Terje Ballestad

Bachelor in game design

Westerdals Oslo ACT · Student

Three years and 180 ECTS of game design. Westerdals merged into Kristiania University College in 2018.

• Courses in systems design, game programming, programming for designers, level design, prototyping and agile projects.
• Wrote my thesis on Queens Game together with Snowcastle Games and the Norwegian Film Institute.

• Game design
• Systems design
• Level design
• Prototyping

Queens Game

Snowcastle Games · Game developer, internship

1 / 2

A research project with the Norwegian Film Institute about storytelling and immersion in games, set in 14th century Oslo.

• Built a prototype with the Snowcastle team and external partners.
• Modelled Akershus Fortress as it stood in 1363 from map data, and helped build the game world with historical characters.

• Unreal Engine
• C++
• Blueprints
• Level design
• Prototyping

Driver apps and gamification

Posten Norge · UX designer

1 / 4

I drove for Posten from 2009. While I studied, I tested the driver apps Prodapp and Glow. Then I pitched an in-house route optimisation algorithm to the head of data science and new technology, and Posten hired me into the UX team.

• Advised the Prodapp team from the driver perspective.
• Ran a workshop on game theory and gamification for the Glow team at Bring. We designed solutions together, based on game theory.

Result Presented game theory and gamification to the whole Posten group.

• UX design
• Gamification
• Game design

Motivero

Posten Norge · Designer, later developer

1 / 3

A gamification app that shows drivers their own numbers for quality, productivity and customer satisfaction.

• Started as the designer with responsibility for system and UX design, and moved more into development over time.
• Turned the numbers into points, achievements and leaderboards. Customer satisfaction came from NPS and SMS comments in Medallia.
• The team grew from me and one developer to five people.

Result Rolled out to all home delivery departments in Oslo.

• React
• TypeScript
• HTML & CSS
• Docker
• Gamification
• Systems design
• UX design
• Medallia

Digital twin

Posten Norge · Future technologist

A 3D model of the parcel terminals with real parcel flow, to find out if it gave value to different stakeholders.

• Built in Unreal from map data and CAD drawings of the terminals.
• Simulated parcels and conveyor belts.

• Unreal Engine
• C++
• Blueprints
• Prototyping

Virtual office and TV studio

Posten Norge · Technical designer

During the pandemic I built a 3D copy of our office in Unreal, for presentations in Teams and for coworking in VR.

• Webcam and slide feeds went into Unreal, and a multi-camera production streamed back to Teams.
• We explored how a team could meet and work together in the same office in VR.

• Unreal Engine
• Blueprints
• VR / Oculus

Bilpakkespillet

Posten Norge · Designer and developer

1 / 3

A VR game where you stack parcels in a delivery van. We made it to find out what VR can do for training.

• We found that nothing beats VR for immersion.
• The next step was real routes and addresses, so a driver could plan in 3D how to pack a route. I left before that happened.

Result Posten used it as a demo at technology fairs for years.

• Unreal Engine
• VR / Oculus
• Blueprints
• Game design

Resize

Advokatfirmaet Fremmer · Designer and developer

A legal tech tool that guides companies through restructuring, where the law sets strict rules for each step.

• Designed and built the user experience.
• Made a complex legal field usable for people without legal training.

• Appfarm
• Figma
• UX design

22julisenteret.no

22. juli-senteret · Frontend developer

1 / 2

The website of the July 22 Centre, built in Next.js with Sanity CMS.

• Worked directly with the client and led the work to find their real needs in long wish lists, and to prioritise them.
• Implemented design with the designers, built new features in the CMS and fixed bugs.

• React
• Next.js
• JavaScript
• Sanity CMS
• SASS
• HTML & CSS

Bistandsresultater

Norad · Frontend developer

1 / 2

The Norad portal for the results of Norwegian development aid. A web app with a lot of data and charts.

• Refactored older code into a cleaner architecture that was easier to build on.
• Made data and charts load faster, among other things with better use of Redux.
• Built charts in ChartJS and D3.

