466 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
project. Currently, he is working as producer at ZeniMax Online on an un-
announced MMO.”
CLINTON KEITH
Clinton Keith came from the defense industry to the game industry in the early
90s as a tools programmer for Angel Studios. There he eventually led the teams
that developed the first generation of Angel driving games (Midtown Madness,
Midnight Club, and Smugglers Run) and eventually directed all product de-
velopment. For the past three years, he has been at High Moon Studios (for-
merly Sammy Studios) first leading the Engine and Tools team and currently as
the CTO.
PAUL LESKA, JR
Paul is co-founder and president of Sapphire Software Inc a Minnesota-based
casual games company (www.SapphireOnline.com). Sapphire Software creates
games for mobile and web based markets and is best known for their popular
Sudoku titles—Sudoku Savant and Sudoku Sensei. Sudoku Sensei was nomi-
nated for Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine’s best software of the year in
2006. As a principal in a small development studio Paul has had the opportunity
to wear many hats including producer, designer, and technical director not to
mention tester, creative director, and janitor.
Paul has over 18 years experience working with dozens of companies as an
instructor, architect, developer and mentor. His specialty is in software develop-
ment methodology and architecture. He has written several articles on software
development methodology in various technical trade journals.
ERIK LOUDEN
Erik Louden has more than 10 years of professional video game testing experi-
ence under his belt. Erik has beta-tested almost 50 games, including titles such
as Bad Mojo, Wizards & Warriors, Fighter Squadron: The Screaming Demons
over Europe, M.A.X.X, Planet Side, Shadow Bane, Vampire: The Masquerade,
Ever Quest, and Ultima On-Line among others. He was an original member of
Activision’s Visioneers, an external beta-testing program, and he is currently a
member of the Atari testing group.
JEFF MATSUSHITA
Jeff Matsushita is a 10-year veteran of the videogame business. After gaining
production experience through careers in film, video, IT, and the then emerging
BIOGRAPHIES 467
Internet, he joined Activision in Tokyo where he helped localize U.S. titles for
the Japanese market. He moved back to the United States where he continued
working for Activision as an associate producer in development. As the industry
transitioned to separate publishing and development, he decided to bring his
experience to bear on the publishing side of the business where he oversaw sev-
eral externally developed titles as both a producer and a senior producer before
transitioning to a role as Activision’s Greenlight Czar where he helped ensure
the health of all titles in development. Jeff currently serves as the Executive
Producer overseeing development for RedOctane’s Guitar Hero franchise.
LUCIEN PARSONS
Lucien Parsons, Production Director of ZeniMax Online Studios, a ZeniMax
Media company, has 14 years of software production experience across four con-
tinents. After many years in the financial software industry, he earned an MBA
from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and an MA in International
Economics and Technology Policy from Johns Hopkins SAIS before entering
the games industry. Currently, Lucien is building the core technology, art, and
design teams for a new unannounced MMO with Matt Firor.
JAY POWELL
Jay comes to DigiRonin Games with 10 years of industry experience and a de-
gree from the University of North Carolina. Jay began work in the game industry
with Octagon Entertainment as an agent who represented developers around
the world. During his time as an agent he negotiated countless contracts for
his clients. From European distribution deals to multi-platform development
agreements, he has just about seen it all. In the last several years he has over-
seen the development of more than a dozen titles based on a variety of licenses,
such as Garfield, Holly Hobby, Strawberry Shortcake, and a wide selection of
Disney characters. These titles spanned the Nintendo GBA and DS; Micro-
soft Xbox 360; and PC. Jay has developed and continues to maintain relation-
ships with companies, such as Disney, Cartoon Network, MTV, Nickelodeon,
and Microsoft.
STUART ROCH
Stuart Roch has been a member of the interactive industry for the past 12 years
working in quality assurance, design, and production capacities. While at Shiny
Entertainment, Stuart acted in design and production roles on Wild 9, R/C Stunt
Copter, Messiah, and the critically acclaimed Sacrifice. Stuart led the Shiny team
in production of Enter the Matrix, which shipped in 2003, eventually going on to
468 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
sell more than six million units worldwide. As an executive producer at Treyarch,
Stuart joined the development team late to help complete Ultimate Spider-Man.
In 2007 Stuart began to try his hand at the external side of production when he
moved from Treyarch to their parent company Activision where he now man-
ages a diverse slate of upcoming releases.
AMANDA RUBRIGHT
Amanda Rubright joined the production team at Aspyr in the spring of 2006.
