Founder and producer with 8+ years of shipped projects — from student-led Steam releases to live multiplayer titles. Solid pipelines, realistic planning, people-first leadership.
My name is Zico Bakker. I’m a producer and game designer living in Gouda, with 2+ years of programming experience and 8+ years across design and production roles. I’ve run my own companies, co-founded studios, and shipped titles on Steam and mobile.
My focus on production started when I began building companies myself — quickly learning that solid pipelines and people skills are what make ambitious projects actually ship. I bring a wide range of expertise and a deep understanding of the different roles inside a game studio. I plan with dependencies in mind, keep the vision alive, and make sure the team delivers.
Shipped titles, student projects, game jams and live studio work. Click any card for details.
4-player party-game on Steam. PlushKyn take center stage as squishy misfits sprint, shove, spin and shoot through an attic full of games.
From the moment we crash land on the strange and mysterious new world of Ascension, adventure calls. Action RPG on Unreal Engine 5.
A language-learning app that makes vocabulary building fun through gamified exercises, streaks and progression. Live on iOS & Android in 10 languages.
Combat-free adventure-puzzle inspired by Norse Mythology. Play as Kari, a young viking girl finding her way home.
Final 2nd year project at Breda University. Steampunk-Japan overrun by yokai — pass a deadly disc with a friend to blaze through enemies.
1st-person stealth. Infiltrate a Soviet Mars-transit ship and rescue political prisoners. Evade enemies, collect clues, watch your sanity.
VR space-racing. Collect “space-time” in a psychedelic environment to extend the level and your life — procedurally generated every run.
Casual adventure in Christmas winter. Build a snowman under time pressure — with a custom Arduino controller as a constraint.
Play as a robot running on a battery. Power the battery from transmitters or sunlight. Solve puzzles before you run out.
Applied game for middle-schoolers learning basic math. Turn-based: answer questions to attack the dragon before it attacks you.
Inquiries, job opportunities, collaborations — leave a message below or reach out directly. I usually reply within a couple of working days.
Kari: Stranded On The Shores Of Vanaheim is a combat-free adventure-puzzle game heavily inspired by Norse Mythology. Stranded on unknown shores, you play as Kari, a young viking girl who has to find a way home.
What is it? The inventory lets Kari track what items she has and how much space is left. We categorised the inventory with different bags and pouches to give us freedom in how difficult the management aspect becomes.
What did I do? I worked closely with programmers to make it work in-engine, with the right player feedback and visuals provided by our UI artist. A few things:
What is it? The crafting system lets the player craft items to progress. Resources are found in the world. Remembering recipes while walking through the wild is a core puzzle element.
What did I do?
You (and ideally a friend) get thrown into steampunk-inspired Japan, overrun by yokai. By passing a deadly disc between each other you blaze through enemies and obstacles. Our custom-engine voxel world lets you cause mayhem the likes of which you’ve never seen.
I designed and balanced most enemies. Process: research Japanese Yokai, check whether gameplay mechanics support the enemy, then build designs with flowcharts and feature breakdowns, finally balance variables through lots of playtests. We focussed on specific enemy types to provide variety.
The focus on the spider was range: the player always had to have time to react after the spider shoots her web, because the player doesn’t always have the projectile — avoiding felt a bit more fair than usual.
The game was initially only designed for 2 players, but that limited our Itch.io audience for feedback. To prove adding single-player wasn’t risky I hid the second player behind the first with matching controls — a faked single-player mode. Players found it fun; proof it was worth building properly. A programmer then cleaned it up.
I created the UI during pre-production, with a lot of unknowns still present — mostly concepting at that stage. From there I ran the usual UI/UX process:
Interactive mockups in Axure XP to play out flow and surface gaps.
Journey map with persona based on research — most of this was new to me, but GDC talks and lots of iterations paid off.
Worked closely with artists on assets, lighting and layout sketches so we could build the level quickly. We went modular so it could expand if time allowed. My job was to stitch it all together — get assets from artists, make modular pieces line up with design sketches, and set up AI paths. I tested the whole experience including win/lose conditions.
Working closely with artists and programmers on assets, AI and audio made the enemy → level loop tight.
Create a snowman in a set amount of time while avoiding enemies. Move the main body through the level and collect items, place it in the placement zone, then spawn the head and do the same — landing it accurately on top.
First iteration on the showcase level — simulating the feel we wanted:
Last iteration — all moments implemented, final touches with snow on the roof:
Designed moments and puzzles for the player to discover high-level items and outfits for the snowman — kept playable given the Arduino controller’s responsiveness constraints.
