Dec 2021 – Oct 2023 · 1 yr 10 mos · SF Bay Area · Remote

• Founding team member, built and led art team for a AAA UE5 RPG in the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar IP; art style development/ style guides, roadmaps, pipelines, avatar system design.
• ⬥ Unannounced UE5 RPG – PC, PS5, XBOX

Feb 2020 – Present · 6 yrs 4 mos · San Francisco Bay Area · Remote

• Art direction + leadership for game dev studios and publishers. Clients include:
• ⬥ <STEALTH STARTUPS> – Character/avatar, UI, look/feel direction for mobile & PC/console projects.
• ⬥ NIGHT STONE GAMES – Retro-RPG prototype (env, lighting, characters, UI), style guide, game design.
• ⬥ GALLIUM STUDIOS – UI + branding style focus and art team mentorship for Will Wright’s Proxi project.
• ⬥ WB GAMES – Art leadership at WB Boston; focus on mentorship + accelerating team potential.
• ⬥ REDEMPTION GAMES – UI concepts, art direction, and storyboards for a narrative title.
• ⬥ GAME VISION – Style, UI, and content consultation for overseas animation and game clients.
• ⬥ FACEBOOK GAMING – Sponsored talk on content creation best practices for western markets.
• ⬥ THOUGHT PENNIES – UE4 RPG prototype development (env, lighting, rigs, anims, UI, FX) plus style guides, branding and presentation materials for multiple AAA IP, original, and indie pixel pitches.

Feb 2020 – Sep 2020 · 7 mos

• Foundational work for a new studio that would revive a classic MMORPG franchise for console and PC. Created style guides, game mode mockups, and slick presentations for design and business case decks. Concept and key art direction plus logo design.
• ⬥ Unannounced UE4 RPG – PC, PS5, XBOX SERIES X

Feb 2017 – Jan 2020 · 2 yrs 11 mos · San Francisco, California · On-site

• Storyscape was the high-bar HBO/ AMC/ FX-like play in interactive narrative gaming, lauded for its quality art, writing, and inclusive representation. Original shows aired alongside IPs like James Cameron’s TITANIC and The X-Files. I built the art style, art production pipelines, and art/ cine team.
• Developed a high-quality illustrative character art look. Established pipelines for art creation, review, and implementation. Hired, trained, mentored, and managed artists and cinematic directors plus freelancers/ outsource studios to create art for 10 shows in popular genres – period, romance, comedy, drama, horror, fantasy. Production design for flagship shows’ characters, likenesses, and locations plus all key art and logos. Best practice and IP guides. Hands-on tech art, paintovers.
• ⬥ Storyscape – iOS/Android, FoxNext/Disney, 2019 – App Store 4.8★

Aug 2013 – Feb 2015 · 1 yr 6 mos

• Creative consultation for 3rd-party publishing partners in China, Korea, Japan, Europe. My strike team of creative directors, editors, and translators handled all content culturalization and reskinning for western markets. Drove UI/UX best practices, art reskins, and audio (sfx, score, VO) re-recording plus L10N/ story editing/ script writing, and creative (key art, branding/ logos, App Store copy, CI).
• ⬥ The Hunger Games: Panem Rising – iOS/ Android, Kabam, 2014
• ⬥ Lord of the Rings: Legends of Middle-earth – iOS/ Android, Kabam, 2014
• ⬥ Creature Academy – iOS/ Android, Netmarble, 2014
• ⬥ Metal Skies – iOS/ Android, WeMade, 2014
• ⬥ Blades of Excalibur – web, JoyYou, 2014 – full reskin
• ⬥ Ravenmarch – web, GameReign, 2014 – full reskin
• ⬥ Wartune: Hall of Heroes – iOS/ Android, 7th Road/ Hoolai, 2013
• ⬥ Runes of War – iOS/ Android, Pearl In Palm, 2013

Jan 2011 – Jan 2017 · 6 yrs

• Studio leadership plus art direction in multi-/ single-project capacities. Grew SF studio’s art team with top talent from Blizzard, Bungie, ILM, EA, CCP, Weta, DreamWorks. Fostered an art community noted for its effective skill-sharing, camaraderie, and efficiency. Created style guides, pre-viz mockups, concept art plus hands-on prototype development. Established hiring, mentoring, dev best practices. Worked swimmingly with IP partners. Art Leader in the latter day “KRPG” studio with a focus on action and strategy RPGs.
• ⬥ Pocket Tactics (working title for tactical RPG prototype) – iOS/ Android, unpublished
• ⬥ STAR WARS: Uprising – iOS/ Android, 2015 – Editor’s Choice Awards
• ⬥ Drakonsoul RPG – iOS/ Android, unpublished
• ⬥ The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age, 2013 – Web/ Facebook
• ⬥ The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth – iOS/ Android, 2012 – $100m+ rev
• ⬥ Trojan War: Rage of Zeus, 2012 – Web
• ⬥ Final Eden – Web, 2012 – full reskin, <4 months
• ⬥ The Godfather: Five Families – Web/ Facebook, 2012
• ⬥ EdgeWorld – Web/ Facebook, 2012
• ⬥ Dragons of Atlantis – Web/ Facebook, 2011

