Dmitrii Sapelkin

Ropgränd 78, 18742 Täby, Stockholms Län, Sweden

+46 73 630 4628

dsapelkin@gmail.com 

Portfolio: https://dimage.sharkrazor.net/en/portfolio/

Curriculum Vitae

Experienced LEAD GAME DESIGNER with a deep understanding of game development and a passion for creating great player experiences. Interested in a position where honed creativity, strong communication, leadership, and problem solving skills, as well as clear design vision from high level down to minor details are demanded.

• In game industry since 2005, in all aspects of game design and production, including the roles of lead game designer, creative director, associate producer, and product owner
• Over a dozen published titles, including F2P, premium, freemium games in many genres: action, shooter, brain trainer, strategy, puzzle, hidden object – for PC, social, consoles, handheld, web, and mobile platforms
• Well-developed ability to quickly identify the root of a problem, propose a solution, formulate a task in a neat and clear way, and to achieve a sound implementation. In an uncertain situation, to work out a concrete solution and well-defined next steps with specific estimations
• Strong background in software development and QA prior to working in the game industry

Key skills

• Game design: mechanics, documentation, balance, level design, content design, scripting, everything else
• Free to play games: data-driven design and maintenance of monetization, virality, retention
• Product management, team leadership
• Communication with the team, executives, clients, and third parties, including remote and on-site work
• Data mining and analysis
• Brainstorming, game prototyping and playtesting
• UX design, prototyping of interfaces and controls
• Gamification

Work experience

2023-2024:        Kwalee.com        Lead Game Designer

• Led the design of the company’s flagship casual game: Dream Build Solitaire
• Joined the team as a senior economy designer, was soon promoted to lead game designer
• Designed the game economy model and several key features; improved the player experience in several ways
• Continuously improved the design team’s process and approach
• Used the development skill to master C#, improved and created tools used by the game and level designers

2022:        King.com        Senior Game Designer (contractor)

• Contributed to the design of one of the company’s flagship games: Candy Crush Soda Saga
• Generated and refined new social, competitive game feature designs in close collaboration with several teams
• Driven the game design for a new competitive game feature; used data-driven approach to perfect its balance

2017-2022:        Adventure Box Technology        Senior Game Designer, Product Owner

• Driven the product — voxel game platform that allows to easily make, publish, and play games in the browser
• Driven the game design: monetization, metagame, gameplay improvements, UI/UX design, game balance
• Designed a custom game logic (rules) system
• Reinforced data-driven approach by data mining and analysis (deltaDNA, Google Analytics)
• Taught game design principles to the team of people mostly coming from outside the game industry
• Refined the product quality by providing the test plans, reporting and prioritizing issues, competitor analysis
• Added a few user-facing features with minor code contributions (JavaScript)

2015:        Electronic Arts St. Petersburg        Associate Producer

• Driven the development of a mobile/facebook game Scrabble: specs, UX, localization, art direction, triage

2013 - 2015:        Freelance, remote work        Game Design consultant

• Game mechanics and level design for a casual time/resource management game (for Zoom Out Games)
• Design direction, math model/balance for an economic simulation/educational game (for IntEduca company)
• Design and prototyping of 3D sci-fi RTS/builder F2P game for mobile platforms (for Cloudmach company)
• Provided creative direction for a large F2P Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure mobile game (for Signus Labs)
• Contributed to the design of an escape/puzzle game for mobile platforms (for Signus Labs company)

2011 – 2013:        Signus Labs        Creative Director, Lead Game Designer

• Published titles: promo-game for the movie Conan (web), a puzzle game Bubble Ducky (kindle), an online casino Paula Deen’s Play Room (facebook and kindle), Paula Deen’s Food for Thought (kindle)
• Key role in concept creation, communication with customers, design documentation and content design
• Internal corporate gamification design, gamification designs for customers

2009 – 2011:        Oberon Media/I-Play        Lead Game Designer

• Published titles: Bubble Town Party Planet — facebook; a social puzzle game (bubble popping), Agatha Christie: 4:50 from Paddington — PC; downloadable hidden object game, Agatha Christie: Dead Man’s Folly — PC; downloadable hidden object game, Treasures of the Serengeti — PC; downloadable puzzle game with original mechanic
• Designed all aspects of the games, including data gathering and performance improvements, original game mechanics, user interfaces, story, level design, mini-games
• Driven the design while working with a remote team in Belarus and a remote producer in the USA
• Designed a number of original concepts and some game prototypes for the company

2007 – 2008:        Fireglow Games        Game Designer

• Contributed designs to published titles: Plumeboom Park (casual puzzle/strategy game), Sudden Strike 3: (hardcore 3D real time strategy)
• Created an original and appealing puzzle game concept that inspired the team

• Driven the game design from specs to parameter tuning, teamwork coordination, and playtesting
• Designed game missions for the strategy game
• Introduced many improvements to gameplay, GUI, controls, AI behavior, and key improvements to the usability of the mission editor included with the game package

2005 – 2007:        Creat Studios, Inc.        Game Designer

• Designed all aspects of game, including concept, documentation, prototyping, content design, controls, camera tuning, mission and level design, game balance and economy for console and PC games:
• Achieved the highest ratings on the gaming sites among the company’s other titles of the time
• Created a number of original game concepts.

Before 2005:        Alcor Paycash, software developer (Delphi, C++, PHP, SQL) and QA lead (Paycash is an internet payment technology that is now used in YooMoney and MOBI.money)

Education:        CAD engineer diploma (2000)

SPbSETU «LETI» (St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University)

Trainings and courses:

Drama for screenplay writing,        Basic 3D modeling using Maya,        Cinema direction. Basics of independent production

Languages:

Russian – native speaker        English – speak and write fluently        Swedish – basic

Citizenship:        Sweden