Education
Lawrence University, Appleton, WI
Major: history; Minor: theatre.
B.A., 1999
Work Experience
Obsidian Entertainment
Irvine, CA
July 2005 - Present
Design Director
Project Director - Pillars of Eternity; Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts, Gun Runners' Arsenal DLCs
- Establish and communicate high-level vision for projects with teammates, company owners, and the publisher.
- Direct the priorities and organization of leads and strike teams with the production team.
- Review game content in development and in-game with team members on a daily basis.
- Represent projects to publishers and media for presentations as well as live and recorded radio, television, print, and web interviews.
- Took over lead responsibilities in the last six months of development.
- Worked with programmers to re-prioritize and reduce a large feature list.
- Helped area designers prioritize and improve the content of their areas.
- Developed CQC (Close-Quarters Combat) system for Alpha Protocol.
- Worked with area designers to balance high-level combat for Mask of the Betrayer expansion.
- Designed and tuned weapons for Dead Money DLC, tuned weapons for Old World Blues and Lonesome Road DLCs.
San Diego, CA
November 2003 – July 2005
Lead Designer - Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
- Helped establish high-level goals of the project with the creative director, studio head, and Midway Chicago.
- Helped coordinate designers and artists during area development.
- Developed the story, conversation system, and all dialogue.
- Designed and worked with programming to implement all RPG systems.
- Co-designed and tuned the combat system.
Irvine, CA
March 1999 – November 2003
Lead Designer - Icewind Dale II, Project Jefferson (Canceled), Project Van Buren (Canceled)
- Defined the high-level goals and structure of projects.
- Coordinated the activities of the area design teams.
- Developed and worked with programming, art, and audio to implement editors and RPG systems.
- Wrote supplemental dialogue.
- Helped design and implement areas, RPG sub-systems, and conversations.
- Worked with developers and Interplay marketing to create web sites, community forums, online chats and promotional contests.
Software - Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash
Language - English (native), German (conversational), Spanish (basic), French (basic), Latin (basic)
Interests
Riding and restoring vintage motorcycles, road bicycling, hiking, European history, languages, singing, firearms, sabre fencing, English literacy tutoring.
Achievements
Presentations
"Developer Facilitation of End-User Content Creation."
Game Developer Conference Paris.
Paris, France (2008 June 23)
"The Evolution of RPG Mechanics: From Die Rolls to Hit Volumes."
Game Developer Conference Europe.
Cologne, Germany (2011 August 16)
"Do (Say) The Right Thing: Choice Architecture, Player Expression, and Narrative Design in Fallout: New Vegas."
Game Developer Conference 2012
San Francisco, California (2012 March 8)
"Gathering Your Party with Project Eternity."
Game Developer Conference Next 2013
Los Angeles, California (2013 November 6)
References
Available on request.
