Professional Projects
Company: Electronic Arts.
Responsibilities: Game Design.
Description: Plants vs Zombies Match (PvZ Match) is a spin off match 3 puzzle game on the classic tower defence game Plants vs Zombies (PvZ).
What I’m proud of: As the sole game designer in the team I lead all the big initiatives like the zombie levels, down to the nitty gritty details of the feeling of swiping and matching tiles. I am proud of creating a lot with little and making a good match 3 game.
Company: Electronic Arts.
Responsibilities: Game Design, Product Owner.
Description: Together with EAs AI and machine learning team SEED. We designed a tool that can generate new match 3 levels and bots that can validate the levels.
What I’m proud of: Driving a big initiative with bleeding edge AI technology that lead to a since paper I am featured in!
Company: Flarie.
Responsibilities: Game Design - Scripting.
Description: Tap the screen to bounce over obstacles and bounce on coins to get more points! Bounce is a hyper causal arcade game I made for the app Flarie.
What I’m proud of: Publishing a game & scripting complex features.
Company: Lexter.
Responsibilities: Scripting - System Design.
Description: This is walkthrough of a VR experience created for the Oculus Rift headset. It shows the interior of the beautiful ancient stone church of Vaxholm and all the sounds that can be there.
What I’m proud of: Working with VR in a professional setting. Working with sound systems and audio design.
Personal Projects
Responsibilities: Game Design - Level Design - Scripting.
Description: This is a first person puzzle game, inspired by the game Portal. Instead of portals Colore have match-three in 3D!
What I’m proud of: Complex puzzle design & technical solutions/implementations.
Responsibilities: Game Design - Level Design - Project Management.
Description: First person mystery puzzle game set in a 1890’s Victorian manor filled with clever riddles and mindboggling puzzles.
What I’m proud of: Creating a believable environment & guiding the team in the right direction.
Responsibilities: Scripting - System Design
Description: The VR game Uprising takes place in a futuristic Stockholm suburb, where you play as a rebel who is infiltrating a large corporation!
What I’m proud of: Working in a big group project, 15 designers and 23 artists
About me
Game Designer
Located in Stockholm, Sweden.
Current employed at Electronic Arts. Four years.
theo.d.tolstoy@gmail.com
Right now I am working at EA - TrackTwenty, (the studio that is making Sim City Build It!) as a Game Designer in a small but very diverse team in terms of nationalities! I have worked here for 4 years on a Plants vs Zombie Match 3 Game.
As the only game designer in the team I work on all designs, UX, Technical, System and Level Design. I am the owner of design specifications GDD, decks etc. And every now and then because the team is so small I dip my toes into other disciplines to fill gaps. Like making animations, though very rough.
Before EA I have made hyper-casual mobile games for Flarie a Swedish mobile game platform. I also worked with Lexter, a sound design company, to create a spatial VR experience. I released a game on the hyper casual platform Flarie called Bounce!
I moved up north for a while where I started a journey in carpentry. I studied how to restore old houses and furniture design for a year. I learned how to build a log cabin, about different trees and their characteristics, how to build furniture without nails and screws. When renovating or building an old house you need to do thorough research. When was it built and who built it, what tools and wood did they use and for whom was it built for. I bring this perspective with me in my game projects, it is about doing the research right when creating the space the player will spend their precious time in.
For many years I worked as a clerk at a service point, where I had to juggle many tasks at the same time. I learned to quickly read people, how they feel and what they want. I learned about teamwork and what service really means. The experience I got during my time in the service industry have been invaluable in my game projects and when just working with people in general.
