Kyle Smith

Games · 2004–2024

Twenty years shipping games.

The laboratory where I learned to build things people love at scale — and how to run the teams that do it. I started at EA at eighteen in QA and left having pitched and shipped new IP; then three studios of my own.

001Selected titles
01EA PlaygroundCreator · New IP on Wii and DS2007
02EA Sports ActiveLead Producer & Designer · EA's best-selling Wii title2009
03Trolls PopCEO · DreamWorks IP · Google Play Best of Casual2018
04Meta ApesCEO · Top 8 on BNB Chain · 400K+ players2021
05FIFA · Need for Speed · Medal of HonorQA to Lead Designer · Electronic Arts2004–2011

Hover a row to preview.

002The studios

Where the twenty years went.

2022–2023Berlin
CEO, Mirage Labs
  • Came in through an acqui-hire as a product and marketing lead — not a founder, not in charge. Fifteen months later they made me CEO of the group.
  • Ran the group behind Meta Apes: Top 8 on BNB Chain with 400K+ players, taken from Web2 to Web3 in six weeks.
  • Owned economy design across a 150-person team spanning the US, China and Europe. Backed by Ankr.
2020–2022Berlin
Co-founder & CEO, Play Forge
  • Built Puzzle Book, a creator-driven social puzzle concept with curated levels, on a Silicon Allee startup grant.
  • Pitched Breachers — the game whose pitch led Ankr to acqui-hire the team.
2014–2020Berlin
Co-founder & CEO, TreasureHunt
  • Raised $8M+ in venture funding and ran the studio for six years.
  • Licensed DreamWorks IP through Universal Games, did the deal, and set the creative vision for Trolls Pop — a Google Play Best of Casual winner.
  • Sold the studio's assets including Trolls Pop to Huuuge Games during insolvency in 2020. Every employee was guaranteed a job and the whole team carried over.
2011–2013Berlin
Creative Director, goodbeans
  • Led creative direction across web and mobile, drove the web-to-mobile pivot, and shipped Zuko Monsters, the studio's top-grossing mobile title.
2006–2011Vancouver
Lead Designer / Producer, Electronic Arts
  • Started at eighteen in QA on Need for Speed and FIFA. Pitched EA Playground and drove it concept-to-launch — new IP on Wii and DS that beat its sales target three times over.
  • Lead designer and producer on EA Sports Active, the start of EA's fitness franchise and its best-selling Wii title.
  • Designed the first Facebook integration in a console game and established the game-designer role at EA Vancouver.
003Recognition

Red Herring Top 100 Tech Leaders, Europe

Google Play Best of Casual — Trolls Pop

Founder, IGDA Berlin Chapter, 2018

004Still playing

I did not leave games. I changed what I make with them.

There is a small set of game experiments running under Clayhouse — a live game director, and two concepts I am still building out.