joshlee@semifat.net
San Francisco, CA
GAME DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE
Sifteo Inc., Mar. 2010 to present: Director of Game Development
- Worked with founders to establish Sifteo's internal game development studio.
- Managed Sifteo's portfolio of games, maintaining a balance of titles for entertainment, learning, and general weirdness.
- Provided direction and support to staff developers and external contractors, including artists and composers.
- Researched and established game design and interaction design patterns for Sifteo's unique platform.
- Designed and developed numerous games for Sifteo cubes, including Chroma Shuffle, Mount Brainiac, No Evil Monkeys, and more.
Trion Worlds, Oct. 2008 to Mar. 2010: Content Designer, Rift: Planes of Telara
- Planned and implemented the population of NPCs throughout the game's world.
- Wrote and implemented quests to facilitate solo exploration and leveling.
- Planned and scripted dungeons and boss battles, to provide groups of players with challenging and dramatic PvE encounters.
- Designed and implemented tutorials to familiarize the player with the game's mechanics and lore.
Secret Level, Oct. 2007 to Sep. 2008: Designer, Golden Axe: Beast Rider
- Designed, programmed, and tuned enemy AI, creating a broad range of characters to challenge and surprise the player.
- Collaborated with animators, riggers, and engineers to integrate and tune character animations.
- Designed and scripted levels for the game's challenge mode, forming intense gauntlets to test the player's skill.
- Implemented a library of visualization tools, allowing designers to see what the AI were thinking and diagnose problems in real time.
Monster Games Inc., Dec. 2006 to Aug. 2007: Game Designer, unannounced prototype.
- Prototyped gameplay mechanics for unannounced Wii title.
- Designed and programmed AI.
- Provided feedback and direction to engineers and artists to maintain the project's vision.
Monster Games Inc., Dec. 2005 to Oct. 2006: Game Designer, Excite Truck.
- Designed and tuned AI, creating computer-controlled opponents that can race competitively with a wide range of players.
- Designed tutorials that familiarize the player with the Nintendo Wii's innovative controller, as well as with the game's rules and mechanics.
- Designed and tuned non-racing game modes to provide additional entertainment value to the player.
- Designed and implemented sound effects for the game and user interface, immersing the player in the game's world and enhancing the gameplay experience.
Monster Games Inc., Feb. to May 2004: Assistant Producer, Test Drive: Eve of Destruction.
- Created cinematic interludes to preview tracks and events in the game.
- Managed placement of virtual cameras for replay of events.
- Designed variations on basic events to widen the player's gameplay options.
- Tested and tuned gameplay.
OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE
Freelance Writer, Nov. 2004 to May 2006
- Reviewed World of Warcraft for City Pages.
- Reviewed video games and online media for PopMatters, including NBA Street V3, Diner Dash, Rocketboom, and others.
- Wrote entries for "The Bleacher Bums", Minnesota Public Radio's baseball web log.
HomebrewerSupply.com, July to Aug. 2005: Contract Web Developer
- Redeveloped the HomebrewerSupply.com web site, providing a standards-compliant implementation of a conceptual design to improve usability, accessibility, and SEO.
Minnesota Public Radio, June to Sep. 2005: Web Developer
- Redeveloped web sites for American Public Media's national radio programs, bringing them together under a common site architecture and visual identity.
- Designed and developed a dynamic content solution for the Saint Paul Sunday web site.
Valuative Software, June to Aug. 2003: Contract UI Developer
- Developed all the user interface components for a financial analysis product.
- Developed a flexible and reusable user interface framework based on Java Swing.
Retek Inc., Sep. 1997 to Feb. 2003: Software Engineer
- Assisted in a survey of Retek's applications and development teams to determine needs for usability guidelines; produced an internal website detailing these guidelines; consulted with various development teams on their implementation.
- Researched and prototyped user interface and application frameworks.
- Consulted with clients on performance profiling and tuning.
- Designed and developed high-performance data movement systems.
- Developed and delivered training curricula for new and inexperienced programmers.
SKILLS
Programming Languages:
HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript/ECMAScript, ActionScript, Lua, Python, PHP, Perl, Java, C, C++, Unix shell scripting (Bourne and Korn), Windows/DOS batch file scripting.
Software Tools:
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Flash, Adobe Audition/Soundbooth, Havok Behavior, Movable Type, Jakarta Ant, Make, Google Apps, Microsoft Office.
EDUCATION
Carleton College, Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, 1997.
Courses Taken: Data Structures, Programming Languages, Computer Algorithms, Organization/Systems, Discrete Mathematics, Theory of Computation, Artificial Intelligence, and Computer Graphics.
University of Minnesota, College of Continuing Education, 2004-2005.
Courses Taken: Sexuality and Culture, On Television, Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Mass Culture.
REFERENCES
Available upon request.