Game Development Faculty

Education: University of Silicon Valley

Industry Credits:

• Was a QA Tester at Locomotive Games
• Was an art contractor and then an associate artist at Activision (Vicarious Visions)
• 3D artist for The Multiverse Network Inc
• Is a freelance 3D modeler – has done work for EFish games, Shadow Squirrel Games, Industrial Light and Magic/Lucasfilm

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2
• Spider-Man 3: The Game for PS2 and WII
• Pandora:ROVR – modeled and textured the environments and vehicles

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Lead 3D Artist for Shenyang 4D-Vision Technology Company
• 3D Artist for Xulu Entertainment
• Senior 3D Modeler/ Digital Artist for Scientific Art Studio
• Freelance Senior 3D Modeler/ Digital Artist for Psyop and Edge Innovations
• Senior CG Modeler at Tippett Studio
• Senior Creature Modeler at Industrial Light & Magic

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Xulu Virtual World
• LiaoBin Fantasy Watercity
• Magic World
• A Hundred-Year of Expo for the United Nations Pavilion of Expo 2010 Shanghai
• Freelance digital sculptor to assist building animatronics such as Universal Studios Hollywood – Jurrasic World D-Rex

Master of Arts, Academy of Art University (San Francisco, California, Animation and Visual Effects)

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Represented by Shannon Associates LLC
• Worked with Scholastic
• Worked with Penguin

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Award winning board game series “Forbiggen Island”
• Story book game for Nintendo WII

Early on, C.B. Canga discovered that a piece of paper and some crayons opened up a magical door to distant lands, and daring adventures. His passion for creating compelling images continues to this day, where he has worked for many publishing houses, magazines, and companies such as: Disney, Nintendo, Sega, National Geographic, and Scholastic, to name a few. He is best known for the award winning board game series Forbidden Island. He is always in search of intriguing concepts and stories to bring to life.

In 2002 he received his BFA in Illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. A few years later he returned there to teach drawing classes in the Illustration department.

In his spare time, he likes to travel and sketch the various people and locations he stumbles across. This hobby had led to countless sketchbooks stacking up in his studio like Jenga blocks.

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Owner and Lead Engineer at 52Six
• Developer at Tuleburg

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Founded 52Six

Position: Adjunct Professor, Game Art and Design

Industry Credits:

• 3D artist for 2010 Game of the Year, “Red Dead Redemption.”
• Designed all of the story missions for Blowfish Studios’ “Phantom Galaxies” sci-fi action game.
• Edited all six issues of Blowfish Studios’ “Winter Ember” comic book series written by creative veteran Kevin Grevioux.
• Wrote the graphic novel “P.O.D.: The Nexus,” published by Zondervan Press, 2008.
• Produced final map art for all of Simonetta Carr’s Y/A Christian biographies.

Education: The Art Institute of California

Industry Credits:

• Experience working at Habitat Studios
• Has worked for Infinity Ward Sledgehammer Games
• Has worked for Houzz Inc
• Experience working at Sanzaru Games

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Asgards Wrath
• Marvel Powers United: VR
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
• Call of Duty: WWII

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Artist at Totally Games
• Artist at Electronic Arts (Maxis)
• Art Director at Mind Control Software
• Lead Artist at Planet Moon Studios
• Lead Concept Artist at Bigpoint, inc
• Art Director at Kabam
• Art Director at Studio Denmark
  

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• World of Warcraft
• Magic: The Gathering
• A Game of Thrones
• Legend of the Five Rings
• Has worked with Hasbro and Blizzard
• Designed and Illustrated the Dungeoneer card game for Atlas Games

Thomas Denmark brings over 20 years of experience as a concept artist, art lead, and art director in the video game industry, having worked with renowned companies like Totally Games (LucasArts), Disney Interactive, and Electronic Arts on iconic titles such as Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance, The Sims, Disney’s Tangled, and The Godfather. His extensive illustration portfolio includes books, cards, and games for major IPs like Game of Thrones, World of Warcraft, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and Star Wars. As the Creative Director of Night Owl Workshop, an independent publisher of books and games, and a freelance artist based in Marin, Thomas is passionate about sharing his creative expertise with students.

