About Me

Jelle van der Zwaard

I have over 7 years of professional experience. These years have been fueled by a constant and consistent drive to learn and improve my personal skills. Over the years, I have grown into a Game Designer with strong technical skills and the ability to approach Game Design problems in a technical and abstract way.

(Casual) Market Research

(Casual) Market Research

Design Tools, Research
IAP Value Research

IAP Value Research

Research
Renovation Meta Balancing Sheet

Renovation Meta Balancing Sheet

Design Sheets, Design Tools
Economy Simulation Tool

Economy Simulation Tool

Design Tools
Level Performance Sheet

Level Performance Sheet

Design Sheets, Design Tools
Level Design Balancing Sheet

Level Design Balancing Sheet

Design Sheets, Design Tools

Resume

Profile

  • Full NameJelle van der Zwaard
  • Date of Birth26/10/1990
  • NationalityDutch
  • CityOlhos de Agua
  • CountryPortugal
  • LanguagesDutch (Native), English (Fluent)

Work Experience

Kwalee
Apr 2021 - Current

Senior Game Designer

(Hybrid) Casual Games

  • Establish Game Design Vision & Direction
  • Generalist Game Design (Levels, Economy, Balancing, Features, Systems, Gameplay / Game Feel)

Dream Build Solitaire  (iOS / Android)

  • Managed a team of designers, assisted with hiring and onboarding
  • Oversaw game direction, vision, and design strategy
  • Developed design processes for gameplay features and mechanics
  • Balancing & tuning for an optimal game experience
  • Createad & maintained comprehensive design documentation on Confluence

April 2021

Chimpworks
Oct 2017 - Apr 2021

Game Designer & Product Owner

  • Realising games from ideation to MVP, all the way to final release / sunset
  • Manage a (growing) team of Artists and Programmers
  • Analyse data and KPIs to reach stakeholder goals
  • Managed the game projects to reach stakeholder deadlines
  • Owned Game Design vision and direction

Games I worked on

  • Heroes Battle (iOS)
  • Shoot N Loot (iOS)
  • Jungle Jumpers! (iOS)
  • Jelly Merger (iOS)
  • Car Merger (iOS)

And countless prototypes and concepts that did not make it past that initial stage and were sunset.

October 2017

Sword GC
Jan 2016 - Jan 2018

Co-founder / Game Designer / Unity Developer

Worked on and released a Mobile game called Dinky Diver. Worked on a Steam Greenlit title called Basher Beatdown following a successful GGJ.

Main Responsibilities

  • Company administration
  • Managing the project
  • Designing and implementing Core Gameplay
  • Support Art with any tooling they need
  • Handling Game Feel
  • Designing the UI / UX in collaboration with Art

Education

Breda University of Applied Sciences
2013-2017

Indie Game Development

This study focussed on all aspects of Game Development and as a result turned me into a generalist with a specialization in Game Design and Programming.

Hogeschool Rotterdam
2010-2013

Computer Science

This study focused on a variety of different technologies and covered courses from Java Programming to Cisco networking.

Design Skills

Ideation

Prototyping

Gameplay

Balancing

Economy

Feature

System

Monetisation

Documentation

Strengths

  • Adaptable
  • Responsible
  • Teamplayer
  • Ownership
  • Ambitious
  • Social
  • Creative
  • Communicative
  • Driven
  • Motivated
  • Independent
  • Passionate

Tools

  • Unity (C#)
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Google Suite
  • Figma
  • Figjam
  • Confluence
  • SourceTree
  • Machinations
  • GameRefinery
  • SensorTower
  • Chat-GPT

My Work

(Casual) Market Research

(Casual) Market Research

Design Tools, Research
IAP Value Research

IAP Value Research

Research
Renovation Meta Balancing Sheet

Renovation Meta Balancing Sheet

Design Sheets, Design Tools
Economy Simulation Tool

Economy Simulation Tool

Design Tools
Level Performance Sheet

Level Performance Sheet

Design Sheets, Design Tools
Level Design Balancing Sheet

Level Design Balancing Sheet

Design Sheets, Design Tools

My Games

Dream Build Solitaire

A Casual Tri-peaks Solitaire title. I joined the project early on and got the chance to shape it entirely. Created a full GDD including feature set, player journey, monetisation and more. Recently left the project to work on Hybridcasual games.

Shoot N Loot

An Archero & Borderlands inspired lootshooter. Had some initial success as the game released in the wake of Archero. The success was temporary and due to KPI's dropping, the game had to be sunset.

iOS

Jelly Merger

A merging title I worked on. Realized the game from initial concept all the way through to its launch. It was initially published by Ketchapp, unfortunately the game was not a success, CPI did not work out.

iOS

Sunsets

I have worked on a large number of games in a variety of different phases. A lot of these games did not get a chance to see the light of day. Some did, but are already removed from the storefronts.

RIP

Heroes Battle

An auto-chess inspired hero collecting RPG. I joined the project mid-development and was tasked to experiment and increase the amount of depth the game had, on top of balancing the existing experience. Unfortunately the project was sunset shortly after.

iOS

Jungle Jumpers!

A merging title I worked on. Realised the game from concept all the way through to its sunset. Had fantastic retention but the CPI was not workable.

iOS

Car Merger

A merging title I worked on. Realized the game from initial concept all the way through to its launch. Fulfilled Game Design and Unity Developer role. It was initially published by Voodoo.

iOS