Welcome to my visual resume! It starts from the beginning of my career and brings us to today.
High Voltage Software 1999- 2003
In 1999, I was hired by High Voltage Software in Hoffman Estates, IL as an Environment Artist, my first job in the industry. I worked here for 4 years, learned so much, and met many of who I consider my best friends to this day.
I primarily modeled environments and built props in 3DS Max for these projects. For Ground Control we used Lightwave. Proprietary engines were used.
Highlights during this time were working on Paperboy 64 for Nintendo 64, Ground Control: Dark Conspiracy for the PC, and Stitch: Experiment 626 for the Playstation 2.
During Stitch, I had the privilege of visiting Disney World in Florida to meet the directors and discuss the direction for the game. It was very exciting!
Shipped Titles
2000. Gotta love those old monitors!
Found at the National Videogame Museum in Dallas, TX!
Ion Storm Austin 2003- 2004
In 2003, I was elated to snag a position at Ion Storm Austin! I was hired to work on Thief Deadly Shadows and also worked on Deus Ex Invisible War. Both PC and Xbox Titles.
Here I was hired to bridge the gap between artist and designer. For more specifics on that, please see my portfolio page.
Both games were developed in a modified version of the Unreal 2 Engine. I primarily worked in-engine, fine tuning levels using lighting and prebuilt props to facilitate the gameplay. I worked on both projects until they shipped.
Working here was very exciting for me as I was able to work on franchises I already knew and loved and work with industry veterans like Randy Smith and Warren Spector. I also attended industry events like E3 and ran demos of Thief on the show floor.
Shipped Titles:
Wideload Games - A Disney Interactive Studio 2004- 2012
In 2004, after a job offer with a company in Japan fell through, I went back to Chicago to take a job at Wideload Games. I was excited to work with Alex Seropian and a bunch of ex-Bungie staff on their weird game called Stubbs The Zombie.
My job title was “Art Commando” and I was initially brought in to “fix” all the levels in Stubbs. They had major scaling issues and other various problems. Despite my title I was more of a designer, taking these grey box levels and getting them gameplay ready.
After Stubbs we made Guilty Party, which ultimately led to Disney acquiring the studio. Both Guilty Party and Marvel Avengers Initiative were games we shipped as an internal Disney Studio.
Every title I worked on after Stubbs I was taking levels from the grey box phase all the way through to completion. At Wideload I also had the opportunity to lead a small team of environment artists to help with this process. We were still a small enough team where I was able to have a lot of ownership over the levels and get involved in a variety of different aspects of level design.
Shipped Titles:
Team Wideload at the annual Midwest GameDev Kickball tournament. I started this tournament and it continues to this day!
Pax East 2012 - Indie Megabooth
Sony 2013 E3 Press Conference
Shipped Title:
Ragtag Studio 2012- 2021
In 2012 one of my colleagues and I decided it was time to take a stab at starting our own studio and developing our own game. Ragtag Studio was born! We made a couple of simple iPhone games, and eventually Ray’s the Dead, a pikmin-like strategy game inspired by our time on Stubbs the Zombie. We chose the Unity engine to develop it.
Starting a studio of three requires everyone to take on multiple roles, and I did exactly that. Officially I was the lead designer but also spearheaded production as well as business development.
This was a very exciting time. We secured a spot at the Indie Megabooth and pitched an early demo to publishers. We ran a Kickstarter campaign. We formed a close relationship with Sony and our game was announced on stage during E3 2013. We landed a publishing contract with Adult Swim. I had a lot of fun figuring all of this out.
As for actual development, it was here that I really developed my design chops. Ray’s the Dead featured more than 30 levels with all kinds of different gameplay inspirations. I designed levels on paper, and grey boxed them. I used visual scripting to prototype and implement the gameplay. I also implemented audio and cinematics. I applied lighting, textures and set dressing to make all the environments look great. It was a heck of a lot of work but I had fun doing absolutely everything related to level creation.
In October of 2020 Ray’s the Dead shipped on Steam and PlayStation 4. The process was long and extremely difficult, we made every mistake we could possibly make, but I learned so much from the experience. It ultimately was not a commercial success but I am extremely proud of the game we made.
Tanuki Games, Independent Contractor 2021- Today
After 8 years of working on Ray’s the Dead, I needed a break.
In 2018 I opened a board game store in Austin, TX called Tanuki Games. As I type this, Tanuki Games is celebrating its 7 year anniversary and is thriving far beyond my wildest expectations. It is considered one of the best board game stores in the country and is affectionally known for its ability to seek out and secure games that no other store has. I’m extremely proud of my store and the community that has developed around it.
But what most of my customers don’t know is that in my heart, I am a video game developer.
For a couple of years during 2021 and 2022, I kept one foot in the video game industry by taking design contract work at a local company called Farbridge. At Farbridge I helped with a few interesting projects.
On Rumbleverse I worked in Unreal Engine 4 and populated the open world with collectibles designed to lead the player around to interesting locations. I also worked in Blueprints to create destructible objects that the player could interact with.
I helped spearhead the design on Homeworld VR. I assisted with the initial design documents, and worked with the programmers to develop the mission scripting tool with Unity’s Visual Scripting engine, known then as Bolt.
For the last couple of years I have solely focused on Tanuki Games. But the fire burns bright and I have decided it is time to seek an exciting project to bring me back to game development full time.
Thanks for reading! I’m excited to discover the next section in this timeline.