Jan 2006 – Dec 2010 · 4 yrs 11 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• Role grew from hands-on art to directing teams with multiple leads to overseeing operations on multiple projects. Established and validated art styles, maintained quality through critique and mentoring. Led tools development for author-friendly pipelines, anticipated issues then pushed for resolutions, built robust network of freelancers and vendors. Designed avatar systems for 3 games.
• ⬥ BEYONCÉ: Star Power – XBOX 360 Kinect/ PS3 Move/ Wii, unpublished
• ⬥ Disney’s Tangled – Wii/ DS, Disney Interactive, 2010
• ⬥ The SIMS 3: Life Moments – Wii, EA – multiplayer + full technical eval. for console ports, 2010
• ⬥ Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter – Wii, THQ, 2009
• ⬥ My Amazing Story – XBOX 360, Microsoft Game Studios, unpublished
• ⬥ Booty Blocks – iPhone/ facebook, 2008
• ⬥ Brain Quest: Grade 3&4 and Grade 5&6 – PSP, EA, 2008
• ⬥ Battle Of The Bands – Wii, THQ, 2008
• ⬥ Smarty Pants – Wii, EA, 2007
• ⬥ After Burner: Black Falcon – PSP, SEGA, 2006
• ⬥ Conan: Queen of the Black Coast – PSP, unpublished

Apr 2000 – Dec 2005 · 5 yrs 8 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• Wore many hats in this 9-person startup – did everything one could do in game art (concepts, UI, models, textures, rigs, environments, lighting, VFX, animation, load screens, &c.) plus marketing/ box/ manual/ site art, technical art (optimization, MaxScripts/ tools, collision/ physics, palettes) and all team art management (tracking + version control, scheduling, outsourcing, hiring).
• ⬥ INFECTED – PSP, Majesco, 2005
• ⬥ Armed and Dangerous – PC/ XBOX, LucasArts, 2003 – Award-winning
• ⬥ Giants: Citizen Kabuto – PC/ XBOX, Interplay, 2000 – Multiple Award-winning

Mar 2004 – Nov 2004 · 8 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• Environment art and character concept art. Built, textured, lit campaign levels and multiplayer maps, and designed the protagonist for a Deus Ex franchise product.
• ⬥ Project: Snowblind (Deus Ex franchise), PS2/ XBOX, 2004, Eidos

Sep 1994 – Apr 2000 · 5 yrs 7 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• Led original IP projects to fill out Accolade’s sports-heavy portfolio with high-quality “core” action titles. I enjoyed a high level of autonomy over my teams and projects, plus direct contact with the game press and use of cutting-edge SGI tech for some of the earliest lip-sync and 3D rendering in games. As a flexible generalist I did ingame pixel/ painted/ 3D art, concepts, cinematics, marketing.
• ⬥ Slave Zero – PC/ Dreamcast, 1999, SEGA
• ⬥ Deadlock – PC/ Mac, 1996 – Editor’s Choice Award

May 1994 – Sep 1994 · 4 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

• ⬥ Jack Nicklaus 5 – PC, 1996 – ★★★★★ rating + Editor’s Choice Award
• ⬥ Hardball 6 – PC, 1996
• ⬥ Hardball 4 – Genesis, 1994
• ⬥ Unnecessary Roughness '95 – PC/ SNES/ Genesis, 1994
• ⬥ Zero Tolerance – Genesis, 1994 – first and only FPS on classic consoles

Apr 1993 – Aug 1994 · 1 yr 4 mos

• Taught two summer sessions of comic book illustration and storytelling in the Summer Art Experience program.

Mar 1992 – Sep 1998 · 6 yrs 6 mos · Berkeley, CA

• Comics/ small-press self-publishing collective.
• I was one of 6 founding members and business partners, all self-motivated art-school punks, and primarily in charge of graphics (logos, branding) and desktop paste-up/ pre-press production in this long-running labor-of-love that was more of a band than a business. During the first few years we published over a dozen books directly (many featured in the Diamond and Whole Earth catalogs), in addition to our own self-run mail order catalog featuring over 100 small press books from individual creators across the country. During the existence of the business our volunteer-run collective grew to over 20 people, featured in two gallery shows (at the UC Theater and Cartoon Art Museum), exhibited at SDCC and APE, hosted special events at Barnes & Noble and other local bookstores, enjoyed coverage in The Contra Costa Times and Bay Guardian newspapers, and was key in establishing the fledgling independent/ small-press/ self-publishing community of the 1990's. Puppy Toss alumni have become arts educators, independent publishers, professional comic book artists & writers, game art directors, and Pixar animators.