About
I’m a Senior Creative Manager at Mojang Studios but also an author of children’s books. Please have a look around my site if you want to know more about me and my work.
Work CV
Art MANAGER
Mojang, Stockholm, 2021-
Consultant Art Director
Tuyoo Games LTD, Hong Kong, 2020-2021
Art Director
Candy Crush Saga at King, 2016-2020
Senior Game Artist
King, 2008-2016
Freelance artist
For clients like Linköpings Universitet, Mantra AB, SIG and Swedish Museum of Natural History,
2000-2008
SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
leading big teams
I have experience in leading large group of artists spread across many teams in multiple locations. Previous beeing part of the Candy Crush Saga Leadership Team have made me used to working closely with producers, crafts leads, external departments and stakeholders.
Guides and Vis Dev
As AD I have been responsible for the visual style and the art quality of Candy Crush Saga – creating guides, giving feedback and organizing workshops. I have the ability to balance game art consistency of a well known brand with the necessity of continous visual development.
Building the craft
One of the corner stones of my work as AD have been to build stronger art organizations – were the artists are self-driven, ready to take responsibility and to contribute to the many aspects of game production. I have done so by aligning the artist behind clear craft visions and fostered a collaborative culture.
Line management
Currently at Mojang i manage 8 direct reports, helping these artists to stay motivated and grow professionally. I very much enjoy this part of being a leader – setting role expectations, building stronger teams, coaching, mentoring, creating development plans and reviewing performances.
Pipeline development
In my previous role at King I enabled the artists to create effective art pipelines in their different cross functional teams – supporting and inspiring them to use the right tools, understanding functionality and the user experience and setting priorities.
AD Consultant
Qualitative tests with player focus groups are common practice and a great way to get input from your users. Having an experienced AD like me giving feedback to your team could be a great complement. During 2020 i adviced teams at the Hong Kong based company Tuyoo on matters regarding art direction, narrative and design.
I would be able to analyse your art work based on my skills and experience. In most companies you already have great internal feedback loops, but getting a pair of fresh external could often be very valuable for your product, especially when you are short on time.
Writer and Illustrator
Writer and Illustrator of the children’s book “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!” A fun bedtime adventure for kids between the ages of three and six. Published by Rabén & Sjögren in September of 2021.
My hope and aspiration is to continue to create stories for kids and young adults in the future.
Testemonials
“Samir Belarbi proved to be a creative artist who delivered graphics that were spot on when it came to message, target group and inspiration. Samir seemed to never run out of ideas, was fun and easy to work with, and he constantly took initiatives to reach ambitious goals.”
Martin Testorf
Swedish Museum of Natural History
“Samir had success in everything from knowing and communicating the cores of art styles to building large scale art production organisations. It was an honor to work with Samir in the world of Candy Crush.”
Johan Acavedo
Senior Producer, Candy Crush Saga
“As a boxing coach Samir Belarbi proved himself to be out of the ordinary. His organizational skills and deep knowledge of how to bring out the very best in people was outstanding.
He always tried to find new ways to improve his team and did so often with great results.”
Santiago Nieva
National Head Coach India
& AIBA Coaches Commission
“As narrative design lead, I worked with Samir to maintain art and narrative consistency for Candy Crush Saga. What I really appreciated about working with Samir was his willingness to collaborate and his proactive approach to keeping narrative design in the loop. We also worked on several game features together, and he was extremely pleasant to work with throughout my time at King. Thank you, Samir!”
TRACY JOHN
Content Designer, Netflix
“I worked with Samir for about 2 years, in that period of time he has been both my art director and my manager. He supported me not only in my artistic growth but also in my personal development. He has demonstrated a great emotional intelligence and good communication skills, not only in relation to the artists he was leading, but also across disciplines and with external stakeholders. He understands what is best for the product and leads the team towards the right decision. Samir is humble and will give honest feedback. I would definitely love to work with him again in the future!”
