About me
Hello, I’m Shawn D. Stone
Experienced Game Designer
I am an experienced game designer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have led or contributed to the design on dozens of published games, including games that have sold millions or been played by millions of players.
Residence - Pleasant Hill, CA
Email - sdstone@gmail.com
What Do I Do?
Finding, Making, and Increasing Fun
Games help us express, connect, act out, and feel. I love meeting a project's goals in collaboration with a talented team of developers.
View My ResumeSystems Design
Rules and systems are necessary to provide challenge, interest, structure, and direction to games. I love novel, efficient solutions to extend a player's enjoyment of content.
Mission Design
Progression, variety, story, challenge. There are many aspects that determine effective missions and I love to design and tune them.
Class, Enemy, and Boss Design
I love to design player and environment characters and skills. Cool weapons, equipment, and their related systems are often at the heart of fun games.
Balance
Combat, progression, story, feature unlocking, it all needs to be paced, balanced and tuned. Yay spreadsheets and data!
What Do I Do?
Education and Experiences
My Experience
Senior Game Designer
Echtra Games
Worked on a team formed by some of the Blizzard North founders, created Torchlight 3. Worked on prototype projects and in Unreal 5 on an unannounced 3rd person ARPG.
Game Design II
Electronic Arts (Maxis Emeryville)
Worked with a talented, all-star team on SimCity (2013). Led the design of its first expansion pack and worked on various prototypes.
Senior Game Designer
Blue Fang Games
Game designer on the original Zoo Tycoon, all of its expansion packs, and Zoo Tycoon 2 and nearly all of its expansion packs.
My Education
Bachelor of Arts
University of California, Berkeley
Major in English Literature (emphasis in Medieval Literature), Minor in Education.
Transfer
Solano Community College
Focus on English Literature, matriculated to University.
Design Skills
I am experienced with content and system design as well as game balance.