Resume

Experience

GREE International, Inc. 02/2015 to Present San Francisco, CA

Senior Project Manager

Manage the day-to-day and quarterly operations for a 45 person game development studio in Vancouver B.C. for f2p (free-to-play) mobile / tablet RPG game called Knight & Dragons
Own the release management / publishing submissions of monthly milestone builds on Google Play and iTunes
Provide project management tools to make dev team more organized by being more predictable, delivering on-time, quality products / new feature development
Experience with Live Operations events and monthly OTA content scheduling
Transitioned Live Operations from Vancouver, BC to GREE Berlin, DE studio

Rocket Games, Inc. 04/2014 to 09/2014 San Francisco, CA

Rocket Games is a “start-up” created by a few ex-Zynga employees. I was approached to lead the office while considering an ownership position with the company. I decided that this investment was not the right direction for me.

Game Designer and Office Manager

Integrated slot machines in Unity, game configurations and balancing in MS Excel using proprietary slot machine game engine / tech
Authored slot machine design documents communicating overall direction, theme, and gameplay mechanics for internal and external development teams
Investigated and secured art and audio outsourcing partners; provided daily feedback with internal Lead Artist to ensure project clarity and timeliness
Assisted with key word search, authoring iTunes and Google Play ASO (App Store Optimization), and integration of in-game advertising
Assisted with configuring the app infrastructure and testing builds for individual downloadable slot machines and new app / game releases
Day-to-day studio operations, office services (internet, food, water, supplies), floor plan / furniture setup, accounting / vendor invoices, and authored studio / company policies

Zynga, Inc. 06/2008 to 04/2014 San Francisco, CA

I was recruited to Zynga to help establish a robust game development and project management philosophy that was lacking in the early development stages of the firm. While managing the product / feature lifecycles for several projects, I also served a mentor and trainer of other producers and helped with the transition of acquired gaming studios and companies. I made sure these firms operated within our guidelines on project management and game development and understood the goals that Zynga placed on them.

Lead Producer – Zynga Poker 04/2013 to 04/2014

Managed and provided quarterly reviews for eight (internal) direct reports and three (internal) managers
Managed the quarterly studio roadmap schedule
Hosted weekly Studio Roadmap meetings w/ cross discipline leads and studio leadership (plan vs. actuals)
Managed the day-to-day schedule (feature ramps, releases, and unplanned hotfixes) for live game studio
Raised risks and quickly identified solutions
Established studio processes; i.e. pre-production pipeline, cross-discipline costing, and playthroughs
Successfully planned product development to work around holidays, Company events and other unplanned outages
Standardized pipeline flow and definition of pre-production process
Responsible for quarterly production studio goals
Trained production team on overall studio process and best practices from Invest & Express division: Costing Sign-off, On-Call Protocol, Pre-Production Process, Exec/Team Playthroughs, Versioning / Project Management, JIRA, and Poker Roadmap to name a few
Studio Staffing POC - Tracked all headcount needs in collaboration with leads and People Operations
Maintained consistent and clear communication of development progress with external departments
Mentored Production staff
Fostered partnerships within our department and throughout all cross disciplines
Helped other cross disciplines establish their respective quarterly goals in relation to the studio at large

Lead Producer – CastleVille 12/2012 to 03/2013

Responsible for the day-to-day project management of CastleVille feature development
Established team alignment between individuals, pods, and the studio at large
Provided clear consistent and communication of all progress between (San Francisco, Dallas, and Bangalore) studios
Successfully planned all simultaneous product development and release timeliness to coincide with business goals
Reduced the average feature release time, overall build stability, and release quality through better tracking tools; i.e. burn down charts, improved JIRA / pod project management, and costing
Provided guidance on all phases of cadence releases from: one-pager to final spec, costing, development, iteration, testing, release, triaging / post release support, community, customer support monitoring, and on-call coverage
Managed the training and handoff for a live game transition between San Francisco and Bangalore studios
Championed Customer Support (CS) to reduce ticket count by prioritizing and allocating cross-discipline resources for pertinent bug fixes and player frustration issues
Owned the Production Org’s quarterly Objectives and Key Results (OKR’s)
Conducted weekly 1:1 mentoring with internal and external staff on improving situational awareness, perspective (context), overall studio process, best practices, and expectations

