Hi! I’m Tom and I make games. I’m from a tiny village in the Czech Republic and I originally studied to become a teacher, but I always wanted to create games. I stuck to it and I’ve been making games professionally for over half a decade from small mobile games for kids to large PC titles.
I’ve done many things and had many positions, as it usually goes in game design. I’ve designed games from start to finish, I’ve made levels, I’ve been managing teams for years and I’ve built whole worlds from scratch. If you’re interested in what I’ve done, fell free to check out my portfolio. Here I’ll try to describe what I do instead.
I’m great at taking a large set of information, breaking it down, synthesizing it and then making a game out of it. Big picture tasks like worldbuilding, narrative design, system design and project management all come naturally to me. If there’s 10 000 random LEGO bricks scattered on the floor, I see the potential combinations they could create and how I would create them instead of just a bunch of plastic. If you give me a requirement, a budget and a deadline, I could build anything out of them for you.
I can work on more detail oriented tasks as well. Making levels, designing mechanics, writing dialogue, visual scripting or good ol’ fashioned playtesting – I have a good range of skills that let me be fluid. I’m at my best when I have that big picture to worry about, however. My perfect project would allow me to do both big picture direction and some smaller game design tasks as well.
When I’m not making games, I’m spending time with my partner and our two cats. I love nature, sports (especially football), reading and playing games, of course. I’m an avid game master and I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time playing RPGs.
Feel free to reach out to me at tomas.gestinger@gmail.com, or via LinkedIn.
TOM GESTINGER 