• React
• Redux
• TypeScript
• Material UI
• ChartJS
• D3
• HTML & CSS
• Azure DevOps

Member platform and design system

Fagforbundet · Frontend developer

1 / 3

The digital platform of Fagforbundet, for members, union representatives, employers and staff.

• Had a central role in the shared Angular design system, published as npm packages.
• Worked with the designers on how to turn the visual identity into a reusable system.
• Moved the union representative portal from Vue to Angular, and pulled large parts of it into shared components.
• Built on the employer portal, where employers log in with IDP, mainly to send in lists of union dues deducted from pay.

Result All six applications use the same design system.

• Angular
• Vue
• TypeScript
• HTML & CSS
• Design systems
• npm
• GitHub Actions
• Docker

MinID and MinID Elements

Digdir · Frontend developer

1 / 4

MinID is a login for public services in Norway, used by millions. I ran the MinID in schools pilot and built MinID Elements, a Web Components library based on Designsystemet.

• Built components with the same API across all MinID frontends, documented in Storybook.
• Added end-to-end tests in Playwright, and tested across browsers and devices in BrowserStack.

Result Pupils got MinID at school, with their teachers confirming their identity.

• Web Components
• TypeScript
• HTML & CSS
• Design systems
• Storybook
• Playwright
• BrowserStack
• WCAG

Lifelines

Ballestad Studios · Designer and developer

My own game. A cozy roguelike life-sim set in Norway, where you watch characters stuck in unhealthy patterns, find out what holds them back and help them become more independent.

• I do everything from concept and systems design to code and UI.
• Autonomous characters with activity choice and models for needs and resources.
• Makes a complex simulation readable through visible behaviour, visual feedback and clear choices.

• Godot
• GDScript
• Game design
• Systems design
• UX design
• Prototyping

Rook

Ballestad Studios · Developer

My personal AI agent on the Anthropic API, with a full agent loop, tool use and multi-step workflows.

• TypeScript
• Bun
• Anthropic API

pm-board-cli

Ballestad Studios · Developer

1 / 4

A project tool for collaboration between people and AI agents. Published on npm.

• Stores issues, decisions and plans as local files, so AI agents can manage them fast.
• A dedicated CLI that sanitises AI output and manages context windows in large projects.
• Breaks work into a chain from idea to design document, plan and tasks that an agent can pick up without reading the whole codebase.

• Node
• Express
• JavaScript
• REST APIs
• npm
• Claude Code

Gymfile

Ballestad Studios · Designer and developer

A training app for iPhone and Apple Watch. An agent skill does the planning, and the app is the interface on the gym floor. In development.

• SwiftUI
• UX design

Time Turtle

Ballestad Studios · Full-stack developer

1 / 3

Time tracking and invoicing as a specialised, spreadsheet-like tool that you run from the keyboard. I wanted a time tracker I never had to touch the mouse to use.

• Role-based access enforced on the server, and optimistic concurrency for simultaneous saves.
• Runs on my own Kubernetes cluster with Argo CD, Sealed Secrets, health checks and nightly backup. OpenTofu and Ansible define the cluster.

Result I run it and use it every day for time tracking and invoicing.

• React
• TypeScript
• Express
• SQLite
• Auth & RBAC
• REST APIs
• Vitest
• Playwright
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Argo CD
• OpenTofu
• Ansible
• Proxmox
• GitHub Actions

Time Turtle on .NET

Ballestad Studios · Backend developer

I am rewriting the Time Turtle backend in ASP.NET Core with Entity Framework and PostgreSQL. I started in September 2026.

• Cookie login, membership per company, and Data Protection keys in Postgres so logins survive a restart.
• Integration tests in xUnit with WebApplicationFactory and Testcontainers against a real Postgres.

• ASP.NET Core
• EF Core
• PostgreSQL
• C#
• Auth & RBAC
• xUnit
• Testcontainers