FrontierVille 2 (New IP - Cancelled)

Contributed to FrontierVille 2 pre-production and green light process, established the project calendar and milestone defintions / goals for next divisional project
Worked in tandem with San Francisco and Eugene Art, Design and Engineering leadership on pitch deck
Responsible for creating high level staffing and project milestone schedule from Concept to Live Product
Began preliminary set up for project infrastructure

PirateVille (New IP - Cancelled)

Audited internal studio and external dependencies (i.e. Payments, eCrime, etc.) on remaining work to be completed for new IP launch

Created studio milestone schedule with definitions on what the team needed to accomplish in order to launch game
Managed the product development for the FTUE (first time user experience) and Start Now v2 pods
Inventoried the existing 21 step FTUE and helped bring cohesion with Design Leads and studio executives by providing suggestions on simplifying gameplay into a more meaningful / natural progression

Senior Producer – CastleVille 08/2012 to 11/2012

Managed and provided quarterly reviews for eight (five internal + three external) direct reports and two (one internal + one external) managers
Helped repair external communication and relationship between Dallas and San Francisco studios
Created several process and consistency improvements for the studio
Prepared weekly and quarterly Production reports
Conducted weekly 1:1 meetings with all direct reports to provide mentorship, resolution conflict, and q&a
Instituting “best practice” process improvements to the San Francisco studio
Prepared transition plan between Dallas and San Francisco Production teams
Standardized all pods to offer consistent project management and predictable releases to stakeholders

Senior Producer – FrontierVille / Pioneer Trail 09/2010 to 07/2012

Responsible for the day-to-day project management of FrontierVille feature development
Managed the release lifecycles for ~50 features and three game expansions
Managed five (external) direct reports and two (external) managers
Trained external partners on how Zynga operates (Baltimore, MD, Bangalore, IN, and Eugene, OR)
Instrumental in the organization, staff planning and timing logistics for a smooth studio transition with the acquisition of Buzz Monkey Software vs. divisional priorities
Responsible for the relationship and production training of external development studio, Zynga Eugene
Created and maintained the Feature Release Milestone Calendar to better standardize all cross-discipline feature development into a multi-step milestone calendar
Successfully planned product development to work around annual holidays, company events and other unplanned outages
Clear communication of feature development progress between Zynga San Francisco and Eugene studios throughout all feature life-cycles
Raised risks and quickly identified solutions
Increased GREEN release health from 23% to 45% and reduced RED release health from 39% to 19%
Fostered partnerships within our department and throughout all cross disciplines
Improved our Producer’s overall project management skills to effectively handle unplanned challenges
Championed our Customer Support (CS) efforts by prioritizing fixes, allocating cross-discipline resources and scheduling point releases every Tuesday to help reduce excessive (6k daily) CS ticket levels
Organized Production lunches and to better unify the Zynga “StoryVille” divisional Production Org
Owned the quarterly Production team Objective and Key Results (OKR's)
Was consistently an excellent Production partner to my internal and external Product Management, Art, Design, Dev, QA, PA&S, and Community Leads
Transition readiness for Bangalore, IN
Contributed to establishing live game studio (night and weekend) on-call crisis prioritization protocol
Utilized and learned from People Operations management and training classes

Producer – FishVille 07/2009 to 08/2010

Member of the initial concept team through final game hand-off to the Zynga Bangalore studio
Scheduled and adhered to initial aggressive / experimental four week development schedule
Managed FishVille marketplace; brainstormed / surveyed aquatic themes and created roadmap schedule
Spearheaded and executed the content pipeline earning $10.1 million over 13 months

Co-authored Production and Art job descriptions for Bangalore in addition to interviewing all candidates
Internal & External Art team manager (from concept, costing, creation, asset integration, and SLA cadence)
Hosted executive game demonstrations
Referred over 35+ cross discipline candidates throughout six years
Interviewed over 125+ cross discipline candidates for local and international studios throughout six years

