delivered on the client's game vision - maintaining all design aspects through the project lifecycle using industry standards.

  • Developed concepts, wrote detailed functional specs, and implemented new features on games.

  • Built and implemented new features using Best, Cool & Fun's design specs and creative quality needs.

Glu Mobile
Glu Mobile
Level Designer / QA Engineer
2010 - 2011 (1 year)
Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Produced tools to enable designers and artists to prototype, experiment, and refine new gameplay features on games.

  • Implemented new game features in conjunction with designers and artists on projects.

  • Debugged and optimized game logic to improve existing game features and performance on solutions.

Portfolio

Senior Game Designer  Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest
Senior Game Designer Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest

Magic Puzzle Quest is a mashup between two franchises (Magic: The Gathering from Wizards of the coast, a massive 30-year-old card game and Puzzle Quest, a successful puzzle game franchise from Steve Fawkner). Worked as a game designer on the project - doing live ops for the game, game systems, content design and game monetization for the project.

Senior Game Design - Idle Star Zoo
Senior Game Design - Idle Star Zoo

Idle Star Zoo is a free to play idle management game where aliens save animals throughout the galaxy and take care of them on a "Space Zoo". Handled the overall game scope for Idle Star Zoo - balancing game systems and monetization on the game. Worked on various roles on the project as a producer, data scientist, marketing strategist and partner communications.

Lead Game Designer - Lila's Tale
Lead Game Designer - Lila's Tale

Designed and developed Lila's Tale games, a VR, PC and AR mobile games - working on game design and level design for the solution. It is a Zelda inspired dungeon crawler game, with the main game designed for VR.

Education

Project Management Lato Sensu (unfinished)
Project Management Lato Sensu (unfinished)
Universidade Católica Dom Bosco
2012 - 2013 (1 year)
Bachelor's Degree in Game Design
Bachelor's Degree in Game Design
Universidade Anhembi Morumbi
2008 - 2011 (3 years)