GIORGIA ARENA
Art Director, King
“It was an absolute pleasure to work with Samir. He is a strong leader and a great Art-director. He brought a lot of energy and structure to the project. He drove and build a lot of key processes on the Candy. As a leader, he is very open to feedback from his team and focuses on empowering and developing them and a product. His passion and enthusiasm are contagious, and I am going to miss working with him! He also has a great understanding of the gaming industry and a lot of experience on his shoulders. I believe we will have a chance to work together again!”
ANNA MAGIEVA
Lead UX Designer, King
“As my manager Samir always encouraged me to dare to expand my comfort zone and taking the next steps in my career. He gave me the space to both succeed and fail, and was a great support and mentor/coach during the journey. I highly recommend Samir for any art director and/or manager role. He brings a very balanced, analytical and open minded approach to any situation he faces. I hope I will get the opportunity to work with him in the future again!”
RONYA GRIMHEIM
Associate Art Director, King
“His attention to detail and care about both, the game and the players, are key points to his success. He has a great capacity to listen, understand and communicate with all the stakeholders related to the teams and the studio, providing a healthy, transparent working environment. As manager, he has great emotional intelligence, he gets to know all the artists to support them individually but also building a strong art community. Personally, I’m thankful that he has been my mentor and lead during the last 3 years, helping me to grow and improve in any aspect of my professional development, but specially on learning the value of being patient and taking distance to better view all the pieces together.”
EVA GARCES
Art Manager, Star Stable
“…He helped me make the transition from making muzzle flashes on Red Dead 2 to candy crumble chocolatey effects for the Candy franchise. I’m really thankful he was the one validating my work as he was really patient and drove me towards the good direction, both in the artistic side and the language behind the series. On top of all that, Samir is a fun person to work with and creates a good working environment around him as he gives freedom to the team so everyone can focus on what they are good at…”
FRANCISCO GARCIA-OBLEDO
Senior VFX Artist, Tuatara
Education
Graphic Studio
3D art and post production,
1998-2000
Scrum Alliance
Certified Scrum Master,
2014-11-20
Birkagårdens Folkhögskola
Sculpture and Fine Arts,
1994-1996
Memory lane
The Title Fight
I ran a small event service called Titelmatchen (The Title Fight), between 2007-2014. The basic idea was to arrange playful and amusing fights for hen/stag parties in which the bride/groom-to-be had the ”opportunity” to face a real boxer or wrestler in a rigged fight. The logo above is made by me.
Nordic larp
In this Anthology from 2013, edited by game researchers Jaakko Stenros and Marcus Montola from the university of Tampere, I wrote an article about my experimental live action roleplaying game called “Föreningen Visionära Vetenskapsmäns Årliga Kongress 1996”.
“Recently the Nordic larp tradition has gained attention internationally. This book presents a cross-section of this vibrant culture through 30 outstanding larps, through stories told by designers, players and researchers, with over 250 photographs. In addition the book contains essays explaining the history and rhetorics of Nordic larp, and contextualizing it in relation to theatre, art and games.”
Society for Visionary scientists
In 1996 I created a live-action role-playing game set on a regular ferry between Stockholm and Helsinki. 34 participants played non-stop for 24 hours, portraying a society for delusional scientists on their annual conference cruise. The game was filmed by a crew from Swedish television (SVT).
Fëa Livia
Back in the early 90:s, I was the editor in chief and co-founder of the renowned Swedish gaming fanzine Fëa Livia which covered the Nordic live-action role-playing scene. We released four issues per year, pushing ourselves to maintain a high standard despite limited funds. The fanzine’s logo was made by me.
Boxing coach
As a Head Coach for Narva BK (2003-2006), one of the most prestigious boxing clubs in Sweden, I coached boxers from the very start of their careers all the way to Swedish Champions. The role also gave me the opportunity to coach the other trainers at the club in order to improve the operations on all levels of the organization.