Associate Producer – DragonWars, Guild of Heroes, and Zynga Poker 06/2008 to 06/2009

Cloned (MafiaWars) xWars game platform into fantasy genre
Managed artists, engineers, and designers to make the first 3D dungeon crawler on Facebook
Grew team from three to 27 and custom tailored development personnel for a fantasy / MMO
Co-introduced Agile Scrum to Zynga
Created studio capacity calculator in Excel Google Docs to assist Zynga Poker dev pod management
Managed 11 international and domestic art and three audio outsourcing partners

LucasArts 08/2007 to 06/2008 San Francisco, CA

Shortly after arriving at LucasArts (LEC), they experienced significant financial issues, a new President, and subsequently implemented a 30% layoff with newer employees being at the forefront of the RIF.

Associate Producer

Managed $300k production budget of cinematic outsourcing for pre-rendered full motion video (FMV’s)
Authored outsourcing milestone schedules & contracts
Quickly established and fostered an effective relationship with external development partners
Maintained the approval process for all art
Collaborated with script writers for game story outsourcing
Collaborated with sound designers for game audio outsourcing
Worked in conjunction with studio Operations to prepare 1st party submissions

Production point of contact (P.O.C.) for: International, Operations, Marketing, Creative Services, Web, PR, Finance, Quality Assurance, Audio, IT, Mastering Lab, Compliance, Consumer Insights and Business Affairs
Managed the submissions process for game ratings certification with ESRB and international rating boards
Reviewed weekly / milestone builds to provide economic solutions towards development constraints
Authored and processed all milestone review documentation
Managed the external source code escrow (Iron Mountain)
Authored, maintained and published the production team calendar
Provided game demos to 1st party’s and press
Created milestone review presentations
Conducted extensive outsourcing due diligence
Communicated strategic objectives for the production team, External Production department, and studio

Stormfront Studios, Inc. 06/2005 to 05/2007 San Rafael, CA

Stormfront (SFS) needed to staff up across all disciplines for the aggressively green lighted Eragon game based on the New York Times Children’s Books Best-Selling list and upcoming 20th Century Fox feature film. I was hired on as level designer from my most recent experience at Novalogic, but contributed to a multitude of creative and project management roles while there. I survived three rounds of layoffs before the final studio closure.

Associate Producer

Managed day-to-day production including the development team schedule
Managed four cinematic artists & two art interns
Managed the production of in-game art assets and cinematics
Managed the submission process to publishers and maintained the approval process for all art
Sustained communication between team members, vendors, consultants, and publishers
Hosted weekly team meetings to discuss project status, identify bottlenecks, and create solutions
Organized art style guides, audio, design, and technical documentation
Assisted the Audio department for localization needs and optimization of voice over (VO) assets
Created in-game cinematics and character scripted events
Designed and implemented single & co-op levels for an action/adventure title
Created rough environments in 3D, level logic, and camera placement
Created and maintained a physical and digital Art department archive
Researched, prepared, and followed through on all requisitions for team equipment needs
Assisted with the implementation of strategic objectives for the studio
Promoted inspiration and motivation to the team and studio

Gaming Industry and Related Fields: 1997 to 2005

NovaLogic, Inc. – (Level Designer / Mission Builder) Calabasas, CA

Designed and implemented single & multi player levels for various campaigns
Conceptualized & illustrated additional terrains to maximize engine strengths
Converted levels to support other game modes / types (King of the Hill into Capture the Flag, etc.)
Created layout map screens, loading screens, and toolset thumbnails using Photoshop

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. – (Contract Game Designer / Concept Artist) Santa Monica, CA

Created 11 custom game design concepts for the James Bond 40 Disc DVD Box Set
Authored design / development documentation
Designed storyboards for game play environments, User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX)

Black Ops Entertainment, LLC – (Game Designer) Santa Monica, CA

Wrote level walkthroughs/game play mechanics for Game Design Document (GDD)
Implemented gameplay encounters with AI and customized scripts for in-game objects and particle effects
Utilized working database knowledge

Multimedia Labs, LLC – (Contract Texture Artist / Interface Designer) Woodland Hills, CA

