Hi, I’m Jason Kato
With over 10 years of professional development experience in gaming, simulation, and entertainment, I have worked in cross-functional Scrum teams at enterprise companies and independently as a one-man team.
Comfortable in both technical and creative roles, my interests span programming, game design, level design, UX design, art direction, production design and more.
Creative: Product design, Game design, Level design, UX design, Art direction.
Management: Product owner, Customer management.
Communication: English, Swedish, Japanese
Portfolio
At Saab Training and Simulation I developed a military weapon training simulator, enabling trainees to fire replicas at a projected 3D environment.
Responsibilities included development on the client and host of the main product using Unity, designing and developing the scenario editor (including UX, prototype development, and product development), creating scenarios, and managing ad hoc customer needs.
Work was performed on-site in Sweden, in Czechia, and remotely with cross-functional teams.
Creative: Product design, Prototyping, UI/UX design.
Management: Component owner, Customer management.
Communication: Swedish, English.
Saab Training and Simulation | Sweden, Czech Republic, Remote | 2018-2021
All copyright belongs to Saab.
Access available upon request.
Creative
Product Design: Designed flows and fluid transitions to create a polished, cohesive experience across devices and platforms (Mobile & PC).Game Design: Designed gameplay mechanics and systems.
Art Direction: Developed the visual styles and presentations.
Sound Design: Created and implemented immersive, dynamic sound effects with timed, attention-grabbing, and exciting feedback.
Technical
Architecture: Architected client-server communications with Nano integration.Server Management: Deployed on VPS with Nginx.
Blockchain Integration: Built a Node.js web service for deposits, withdrawals, and faucet functionality.
Game Development: Developed gameplay mechanics and client (JS, PixiJS).
Service Development: Built the core service infrastructure used by the products, enabling real-world testing through internal usage (dogfooding).
AI Integration: Integrated a custom ChatpGPT bot that can use the service.
Backend Development: Created APIs and backend with Node.js.
Web Development: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, python for mobile and PC.
Leadership
End-to-End Ownership: Solely planned, designed, and executed all projects lifecycles spanning creative direction, technical implementation, and deployment.Project Management: Independently managed timelines, priorities, and scope to deliver a cohesive, polished product spanning multiple disciplines.
Creative: UX, Game design, Art direction, Sound design.
AI: Yes.
Management: Projects, Products.
2024-2025
Made in my one man team – Featured on App Store “New Games We Love”. Laserix is a relaxing light reflection puzzler where you catch gems by reflecting lasers.
Can you tell I got inspiration for the art direction from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker?
First level gives away all the mirrors positions using hints, the player only need to figure out the rotations.
Creative: Original Idea, Prototyping, Design (Game, Level, Graphic, Sound, Product, UI/UX), Art direction, VFX.
Management: Project, Product, PR.
Communication: Japanese, English.
Made in my one man team @ A nice company | Japan | 2017
An action filled escape room puzzler with focus on realism and such it contains everything from an episode of Popeye to a shoot-out with a helicopter.
This was my first real venture into VR and it taught me a lot about developing a game for the platform.
Creative: Original Idea, Prototyping, Design (Game, Level, Graphic, Sound, Product, UI/UX), Art direction, VFX.
Management: Project, Product.
Made in my one man team, from idea to finished product @ Anicecompany | Japan | 2017-2018
Inspired by games like Wipeout, Ridge Racer and Ace Combat, I designed a simple high concept UX and placed it in a conceptual game.
The ship selection screen features two different themes - a light one and a dark one, centered around the controller, acting as natural pit stops in the user's journey.
In addition an in-game UI was created aiming to balance information and minimalism.
Wipeout has gone offroad!
Technical: 3D asset adjustments.
Creative: Original Idea, UI/UX. Conceptual design, Art direction, Motion graphics.
Ship models and original texture by Swiss_Fox. | 2023.
A basic terrain editor I made during a week and the first time I used AI as work tools, it was very rewarding!
Paint the terrain to raise/lower or use a tile selection tool and adjust the height.
Try it in your desktop browser.
Technical: Programming (C#), Unity URP/WebGL, Shadergraph.
Creative:
UX design, UI design, Art direction.
AI:
ChatGPT, Midjourney, Skybox Labs.
2023
An apartment I had the pleasure of staying in. The video shows the living room/open kitchen.
Maya, apartment was modelled and UV mapped.
Twinmotion, material adjustment, furnishing, lighting and presentation.
Creative: Presentation.
2023
A new spin on the slot. All game logic is done on the server.
Technical: Programming (C#, PHP), iOS, Android.
Creative: Original Idea, Prototyping, Design (Game, Level, Graphic, Sound, Motion, UI/UX), Art direction, VFX.
Management: Project, Product.
Communication: Japanese, English.
