SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow • SimCity • Zoo Tycoon 2 • Mechwarrior 3 • Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species • Mechwarrior 3: Pirate's Moon • Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania • The Next Tetris • Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection • Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania • Zoo Tycoon: Dino Digs • Zoo Tycoon • Diva Life • Rat Race • Band of Heroes • Yakuza Lords • Zoo Tycoon 2 • Mechwarrior 3 • Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species • Mechwarrior 3: Pirate's Moon • Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania • The Next Tetris • Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection • Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania • Zoo Tycoon: Dino Digs • Zoo Tycoon • Diva Life • Rat Race • Band of Heroes • Yakuza Lords • Zoo Tycoon 2 • Mechwarrior 3 • Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species • Mechwarrior 3: Pirate's Moon • Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania • The Next Tetris • Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection • Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania • Zoo Tycoon: Dino Digs • Zoo Tycoon • Diva Life • Rat Race • Band of Heroes
The resumé of
Shawn D. Stone
1432 Stonehedge Dr.
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

Click here to contact me regarding this resume.
References and contact information available by request.

Click here for writing and design samples.

Game
Design Experience
Electronic Arts (Maxis)
Game Designer II – San Francisco, CA (05/12 - 03/15)
  • Designed and wrote all missions and tutorials for SimCity
  • Wrote and edited all in-game text
  • Advised localization team and managed localized text for 14 languages
  • Designed several sets of DLC for SimCity
  • Designed systems and content for 3 unreleased games
  • Created Excel-based tools for managing, tuning and visualizing game data
  • Created diagrams to clearly communicate games and features to the team
  • Created clear, concise presentations for games and features
LOLapps, Inc. / 6waves Lolapps
Design Director – San Francisco, CA (08/09 - 04/12)
  • Directed the design of Ravenskye City, a project that peaked at 5 million MAU and 850,000 DAU
  • Managed a team of 5 junior and senior designers
  • Released content for the game consistently on time every week
  • Implemented all manner of assets, handled all aspects of data
  • Created Excel-based tools for creating game data
  • Interacted directly with game communities
Shattered Reality Interactive
Game Designer – San Francisco, CA (01/09 - 08/09)
  • Designed, laid out and built web site for web-based game
  • Used Ruby on Rails to script a dynamic web site
  • Managed art assets for site
  • Balanced item attributes and character abilities for a one-on-one asynchronous combat game
Super-Ego Games
Level Designer – San Francisco, CA (07/07 - 01/09)
  • Scripted multiple episodes of a 3rd person action adventure game
  • Scripted simple object manipulation puzzles using Lua
  • Balanced many AI interactions between entities
  • Created content closely with professional comedy writers, audio designers and artists
  • Maintained database of thousands of lines of speech/text for game
  • Maintained dictionary of phoneme/viseme definitions for lip sync data
Blue Fang Games, LLC
Senior Game Designer – Waltham, MA (06/01 - 07/07)
  • Shipped 8 Zoo Tycoon products in 5 years that have sold a combined total of over 3.6 million units.
  • Coordinated with artists and engineers as design lead or co-lead
  • Wrote design documents for multiple projects
  • Worked closely with Microsoft on game design, balancing, and testing
  • Designed game systems and content
  • Implemented AI behaviors and entity definition data for over 100 unit types
  • Conducted in-depth research on animals, dinosaurs, zoos, animal training, etc.
  • Worked on multiple projects at once, including demos and patches


Other
Game
Development Experience
Beta Breakers
QA Tester – San Rafael, CA (05/00 to 09/00)
Mindscape / Mattel Interactive
QA Tester – Novato, CA (01/00 to 04/00)
Microprose / Hasbro Interactive
QA Tester – Alameda, CA (02/99 to 12/99)


