FAQ 🙋
Hey hey! I'm Jakob, an
👤 Who am I?
Award-Winning
and
Award-Nominated
Gameplay & Systems Designer
currently studying at Futuregames Stockholm. I'm from Sweden and speak Swedish, English & Spanish.
📝 What type of work & design?
As a designer, I love using gameplay and player decisions to evoke emotions, especially through gameplay loops, encounters, and progression. For example, to build feelings of tension, surprise, power, or calm. I am also into cross-disciplinary problem-solving and the creative cross-pollination that arises in that collaboration.
🎮 What type of games?
While I enjoy working on all types of games, I especially love working on atmospheric and moody games with interesting narratives.
💖 Why game design?
I love creating experiences. For me, it's a great way to empathize and connect with others. Games have always played a big role in my life and relationships, and game developers are some of the most creative, authentic, and energizing people there is, so being able to create something together with them is absolutely dope!
🕐 What's my background?
I have been programming on-and-off in various languages for over 10 years, starting in Unity around 2009. I have an MBA and several years of professional experience in Marketing and Business Intelligence. You can read more about my marketing experience and what got me in and out of it here.
🙋♂️ What do I want?
I'm looking for a Game Design Internship around May 19th – Dec 26th, or a Junior Design position. I'm open for opportunities outside of Sweden as well. Hit me up if you know of an interesting match!
^ Me 👸
💻 What's my programming experience?
I have been coding and programming on and off for 10+ years, encompassing everything from game development, software development, information systems, and machine learning. My most familiar languages are Python and C#. I have studied courses and programmed at work, but I am mainly self-taught. My skills are not at a professional programmer level, but I have a good object-oriented foundation, am versatile, and can get into new languages and tools quickly.
🙋♂️ Why all the lead roles in the portfolio?
I'm interested in production and care a lot about the team's well-being and the player experience. I am also experienced in several disciplines and am good at keeping both a holistic and focused perspective. As a result, I have thrived and contributed much in lead roles. In some projects, I volunteered for them, and in others, I was appointed by the team. Nonetheless, I am a designer at heart, not a manager, and that's where I thrive the best.
💻 Tools & Engines Proficiencies
🗣️ Languages
Swedish
English
Spanish
Design Achievements✨
🏆 Nominated for Best Design at the Swedish Game Awards 2024 with Fear of the Light. Top three among 100+ games.
🥇 Winner of Best Tech at the Futuregames Awards 2024 with Fear of the Light among 60 games.
⭐ Nominated for Best Design, Judges' Choice, and Best Tech at the Futuregames Awards 2023 with Atomancer. Top four among 38 games. Also nominated for Best Tech once again at FutureGames Awards 2024.
Shipped and released Fear of the Light on Steam in Nov 2024.
Cinematic trailer for Fear of the Light.
Interests 💖
Here are some of my biggest interests, aside from game design and development:
My Favorite Things 🥰
If I'd had to pick, here are some of my favorite things right now:
Design Philosophy 🤔
👸 Player-centered
University Name
Making games that provide meaningful experiences to players' lives....
💘 Meaningful experiences
to players are successful experiences to a business.
This is your Education description. Concisely describe your degree and any other highlights of your studies. Make sure to include relevant skills, accomplishments, and milestones gained. Don’t forget to adjust the timeframe in the subtitle.
✅ QA & iteration
are key to making quality games that connect with a lot of people.
Basically all potential issues with a game experience can be identified through testing and playtesting. QA and iterations are the keys to creating quality games that immerse and deliver value to players.
👪 Together
we can create experiences that are more powerful and connect with more people than we would on our own.
As individuals, we can create amazing experiences, but I've found that if we want to create something that truly resonate with more people and deliver on our intentions, it's even better to create something with others. Together, we can create something that's larger than the sum of its parts.
1️⃣ K.I.S.A.T.S.
Keep It Simple And Test Stupid
It's easy to over-complicate things and get stuck arguing about hypothetical issues. Sometimes, the most efficient way to progress is to start as simple as possible and test things to see if the hypothetical concerns are even issues or not. We can then more complexity later if there's need for it.
😇 Intentions-centered dialogue
is efficient for resolving conflicts and arguments.
Arguments tend to focus on actions and problems, which easily makes people misunderstand or miss each other's intentions. Many times, arguments get stuck because people misunderstand each others intentions even though they're actually aligned. Focusing on communicating and clarifying intentions is usually more productive.
🧑🏫 Onboarding-first
design ensures that the experience comes together.
It's good to work on the onboarding as early as possible, and in an order that makes sense for the experience. If the fundamentals don't work and players get confused, it will compromise the rest of the experience.