Created 2D texture sets for ISP and POP interfaces
Designed content for electronic software distribution

B1 Media – (Producer / DVD Game Designer) Sherman Oaks, CA

Managed the project life cycles for the development of Disney “Set Top” DVD games
Created custom game designs for various Walt Disney feature animations and film

Sony Computer Entertainment of America – (Creative Services Contractor) Foster City, CA

Created presentation graphics for E3 2000, and set up/tear down of exhibit space
Assisted in the pre-production / creation of the SONY E3 2000 Party
Assisted Managers and Directors with daily functions

The 3DO Company – (Contract Game Tester) Redwood City, CA

Involved with the creation and execution of QA Test Plans
Reported, analyzed, tracked and updated bugs
Communicated with Technical Support and development teams to resolve issues

Education

Academy of Art University 1997 to 2001 San Francisco, CA

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Arts
Co-founder of first Traditional Animation Club, Iron Monkey

Glendale Community College 1995 to 1997 Glendale, CA

Multimedia and Television/Radio Production and general education courses

Skills

Awards & Recognition

Marathon Runner 2008 to present

San Francisco x2, Los Angeles x1, San Diego x1, Chicago x4, and Tokyo x1

Guinness Book of World Records 05/2010

NovaLogic: Designed (The Straits of Malacca) the largest scale (64 sq. km. / 150+ multiplayer) FPS/Action level to date

Academy of Art University 05/2005

Alumni of the Year Award - first recipient honored in Computer Arts

Published Titles / Lineage

RESUME

Experience

Senior Project Manager

Manage the day-to-day and quarterly operations for a 45 person game development studio in Vancouver B.C. for f2p (free-to-play) mobile / tablet RPG game called Knight & Dragons

Own the release management / publishing submissions of monthly milestone builds on Google Play and iTunes

Provide project management tools to make dev team more organized by being more predictable, delivering on-time, quality products / new feature development

Experience with Live Operations events and monthly OTA content scheduling

Transitioned Live Operations from Vancouver, BC to GREE Berlin, DE studio

Integrated slot machines in Unity, game configurations and balancing in MS Excel using proprietary slot machine game engine / tech

Authored slot machine design documents communicating overall direction, theme, and gameplay mechanics for internal and external development teams

Investigated and secured art and audio outsourcing partners; provided daily feedback with internal Lead Artist to ensure project clarity and timeliness

Assisted with key word search, authoring iTunes and Google Play ASO (App Store Optimization), and integration of in-game advertising

Assisted with configuring the app infrastructure and testing builds for individual downloadable slot machines and new app / game releases

Day-to-day studio operations, office services (internet, food, water, supplies), floor plan / furniture setup, accounting / vendor invoices, and authored studio / company policies

Managed and provided quarterly reviews for eight (internal) direct reports and three (internal) managers

Managed the quarterly studio roadmap schedule

Hosted weekly Studio Roadmap meetings w/ cross discipline leads and studio leadership (plan vs. actuals)

Managed the day-to-day schedule (feature ramps, releases, and unplanned hotfixes) for live game studio

Raised risks and quickly identified solutions

Established studio processes; i.e. pre-production pipeline, cross-discipline costing, and playthroughs

Successfully planned product development to work around holidays, Company events and other unplanned outages

Standardized pipeline flow and definition of pre-production process

Responsible for quarterly production studio goals

Trained production team on overall studio process and best practices from Invest & Express division: Costing Sign-off, On-Call Protocol, Pre-Production Process, Exec/Team Playthroughs, Versioning / Project Management, JIRA, and Poker Roadmap to name a few

Studio Staffing POC - Tracked all headcount needs in collaboration with leads and People Operations

Maintained consistent and clear communication of development progress with external departments

Mentored Production staff

Fostered partnerships within our department and throughout all cross disciplines

Helped other cross disciplines establish their respective quarterly goals in relation to the studio at large

Responsible for the day-to-day project management of CastleVille feature development

Established team alignment between individuals, pods, and the studio at large

Provided clear consistent and communication of all progress between (San Francisco, Dallas, and Bangalore) studios

Successfully planned all simultaneous product development and release timeliness to coincide with business goals

