Creative Director Game Designer

PATRICIA A. PIZER

Portfolio: patriciapizer.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciapizer

********@*************.*** or 818-***-****

SUMMARY

Game designer with a lifetime of wide-ranging experiences, starting as QA on text adventures at Infocom, to Sr. MMO Designer for Ubisoft and Disney, to Lead Designer of wildly successful experiments like Last Call Poker at 4orty2wo Entertainment. I’m wrapping up a phase of my life where I got to make my own wild experimental games at my own company and help others as a consultant. Now I’d like to bring what I’ve learned back to working within a large team, pushing the artform forward together. EXPERIENCE

Mobile Game Doctor Inc., Raleigh, NC 2022-Present

Subcontractor

MGD contracts for development work and matches the subcontractor(s) from seasoned game development veterans with the client needs. Involves various types of design such as design audits and narrative design. Parrot Concepts, LLC, Raleigh, NC 2021- Present

Director of Games Research and Fun

Developing video games for parrots to play on tablets and smart phones, along with a platform to guide parrot owners in choosing games that match their parrots’ unique personalities. The work combines decades of game development, decades of avian companionship and research, and decades of tech development. Where’s the Fun?, Raleigh, NC 2006-2021

Owner and Consultant

Consulting firm performing R&D for game projects. Projects span areas as diverse as using cryptocurrency for UBI to developing a gaming platform for the chronically ill to help make lifestyle changes. Work ranged from creating treatment documents, reviewing/troubleshooting existing designs for clients, managing subcontractors, to original designs. Recently getting hands-on experience with escape rooms. ZeeGee Games, Orlando, FL 2011-2012

Creative Director

Creative lead in inspiring, nurturing, and growing development team to create innovative, interesting gameplay. Mentored designers and artists, providing space for creators to shine. Involved in every aspect of development.

Disney Interactive Studios (DIS), Glendale, CA 2006-2009 Sr. Designer, Online

Designed console complement to the Club Penguin online experience through cross-platform and multiplayer gameplay elements, culminating in the top-selling 2008 Club Penguin DS game. Sole designer of “DGamer,” Disney Interactive’s Nintendo DS-based online (DS to DS, DS to infrastructure) kids’ community initiative. Championed and coordinated the service from inception through launch. 4orty2wo Entertainment, Emeryville, CA 2005

Lead Designer

Lead Designer for Last Call Poker’s online site, an 8-week multifaceted online and real world alternate reality game. Developed and play-tested live events. Designed puzzles, assess art and web assets, coordinate story and puzzle logistics. Coordinated the multiple aspects of storytelling, including text, videos, and live events. Disney Internet Group, VR Studio, N. Hollywood, CA 2004-2005 Technical Staff/Game Designer

Game Designer for VR Studio’s online games, Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Created overall gameplay design and specified all comprehensive game systems. Created cooperative social game systems designed to link players together, creating a tighter social fabric and increasing longevity of player engagement.

UbiSoft/ubi.com, Montreal, PQ, Canada 2002-2003

Senior Design Analyst

Liaisoned between 3rd party developers and various Ubi.com internal departments to guide developers and help them make the “right” game through formal review, design of additional systems and teaching “best practices.” Coordinated, hired, and trained MMO Game Analyst Team. Turbine Entertainment Software, Westwood, MA 2000-2001 Creative Director

Creative Director for the initial creative vision for Asheron’s Call 2 and provided leadership and direction for the product design team. Recruited, trained and managed team of system and content designers and writers. Assumed duties of Producer and Associate Producer until those positions were recruited and staffed. Prepared high-concept product proposals for business development and central systems design. Sr. Systems Designer

Created specifications for new game systems for Turbine’s Asheron’s Call live product as well as content. Developed and prototyped an integrated content database for the next generation of Turbine products. Harmonix Music, Cambridge, MA 1997-1998

Director, Public Relations

Acting Public Relations director when Harmonix was a small start-up. Handled all press releases, live events, PR materials, and collateral for the initial product, The Axe. Boffo Games, Concord, MA 1994-1997

Design Associate

Working with the Creative Director, authored interactive screenplay for The Space Bar as well as development of game ideas, plots and puzzles, designed/wrote game concept papers and developed GUI designs. Infocom, Cambridge, MA 1988-1989

Quality Assurance Engineer

Lead Tester on several titles; contributed to design and wrote online hints for complex interactive fiction games. Handled customer support telephone calls, designed customer support materials, coordinated external Beta tests, and wrote end-user documentation.

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

● Board of Advisors, Project Horseshoe, a game design think tank, 2006-2018.

● May 2008: Gamasutra: Twenty most influential women in game design.

● June 2009, June 2010: Jurist, Gotland Game Awards, University of Gotland, Sweden.

● May 2010: Consultant, U.S. Department of Labor. Define Game Designer job description for O*Net, the Dept. of Labor’s job database.

● Founder & Advisory Committee, Boston Area Game Developers Network (now IGDA). PUBLICATIONS

100 Principles of Game Design, Wendy Despain, editor. Major contributor

Massively Multiplayer Game Development, Thor Alexander, editor Contributor & editing

Multiplayer Game Programming, Todd Barron

Foreword

Game Development Essentials, Jeannie Novak

Contributor

Fundamentals of Game Design, Ernest Adams

Contributor

EDUCATION

M.A., Emerson College, Boston, MA

Major: Advertising and Public Relations

B.A., Macalester College, St. Paul, MN

Majors: English and Philosophy

OTHER INTERESTS

Have an avian companion (Goffin’s Cockatoo); reading; gardening; photography; cooking; too many other hobbies to list.

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