JACOB NIELSEN
I AM

Jacob Nielsen

Driven leader seeking career shift into the video game industry, skilled in agile software development, with experience supervising small teams.
LinkedIn

Game Projects

We Went Back
Picture

Steam

We Went Back is a sci-fi time-looping horror game located on an abandoned lunar station. Explore, deduce, and unleash terror in order to find a way out.
• Tweaked various game mechanics and assisted with bug fixing via multiple avenues: variables exposed to the Unreal interface, Blueprints, and C++ code.​

• Did a lot of in-engine bug fixing and polish post-release, alongside community management and other production tasks.​

• Facilitated design team meetings, developed actionable objectives, and ensured communication was fluid between design and other teams.

• Ran the Marketing and Publishing initiatives for We Went Back, getting us on Steam and utilizing the Facebook Ad platform, leading to huge launch with over 35k downloads in the first week.

• Managed the community and performed other post-launch activities to ensure good player engagement and positive reviews, maintaining a strong 87% after 600+ reviews on Steam.

• Implemented and managed Confluence in order to assist the team with communicating goals, design initiatives, and standardized conventions.

Now on Steam!

Sono

Steam

An aesthetic explorative game where you collect lost fragments of sound in an abstract environment.​
• Ran the Marketing and Publishing initiatives for Sono, getting us on Steam and utilizing the Facebook Ad platform, leading to modest launch with over 5k downloads in the first week.

• Managed the community and performed other post-launch activities to ensure good player engagement and positive reviews, maintaining a strong 91% after 160+ reviews on Steam.

• Designed the main mechanics and puzzles for the game, worked heavily in-engine to get them implemented effectively.

• Bug-fixed, optimized, and polished the game post-semester alongside the engineers to get it to its current releasable state.

• Ensured deadlines were met under tight time constraints and large scope.​

Now on Steam!

Satet's Shooting Range

​Itch.io

A VR shooting-gallery archery game with an Egyptian theme.
• Directed the initial design discussion, ensuring core pillars were developed and held to.

​• Built the scene with assets provided by other team members.

• Tweaked player feel based on playtesting and feedback.
​
​Now on Itch.io!

Professor Hamwise

​Itch.io

A physics-based puzzle game inspired by Line Rider for PC.A physics-based puzzle game inspired by Line Rider for PC.
• Ran our brainstorming session to a unique but well-scoped game.

• Facilitated multiple meetings throughout the course of the project.

• Designed and programmed most of the levels, tweaked others.

• Created and Maintained a Kanban board throughout the project.• Ran our brainstorming session to a unique but well-scoped game.
​​
Now on Itch.io!

Professional Experience

Product Manager Internship

Helped a start up move towards the goal of launching a VR-focused SaaS product.
• Assisted in the planning for development of a currently unannounced software product.

• Spearheaded a Six Sigma improvement initiative to optimize their sales process to both increase sales calls and boost number of sign-ons to their service.

• Participated in sales meetings for VAL eSports contract acquisition.

Project Manager Internship

Oversaw Scrum and Waterfall teams over the summer.​
• Lead and participated in numerous weekly sprint planning sessions and daily scrum stand-ups.

• Coordinated one waterfall project to completion and another to hand-off at the end of my internship.

• Managed stakeholders from every level of management in order to ensure tasks and projects remained on track.

• Documented projects and other data in both Jira and Confluence. See less

Network Technician

Revolutionized operations via automation and securing internal networks.
• Automated and documented over 70 manual tasks, including file transfer infrastructure, various manual entry report generations, mainframe response-required jobs, and server maintenance tasks, yielding a massive savings in work hours and near elimination of common errors.

• Deployed a Certificate Authority server to secure and manage certificates on web interfaces throughout the network while restricting cipher usage to support only encryption at the highest security levels available given software used, providing the most secure FIPS-compliance possible.
​
• Configured, implemented, and maintained the patching and reboot scheduling system for over 110 servers and 200 workstations, resulting uniform update deployment and easy rollback network-wide.

Operations Supervisor & Technology Support Specialist

Led initiatives to improve efficiency, lower costs, and improve sustainability.
• Supervised up to 6-person seasonal operations staff which processed daily mainframe updates and backups.

• Automated and condensed daily operational workload which saved over 2 hours per day so operations staff could focus on more long-term projects.
​
• Reduced company expenses by over $2000/month in paper and ink costs by digitizing and automating log and report checks and balances into Excel files.

Website Quality Control & Customer Service

Provided quality documentation and feedback to improve a lackluster project.
• Promoted to QA Tester after presenting a voluntary 20+ page critique on a newly developed browser-based CRMS.

• Contributed second highest number of bug reports and enhancement suggestions for company website

Highlights


  • Conducted user research testing in the form of focus groups, observations, and thinkalouds for 4 game projects.
  • Coached one of the 20+ person student teams on applying Scrum in a scaled environment.
  • ​Volunteered at Salt Lake City Library as a Digital Inclusion assistant.
  • Researched marketing strategies for New Venture Development projects at Lassonde Institute.
  • Published numerous small game projects on itch.io. (Link)

Skills

Languages

C#
Java
Ruby on Rails
JavaScript
PowerShell
VBScript
​Batch
​C++

Software

Unity
Unreal
Perforce
​Git
MonoGame
Visual Studio
NetBeans
Jira
Confluence
VMWare
Active Directory
Netscaler
SharePoint
SolarWinds Serv-U
TeamViewer
GoToMeeting
​Audacity

Operating Systems

Windows Desktop/Server/DC
Linux
Android
​iOS

Education/Certificates

Master of Entertainment Arts & Engineering
University of Utah | Expected May 2020

Master of Business Administration
University of Utah | Expected May 2020

BS – Software Development
Bellevue University | March 2017
CSM, CSPO – Scrum Alliance

PSM, PSPO, PSD, PAL, PSK, SPS – Scrum.org

CAPM - Project Management Institute

Project+, Security+, Network+, A+ - CompTIA

Human Research – CITI Program

Microsoft Office Specialist - Certiport

Graduate Certificate in Information Systems, Six Sigma Green Belt – University of Utah

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