Mobile Games

Summary

My career working in Mobile Games.

2012 - 2016

Game Design Director
Principal Game Designer
Creative Writer
Producer
Sr. Game Designer
Expert Consultant

Game Design Director

I worked closely with our CCO, the Hollywood IP Licensors, Key-stakeholders, and collaborated with several external Developers to ensure that all 5J endeavors properly handled the IP, and the games were Fun, Engaging and Successful.

Designed / Directed F2P mobile games for Asian / Chinese mobile markets (5J)
Co-Lead the creative design and game-vision for multiple projects; establishing creative goals, product scope, pacing, and game features
Collaborated cross-discipline with creative teams, art, production, and engineering dev teams, to effectively implement new game features, systems, core-loops, and craft immersive, well balanced, gameplay experiences.
Author for Game Deconstructions Decks - critical gameplay evaluations and breakdowns
Designed and pitched new and innovative game features to teams and product stakeholders

PRINCIPAL GAME DESIGNER

I helped drive the creative and design vision, offer critical design feedback, set creative goals, author of game design docs, new concept and creative pitches,
Passionate for creating fun and entertaining, interactive player experiences, and developing core gameplay features for Mid-core/Casual F2P Mobile games, and AAA-Console games.
Key-contributor to help define the product design goals, pillars, targets for success, and creative direction of games throughout development.
Intuitive understanding of players’ psychological motivations, applications of two-factor theory, entertainment through player interactions, and practical user experiences and flows.
Author of several game decks, pitch new concepts, critical game deconstructions, game design feature documents, specs, GDOs, one-sheets, wireframes, FTUE designs, UX flows, etc. (samples available)
Designed and pitched new and innovative game features to teams and product stakeholders
Strong communication skills, visual presentation decks, and graphic design sensibilities.

Creative Writer

Writer's Room Contributor
- helping to craft the game's narrative, story beats, characters development, and core game progressions
Character Development
- working closely with notable Mech Concept Artists and the Legendary Pictures creative team to develop new Jaegers for the Pacific Rim Universe canon. Design & character director for several of these new Jaegers, providing detailed character descriptions, background stories, technology details, cool names, and helping to develop these characters through multiple rounds of feedback and iteration. (examples available)
Licensor / Creative Relationships
- working closely with Hollywood Studios:
  - Legendary Pictures, Lionsgate Entertainment, MGM, Universal Studios, Miramax, Hartbeat Productions, and the El Rey Network

Production EXPERIENCE

Established product scope, pacing, features, core-loops, mechanics, systems, player intention, strategies, asset creation
Collaborated to establish and track design-related deliverables, task lists, estimates, schedules, milestones and overall project goals as necessary
Contributed to design game live-events and updates with weekly/monthly cadence for live-ops releases.
Collaborated to define game taxonomies, analyze live data, KPIs, and player feedback to balance and optimize the live game experience.
Participate in project stand-ups, meetings, interviews and performance reviews
Collaborated to establish and track design-related deliverables, task lists, estimates, schedules, milestones

The Games

I worked with 5J for several years and helped kick-off multiple games.

My title was Game Design Director, but my Role was so much more.

RoboCop: Delta City

Developed @ Playside Studios

Licensed through MGM

Game Design Director

Principal Game Designer

City Builder & RPG Combat game
Game FTUE Deconstruction
Narrative Design / Writers Room Contributor (w/ MGM and original RoboCop movie writers)
Creative Development
Movie Adaptation & Brand Integration

Hartland

Developed @ Sproing

Licensed through Hartbeat Productions & Lionsgate Entertainment

Game Design Director

Celebrity Adventure game
Principal Game Designer for Stage-mode concept and systems
Creative Development of systems and characters.
Creative Writers Room Contributor

Run From Dusk Till Dawn

Developed @ Playside Studios

Licensed via Miramax Pictures & El Rey Network

Game Design Director

Principal Game Designer

Horror / Runner game
Game FTUE Deconstruction
Narrative Design (Season 3 integration)
Creative Development
Writers Room Contributor (w/ El Rey Network / Miramax)
released via Google early access

Pacific Rim: Breach Wars

Developed @ Kung Fu Factory

Licensed through Legendary Pictures

Game Design Director

Match-3 Combat game
Game FTUE Deconstruction

Creative Director

Collaboration with Legendary Pictures creative team to develop dozens of new Jaegers & Kaiju, and to expand the Pacific Rim universe
Contributed to Lore and Background Stories

Kubo: A Samurai Quest

Developed @ Playside Studios

Licensed through Laika Studios

& Universal Pictures

5J Game Design Director

Principal Game Designer

Game FTUE Deconstruction
Narrative Design
Match-3 Adventure and Puzzle game
Creative Development
Movie Adaptation & Brand Integration (Universal Pictures, Laika Studios)

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Sr. Game Designer

Mission Designer

Experience Designer
Unity Engine 4 - Encounter implementation, creative moments, game balancing.

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Star Wars: “Smuggler”

(working title)
(game not released)
Licensed via Lucasfilm Francisco, CA.
(August 2014 - April 2015)

Lead Combat Designer

Star Wars IP Consultant

Levels, Combat and Missions
Vision holder for the games combat experience
Spec’d all combat design features, modes, systems, game strategy, leveling and balancing, asset creation, asset management, mission level design
Defined and tuned all combat mechanics, metrics and behaviors
Narrative Design
Creative Development
Movie Adaptation & Brand Integration (Lucasfilm)
Defined the 3C’s Camera, character and control
Developed designed user end tools, and established process for content design
Complete narrative overview of missions and combat goals
Work closely with all disciplines and pods to ensure game milestones are met

ZYNGA Mobile

(October 2011 – February 2014)

Principal Game Designer

Designed the entire player experience for Celebrity Challenge.
Featuring Celebrity Teams, Leaderboard, Playing Words for Charity
Designed and implemented Celebrity game play-back mode, including several hundred lines of celeb chat
Game FTUE Deconstruction
Creative Development
Talent Wrangling
“With Friends” Brand Integration
Wireframes and UX / UI design

* I’m proud to say that the WwF Celebrity Challenge raised over a million dollars in charitable donations within its first week!

Game Designer

Contributor for Levels, Characters, Features, Narrative, and managed the game content
Worked with all disciplines to ensure milestone goals are reached
Helped define the running-game design mechanics
Hand-crafted hundreds of running levels
Defined game metrics and tuned game difficulty balance
Designed Bull characters and Story Mode