Kyle Forgaard
EXPERTISE
BIO
I am a seasoned software professional with 7 years experience. I started my career as a level designer, scripting new levels in lua for a mobile puzzle game. In that role, I also designed new mechanics, did analysis of competing games for design insights, and pioneered a level testing program where I hired interns to speed up development by testing level difficulty. From there I worked as a Unity expert developer on a suite of educational math games. I worked as an individual contributor and also taught the rest of my team how to work in Unity from the ground up. Over time I was promoted to technical lead on the project. This included managing offshore developers, deploying builds, coordinating handshake integrations with other teams, and creating an iOS app version of the games.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Software Engineer
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
June 2019 - October 2024
Software engineer for the Math 180 educational software product widely used in school classrooms, available as a web app and for iPad. C#, Unity, React, Javascript. ● Product engineering lead for Brain Arcade, a suite of math games for practicing skills learned in Math 180, including the popular game Sushi Monster. ● Architected and implemented the unifying object class representing diverse numeric types, used by all games in Brain Arcade. ● Implemented the engine that generates math problems for the majority of Brain Arcade games. ● Responsible for release of Brain Arcade to the App Store for iPad. ● Created interface widgets for the Math 180 front end. Contributed to Spanish transadaptation.
Game and Level Designer
Funkitron
August 2016 - May 2018
Developer and designer for Funkitron’s iOS and Android apps, published by Big Fish Games. Lua. ● Designed, developed, and balanced more than 100 levels for the successful mobile game Cascade, which has more than 1 million downloads and total revenues of $20M+. ● Contributed to conceptual design of mobile game Julie’s Journey: Relic Race, including competitive analysis. Developed almost 50 levels. ● Proposed and implemented a level-balancing initiative that reduced overall development time by 50%. Hired and managed interns for this initiative.
Software Engineer co-op
Workinman Interactive
January 2015 - August 2015
Seven-month software engineer co-op position at a game studio specializing in mobile and browser-based games for the youth market. Haxe, Javascript, Flash. ● Developer on a series of small games for Nickelodeon, Hasbro, LEGO, and Boys & Girls Club, including a game featured on front page of Nick.com/games. ● Primary developer for Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer - Let’s Go, Little Cooks.
Software Engineer Co-op
Fidelity Investments
May 2014 - August 2014
Developed stress analysis tool for remote real-time multi-user financial securities system. Java.
EDUCATION
B.S.
Rochester Institute of Technology, January 2016
Game Design And Development
CERTIFICATIONS
AWS Cloud Practicioner
Issued: 11/9/2024 - Expires: 11/9/2027
Verified Frontend Developer
6-8 years of experience
Preferred commitment: Full Time
Languages
Skills
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