Technical Game Designer
Indie Game Dev
Ten years in mobile and casino games. I know how these systems work, and I'd rather use them for something worthwhile.
About
I'm Pat Tompkins. I've been designing games professionally for about ten years, mostly for the mobile and online casino industries.
Casino games run on some of the most sophisticated behavioral design ever built. I also got increasingly uncomfortable with where most of it points. So now I'm building my own games and doing consulting work through Gamify Good, where the goal is to use the same mechanics for things that actually help people.
Work
Professional
Casino Game Suite
20+ titles designed from scratch through ship, across a slate of online casino games. Most of the work was figuring out how players learn a new game and what keeps them around.
What I did
- Took games from concept through launch: wireframes, prototypes, technical docs, the whole cycle
- Built rapid prototypes to validate mechanics and de-risk development before production commitments
- Wrote technical design docs that gave engineering and art a clear target to build to
- Developed game math specs, system spreadsheets, and analytics plans that bridged design intent and production reality
Indie
Scorefall
A plinko-inspired roguelite designed, coded, and shipped solo. Every system, every screen, every line of code. No generative AI anywhere in the project.
What went into it
- Designed all game systems from scratch: ball physics, upgrade trees, scoring loops, and difficulty scaling tuned across hundreds of playtests
- Built the full game in Unity, solo, handling everything from gameplay code to UI implementation to Steam integration
- Collaborated with a local artist for all visual assets, keeping the aesthetic handcrafted and distinctly non-AI
- Commissioned an original soundtrack from a local musician, recorded specifically for the game
- Managed the full production pipeline: concept, prototyping, external contracts, QA, publishing, and launch
RESET
Solo 48-hour game jam project. Space bar or tap the player to shoot magic, tap above the line to drop eggs on enemies. RESET when you need a break from the grind.