Muhammed Budak · Game designer & creative technologist
Game design, language and a player’s eye for detail. Most recently, I worked at Electronic Arts in Madrid on FC25, FC26 and Dutch marketing content for FC Mobile and other mobile games.
My latest chapter at EAExplore my design projects
Dutch Localization Tester
Madrid, Spain · June 2024–February 2026
Helping games feel right in Dutch — from the words on screen to the voice a player hears.
I worked on FC25 and FC26, with end-to-end responsibility for Dutch text and audio for the FC26 launch. My role connected language quality with the experience of playing the game, following the Dutch localization through its test cycles.
I was a point of contact between developers, producers and external partners across countries and time zones. I managed two parallel workstreams, tracked progress in Jira and Confluence, and raised risks early so we could agree on priorities.
For marketing communications, I owned Dutch localization checks on text and video before release in the Netherlands. That work included FC Mobile and other mobile games, with a focus on translation accuracy and quality assurance.
This chapter brought my interests in games, language and culture together with the practical work of coordinating a release.
01 / Selected work
Games, tools and experiments. Pick a collection and open a project to see how it came together.
As lead game designer in a six-person team, I helped turn a sales-training brief into a physical card game. Account managers compare priorities, explain decisions and learn from each other’s approach.
Watch the PaperBird video on YouTubeMy HKU graduation project grew out of my own classroom. Research and paper tests led from an app idea to colour-coded Arabic letter cards designed for practice, discussion and learning together.
Personal projects
Outside my professional work, I build tools, make websites and mod the games I play. These are projects I keep coming back to in my own time.
I’m building Aidat with AI to help non-profit organisations manage memberships and finances. It brings the day-to-day administration into one application, with both a Windows desktop version and a browser edition.
The project gives me a practical reason to work through how people enter information, find records and keep their administration organised.
I made the website for Arnhem Ayasofya. It brings together community news, activities, membership information and the plans for the new mosque, including ways to contribute to its construction.
Visit arnhemayasofya.nlA personal project connecting my Windows PC to an Android phone. DeskBridge combines desktop screen mirroring, touch controls and a virtual keyboard with a Claude Desktop companion.
I’m exploring how a desktop workflow can work on a smaller screen, where navigation and input need a different approach.
Atlas replaces a collection of separate Minecraft maps with one expanding map. It charts new areas as you explore, uses empty maps as its resource and can be held while you keep walking.
I wanted it to fit the game’s existing map system, with zoom and pan controls that make a larger world easier to navigate.
View Atlas on ModrinthJapan Restored began with things I wanted to fix in EU5’s Japan and Sengoku systems. The mod works on the path from unification to the Shogunate and Empire, alongside a samurai and dojo system.
It also includes interface improvements and an event guide. It’s available on Steam Workshop, with balancing and playtesting still part of the work.
View Japan Restored on Steam Workshop02 / The student years
HKU was my playground for learning how to design. These early team projects trace the ideas, prototypes and stories along the way.
Student team project
A short tower defence project made in PICO-8 with Nathan Flier. I worked on game design and public relations; Nathan worked on development and game design.
My contributions included social media and presenting the game to an audience. Working in a small team connected two sides of the project: shaping a playable idea and communicating what makes it interesting.
Screenshot from my 2018 student portfolio.
Student team project
An eight-week project that evolved from a board game into a card game. I used video blogs to document what I had made and what I wanted to change next.
My work covered balancing, paper prototyping and testing. Making the rules tangible let me explore the system through play, an approach I later returned to in PaperBird and Elif Ba.
Early prototype imagery from my student portfolio.
Student team project
An applied game project for people with acquired brain injury, developed by a five-person team of four artists and me as game designer.
My contributions centred on research, management and planning. The project put the intended audience at the centre of the brief: who would use the game mattered as much as the game idea itself.
A student design project; no clinical outcome is claimed.
Student team project
A team project that revisited our first-year narrative work and developed it into a story pilot. My contribution combined story and gameplay, alongside teammates working on art, filming, editing and gameplay.
The work included scenario writing, worldbuilding and a paper prototype. Our wider narrative coursework explored cultures, languages, beliefs and relationships — the details that connect a fictional world to the choices a player makes.
HKU Interactive Narrative Design seminar
A collaborative branching narrative game created during an HKU Interactive Narrative Design seminar. The player must repair a time machine while adapting to the customs of a medieval village.
The premise makes discovering the village part of the challenge: players encounter a different culture while working toward a concrete goal. It brings together my interests in history, imagined situations and player choice.
Team project artwork. Individual asset authorship is not claimed.
03 / Learning, by doing
The common thread is curiosity about people: how they play, what helps them learn and what makes an experience feel right.
Application Development at Rijn IJssel. Learning the building blocks that would later help me turn design ideas into prototypes.
BSc Game Design at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. From first Unity experiments and storyworlds to playtesting, applied games and my Elif Ba graduation project.
A five-month game design exchange at Osaka Electro-Communication University, Japan, and a game jam at POSTECH in South Korea representing HKU.
Game design and testing on Exodus Burned, followed by leading game design on the collaborative PaperBird project for Air France–KLM.
Teaching computational thinking, CoSpaces and VR with VR Learning Lab. Making unfamiliar technology approachable through doing.
Dutch localization testing on FC25 and FC26, including ownership of Dutch text and audio for the FC26 launch. Marcom work on FC Mobile and other mobile games. Read about my EA chapter.
Building Aidat, DeskBridge and a community website, and experimenting with Minecraft and EU5 mods. Explore my side projects.
A few moments along the way
04 / The person behind the projects
Hi, I'm Muhammed.I'm a designer from Arnhem with a love for games, history and the way people see the world.
My interests don't stay in separate boxes. Travel feeds my curiosity about cultures. Teaching feeds my interest in playful learning. Games give me a space to bring those things together.
Outside my professional work, I've taught weekend classes in my community and volunteered in Sudan and Gabon. These are part of my story alongside the projects and job titles.
These photographs are from my time volunteering in Sudan and Gabon. These experiences are another part of who I am: a person who likes to take part, meet people and keep learning beyond the screen.
05 / Start a conversation
A game, a playful learning idea, or something
that doesn't fit a neat category. I'd love to hear it.