Ludography
Electronic Arts (Maxis)
  • Project Cheetah Unreleased
    • Game Design II
  • Project PlutoUnreleased
    • Game Design II
  • Project OzUnreleased
    • Game Design II
  • SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow (Expansion Pack)Nov. 2013
    • Game Design II
  • SimCity (2013)Mar. 2013
    • Game Design II
Lolapps, Inc/6waves Lolapps
  • Ravenskye City (Facebook) Oct. 2011
    • Design Director
  • Ravenwood Fair (Facebook) Oct. 2010
    • Senior Designer
  • Critter Island (Facebook) Aug. 2010
    • Senior Designer
  • Garden Life (Facebook) July 2010
    • Designer
  • Supermodel: The Game (Facebook) Mar. 2010
    • Designer
  • Dante's Inferno (Facebook) Nov. 2009
    • Designer
  • Champions Online (Facebook) Nov. 2009
    • Designer
  • Band of Heroes (Facebook) Nov. 2009
    • Designer
  • Diva Life (Facebook) Nov. 2009
    • Designer
  • Yakuza Lords (Facebook) July 2009
    • Designer
Shattered Reality Interactive
  • Legends of Kaos (Online) [Unpublished]
    • Senior Designer
Super-Ego Games
  • Rat Race (PSN, PC) [Unpublished]
    • Senior Designer
Blue Fang Games, LLC
  • Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals (PC) 2007
    • Senior Designer
  • Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania (PC) 2006
    • Co-Lead Designer
  • Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species (PC) 2005
    • Senior Designer
  • Zoo Tycoon 2 (PC) 2004
    • Senior Designer
  • Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection (PC) 2003
    • Lead Designer
  • Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania (PC) 2002
    • Senior Designer
  • Zoo Tycoon: Dino Digs (PC) 2002
    • Designer
  • Zoo Tycoon (PC) 2001
    • QA Tester
Beta Breakers
  • RC Copter Challenge (PS2) 2001
    • QA Tester
  • Lego: Alpha Team (PC) 2001
    • QA Tester
Mindscape/Mattel Interactive
  • Petz 4 (PC) 2000
    • QA Tester
  • Dogz 4 (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
  • Catz 4 (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
  • Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
  • Close Combat IV: Battle of the Bulge (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
Microprose/Hasbro Interactive
  • GP500 (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
  • The Next Tetris (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
  • Mechcommander Gold (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
  • Star Trek: TNG: Birth of the Federation (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
  • Mechwarrior 3: Pirate's Moon (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester
  • Mechwarrior 3 (PC) 1999
    • QA Tester


Creative Strengths
Content Design
Designed hundreds of buildings and decorations for builder games, memorable characters and creatures
Writing
Hundreds of quests, thousands of lines of dialog, item text that all manage to remain distinct and memorable
Leadership
Mentored several junior designers into full designer positions, led multiple game projects to completion
Feature Design
Well-received features that millions have played
Design Documentation
Game pitches for games that were published and feature specs
Data Manipulation
Built and manipulated massive spreadsheets of game data
Communication Skills
Thorough, clear, prioritized and timely communication
Strong Work Ethic
Dedicated to quality and following through, even on difficult tasks
Attention to User Experience
Dedicated to a smooth user experience
Easy to Work With
Easygoing, flexible and friendly


Technical Skills
Microsoft Office
Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, Project, Outlook, Access
Scripting Languages
Lua, custom XML-based "Action System"
Graphic Design
Photoshop, Illustrator, 3D Studio Max (basic use), Maya (basic use)
Version Control Software
WinCVS, Perforce, SVN Tortoise, Github and Git Extensions
Level Editors
Gamebryo Scene Designer, CryTek Sandbox, Valve Hammer
Issue Reporting Software
Bugzilla, Tracker, Microsoft Raid and Product Studio
Web Design
XHTML, HTML, XML, CSS, basic Javascript and Ruby on Rails use


Education
University of California at Berkeley
Bachelor of Arts (05/98)
  • Major: English, Emphasis in Medieval Literature
  • Minor: Education
Solano Community College
Transfer (06/96)
Vacaville High School
Diploma (06/94)


Hobbies & Interests
Video Games
Especially action, adventure, RPG, fighting, racing, FPS, puzzle, builder/management, turn-based strategy, MMORPG
Designer Board & Card Games
Especially Settlers of Catan, Carcasonne, Kill Doctor Lucky, Ticket to Ride, Bang!
Plus
Role Playing Games, Collectible Card Games, Guitar, Cooking, Baking, Grilling, Music, Comic Books, Anime, Manga, Movies, TV