Since then she has lead the production of Supreme Commander (Xbox 360),
Turok (PC), The Shield (PC), TopSpin 2 (PC), Save the Dinos (PC), lent a
hand to the Sims Pets Stories and Sims Castaways game designs, and sup-
ported Aspyr’s internal IP department in developing pitches. While currently
working toward obtaining her PMP certification through PMI, Amanda is also
busy leading the production of Guitar Hero 3 Encore: Aerosmith (PC/Mac)
and Guitar Hero 4 (PC/Mac). Prior to working with Aspyr, Amanda spent the
previous eight years as a game and level designer with Ubisoft Entertainment
(Tarzan Untamed), Retro Studios (Metroid Prime), Amaze Entertainment
(Shrek 2 PC), and Edge of Reality (Shark Tale, Fear & Respect) developing
AAA titles for both console and PC. Aside from providing team leadership,
she also spearheaded the design work flow process at many of these companies,
providing efficient and communicative design procedures. Her solid under-
standing of game development fundamentals coupled with her leadership
and experience in game and level design has made for a natural transition
into production.
TOBI SAULNIER
Tobi Saulnier is CEO of 1st Playable Productions, an independent game studio
located in Troy, NY, which specializes in creating fun games for entertain-
ment and learning. Previously, in her five years as Vice President of Product
Development for Vicarious Visions, Tobi was responsible for the delivery of
more than 60 game titles ranging from Blues Clues GBC to Doom III Xbox,
with teams ranging from four people to more than 60 and project schedules
from two months to two years. She also served as producer and contributed
to the design on a number of these titles, with a particular interest in games
for nontraditional demographics. Before joining the game industry, Tobi man-
aged R&D in embedded and distributed systems at GE R&D. Tobi holds a
Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute.
BIOGRAPHIES 469
CORAY SEIFERT
Coray Seifert is an associate producer at THQ’s Kaos Studios, working on his
24th title, Frontlines: Fuel of War. A coordinator of the International Game
Developers Association’s New Jersey chapter since 2002, he also co-founded the
IGDA Game Writers Special Interest Group Quarterly Report and continues
to work with the SIG as a committee member and contributing author for their
Game Writing book series. Coray has developed games as a writer, designer, and
producer for companies like Large Animal Games, Creo Ludus Entertainment,
and the U.S. Department of Defense, and has appeared on Gamasutra.com,
Forbes.com, NY1, in Game Developer Magazine, and at numerous game indus-
try events as an editor, panelist, lecturer, or host. An advocate for the aspir-
ing game developer, Coray also teaches game design as a visiting lecturer at
Bloomfield College and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. While not dis-
tributing gratuitous high-fives and D&D jokes, Coray lives in Summit, NJ with
his amazing wife Katie and their two highly eccentric cats.
TOM SLOPER
Tom Sloper has been in the game business since 1979. He’s produced, de-
signed, or otherwise contributed to the completion of 120 products, winning
six awards. His games have been on a wide variety of video game and computer
platforms, from the Atari 2600 on up to the Nintendo DS, not to mention games
for watches and calculators and the classic Vectrex system. Tom has worked for
Sega Enterprises (game designer), Atari Corporation (director of product de-
velopment), and Activision (senior producer, executive producer, and creative
director). Tom has produced games with developers all over the world and is an
international mah-jongg player. Doing business as Sloperama Productions, Tom
is currently consulting, writing, and speaking on game topics.
WADE TINNEY
Wade co-founded Large Animal Games (www.largeanimal.com) with part-
ner Josh Welber in 2001. Since then, Large Animal has developed more than
45 games for a variety of platforms, including the Web, mobile devices, and PCs.
They’ve created Web-based promotional games for clients such as LEGO, MTV,
Cartoon Network, and Mattel, and their original downloadable game titles are
distributed through the leading casual game portals. Large Animal’s puzzle game
AlphaQUEUE was a finalist in the 2004 Independent Games Festival (IGF),
and RocketBowl was a 2005 IGF Award winner. Wade is an active member of
the International Game Developers Association, a regular contributor to their
470 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
annual Web and Downloadable Games Whitepaper, and the founding editor
of the IGDA Online Games Quarterly. He also teaches game design at Parsons
School of Design and New York University.
PATRICIA VANCE
Patricia Vance was appointed president of the Entertainment Software Rating
Board (ESRB) in November 2002. As president, she is responsible for over-
seeing and enforcing the computer and video game industry’s self-regulatory
practices. This includes ensuring that video game consumers have effective tools
with which to make educated purchase decisions.
Before joining the ESRB, Patricia established herself as a true interactive
media veteran and industry leader. She spent 18 years at Disney/ABC, with re-
sponsibility for leveraging ABC properties in the development and management
of a broad range of new media and market initiatives. These initiatives included
the Internet (ABC.com, ABCNEWS.com, Oscar.com, Oprah.com), CD-ROM
publishing (Creative Wonders, ABC Interactive), educational film and video dis-
tribution (including ABC News Interactive), direct response videocassette mar-
keting, in-flight entertainment, home video and cable television.
Prior to ABC, Patricia was responsible for planning movie acquisitions for
The Movie Channel. She has also held senior management positions with The
Princeton Review as Executive Vice President & General Manager of Admissions
Services and before that as President and CEO of HalfthePlanet.com, an online
resource network for people with disabilities.
Patricia holds a B.A. in International Relations/Russian from Washington
University in St. Louis.
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