Made in my one man team @ A nice company | Japan | 2017
Music by Hayato. Character art by https://jewel-s.jp/
Escape the rice ball factory, roll down the green hills, up the freezing mountains and watch out for the lava in the volcano. Unluck new abilities such ground bash, dash and air jump.
Onigiri is a 2D platformer controlled by swiping. With inspiration from games like from Super Mario Bros, Kirby and Metroid it was developed for Mobile (Android/iOS) but unfortunately not released. One day I would like to have the opportunity to complete it and release for mobile and handhelds such as Steam deck.
Technical:
Programming (C#), iOS, Android.
Creative:
Original Idea, Prototyping, Design (Game, Level, Graphic, Sound, Motion, UI/UX), Art direction, VFX.
Management:
Project, Product, Testing.
Communication:
Japanese, English.
Made in my one man team @ A nice company | Japan | 2016.
Concept art by Ryo. Music by Hayato.
I modeled a BMW 330i in 2006 as part of my examination. The model, originally rendered at 45min a frame, here recaptured in much better quality - in real time - thanks to Unreal Engine.
Shaders and environment provided by Unreal Engine.
2006, 2022
A unique platformer where you rotate the world around you and the lesser you do the higher you score.
Technical:
Programming (C#), iOS, Android.
Creative:
Original Idea, Prototyping, Design (Game, Level, Graphic, Sound, Motion, UI/UX), Art direction, VFX.
Management:
Project, Product, Testing, PR.
Made in my one man team @ A nice company | Japan | 2016
Development of new online casino video slots as part of team of 10 people working at NetEnt in Stockholm. Close collaboration with programmers, graphic designers, testers, backend, sound designer, scrum master and product owner.
Work also consisted of maintenance of many other slots.
Evolution, another video slot I was part of from start.
Communication: Swedish, English.
NetEnt | Stockholm, Sweden | 2013
Production of a digital advertising campaign for a hospital.
My role involved concept and animation in After Effects with the end product displayed on digital signage at Aeon Mall.
Afterwards I contextualized the ad in Twinmotion.
Creative:
Concept, Motion graphics, Digital twin mock up.
Communication:
Japanese.
2023
In collaboration with project managers, art directors and copywriters, we created multiple issues of an interactive digital inspiration magazine, specifically curated for Vin & Sprit / Pernod Ricard. My contribution spanned across strategizing of content planning, programming, animating and 3D modelling. Winner of the Guldbladet Award in 2009.
Absolut Vodka, featured in many issues, here as a contest.
Reflections, very trendy at the time.
Creative: Motion design.
Communication: Swedish.
Ottoboni Group | Stockholm, Sweden | 2007-2009
A few samples of campaign and ad work I worked on at Ottoboni Group in Stockholm.
Creative: Motion design.
Communication: Swedish.
Ottoboni Group | Stockholm, Sweden | 2007-2009
A punishing but rewarding touch and swipe game in 2D where the player works in a rice ball factory and needs to sort rice balls by color.
Technical:
Programming (C#), iOS, Android.
Creative:
Original Idea, Prototyping, Design (Game, Level, Graphic, Sound, Motion, UI/UX), Art direction, VFX.
Management:
Project, Product, Testing, PR.
Communication:
Japanese, English.
Made in my one man rice-ball-making factory team @ A nice company | Japan | 2016
As someone who appreciate timing and narrative flow I also appreciate editing videos sometimes. Here's a friend's and his, at the time, new girlfriend's vacation to Egypt, because why not edit other peoples vacations.
Creative:
Video editing.
2013
High concept UX and UI design for a mobile app.
Creative:
Original Idea. UI/UX. Art direction.
2023.
Generation of abstract patterns using sliders to change noise, shapes and colors.
Creative: Art direction.
2022
In collaboration with art directors, project managers and copywriters, I worked as a Flash developer on multiple corporate, consumer and sustainability websites.
Communication: Swedish.
Ottoboni Group | Stockholm, Sweden | 2007-2011
A continuation of A Light Bounce, a game I made for mobile, but in another style and with some different mechanics to make it easier.
Technical:
Programming (C#), Android.
Creative:
Original Idea, Prototyping, Design (Game, Level, Graphic, Sound, Motion, UI/UX), Art direction, VFX.
2019
A tricky original mobile puzzler.
Technical:
Programming (C#), Android.
Creative:
Original Idea, Prototyping, Design (Game, Level, Graphic, Sound, Motion, UI/UX), Art direction, VFX.
2021
Awesome brands I worked on
&
Awesome companies I worked at
Saab Dynamics - Training & Simulation
Saab is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937 with 19,000+ employees all over the world.
Net Entertainment
A supplier of digitally distributed gaming systems used by some of the world’s most successful online gaming operators.
Ottoboni Group
A bigger web agency in Stockholm, Sweden, that was later acquired.