Reduced the average feature release time, overall build stability, and release quality through better tracking tools; i.e. burn down charts, improved JIRA / pod project management, and costing

Provided guidance on all phases of cadence releases from: one-pager to final spec, costing, development, iteration, testing, release, triaging / post release support, community, customer support monitoring, and on-call coverage

Managed the training and handoff for a live game transition between San Francisco and Bangalore studios

Championed Customer Support (CS) to reduce ticket count by prioritizing and allocating cross-discipline resources for pertinent bug fixes and player frustration issues

Owned the Production Org’s quarterly Objectives and Key Results (OKR’s)

Conducted weekly 1:1 mentoring with internal and external staff on improving situational awareness, perspective (context), overall studio process, best practices, and expectations

Contributed to FrontierVille 2 pre-production and green light process, established the project calendar and milestone defintions / goals for next divisional project

Worked in tandem with San Francisco and Eugene Art, Design and Engineering leadership on pitch deck

Responsible for creating high level staffing and project milestone schedule from Concept to Live Product

Began preliminary set up for project infrastructure

Audited internal studio and external dependencies (i.e. Payments, eCrime, etc.) on remaining work to be completed for new IP launch

Created studio milestone schedule with definitions on what the team needed to accomplish in order to launch game

Managed the product development for the FTUE (first time user experience) and Start Now v2 pods

Inventoried the existing 21 step FTUE and helped bring cohesion with Design Leads and studio executives by providing suggestions on simplifying gameplay into a more meaningful / natural progression

Managed and provided quarterly reviews for eight (five internal + three external) direct reports and two (one internal + one external) managers

Helped repair external communication and relationship between Dallas and San Francisco studios

Created several process and consistency improvements for the studio

Prepared weekly and quarterly Production reports

Conducted weekly 1:1 meetings with all direct reports to provide mentorship, resolution conflict, and q&a

Instituting “best practice” process improvements to the San Francisco studio

Prepared transition plan between Dallas and San Francisco Production teams

Standardized all pods to offer consistent project management and predictable releases to stakeholders

Responsible for the day-to-day project management of FrontierVille feature development

Managed the release lifecycles for ~50 features and three game expansions

Managed five (external) direct reports and two (external) managers

Trained external partners on how Zynga operates (Baltimore, MD, Bangalore, IN, and Eugene, OR)

Instrumental in the organization, staff planning and timing logistics for a smooth studio transition with the acquisition of Buzz Monkey Software vs. divisional priorities

Responsible for the relationship and production training of external development studio, Zynga Eugene

Created and maintained the Feature Release Milestone Calendar to better standardize all cross-discipline feature development into a multi-step milestone calendar

Successfully planned product development to work around annual holidays, company events and other unplanned outages

Clear communication of feature development progress between Zynga San Francisco and Eugene studios throughout all feature life-cycles

Raised risks and quickly identified solutions

Increased GREEN release health from 23% to 45% and reduced RED release health from 39% to 19%

Fostered partnerships within our department and throughout all cross disciplines

Improved our Producer’s overall project management skills to effectively handle unplanned challenges

Championed our Customer Support (CS) efforts by prioritizing fixes, allocating cross-discipline resources and scheduling point releases every Tuesday to help reduce excessive (6k daily) CS ticket levels

Organized Production lunches and to better unify the Zynga “StoryVille” divisional Production Org

Owned the quarterly Production team Objective and Key Results (OKR's)

Was consistently an excellent Production partner to my internal and external Product Management, Art, Design, Dev, QA, PA&S, and Community Leads

Transition readiness for Bangalore, IN

Contributed to establishing live game studio (night and weekend) on-call crisis prioritization protocol

Utilized and learned from People Operations management and training classes

Member of the initial concept team through final game hand-off to the Zynga Bangalore studio

Scheduled and adhered to initial aggressive / experimental four week development schedule

Managed FishVille marketplace; brainstormed / surveyed aquatic themes and created roadmap schedule

Spearheaded and executed the content pipeline earning $10.1 million over 13 months

Co-authored Production and Art job descriptions for Bangalore in addition to interviewing all candidates