Position: Instructor for the Game Development Department

Industry Credits:

• Playdate PAX West Showcase “Gun Trails” (2023)
• Yoyogi Games Co-Founder / Lead Artist / Animator
• Escape Academy PS4/PS5/XBOX/STEAM/SWITCH (2022)
  Coin Crew Games
  • Concept Artist and Illustrations for DLC Escape from the Past and Escape from
    Anti-Escape Island
• EE “Phonesmart” Illustration Campaign (2021)
  Lemonade Illustration Agency
• Educator for the last 8 years working in both public and private education spanning all grade levels.

Education: UC Berkley

Industry Credits:

• Working at Counterplay Games

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Helped Counterplay ship their big update for Godfall. Currently working on an unannounced game.

Education: The Ohio State University

Industry Credits:

• Software Engineer for Nimble Robotics.
• Software Engineer for Google.

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Muck and Buster in “Perfect Paws”
• Digital Synthesizer Guitar
• Wifinder
• Laser Harp Hero
• Meteor Flies Drone

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Software Engineer at WB Games
• Gameplay Programmer at Telltale Games
• Gameplay engineer at Superstart Games
• Interned at Havok

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Minecraft: Story Mode season 2
• Telltales the Walking Dead Season 4
• Terminator Genisys: Revolution

8+ years of experience in game design

Education: Columbus College of Art and Design

Industry Credits:

• Supervising Technical Director at Fivestone Studios
• Adjunct Professor at Lipscomb University. Taught CG Fundamentals in the animation major.

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Developed the course curriculum that helped fast-track students to becomimng proficient at modeling, animating, and rendering in Maya.

Position: Instructor for the Game Development Department

Industry Credits:

• Programming and scripting video games for over ten years.
• At the 3DO Company
  • Scripted gameplay on Air Attack, Dragon Rage, and Four Horsemen.
  • Programmed UI in High Heat Baseball.
• At Page 44 Studios
  • Scripted menus and gameplay on two Tony Hawk ports for Neversoft.
  • Programmed the UI system used on four Disney games.
  • Programmed gesture recognition for the Nintendo Wii remotes used on two Disney games.
• At Zynga
  • Programmed UI on Party Place and Solstice Arena.
  • Programmed UI and gameplay on Hit it Rich and Spin it Rich.

Education:

• San Diego State University
• Voicetrax Voice-over Academy, SF

Industry Credits:

• Narrative/Content Director for Imperator Online at EA, Bioware, Mythic Entertainment
• Designer and Narrative Director for the Dark Age of Camelot Franchise and Ultima Online at EA, Bioware, Mythic Entertainment
• Lead Designer for the Dark Age of Camelot Franchise and Warhammer Online at EA, Bioware, Mythic Entertainment
• Studio Lead Designer, producer and project manager at Big Point INC
• Creative Director for mobile game development at Kabam INC
• Co-Founder, Senior Creative Director, Producer at Madorium INC

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Co-Founder for Madorium INC, an indie studio focused on visually unique games for console, PC, VR and mobile. The Puppet of Tersa
• Star Wars: Uprising
• Project Embersoul
• Project Flagship
• Battlestar Galactica
• Clandestine: Anomaly (Tin Truck)
• Reflectoids
• Dark Age of Camelot Franchise
• Ultima Online

Position: Instructor and Course Author

Industry Credit:

Jax is an Art Director and Concept Artist with 15+ years of experience in the Entertainment Industry, specializing in design and storytelling for film, games, TV, and IP creation.

She has worked with clients such as App2le, Fortnite, Capcom, MachineZone, Stan Lee’s POW!

Entertainment, SyFy Channel, Digital Domain, Wizards of the Coast, Super Evil Megacorp, Hi-Rez Studios, Adobe, and Psyop.

Founder of Chimera Studios, providing art outsourcing for games.

Position: Instructor for the Game Development Department

Industry Credits:

Crystal Dynamics, Dena

Phillip Kauffold studied animation at the Art Institute of California-San Francisco, then got his start in games working on Tomb Raider: Anniversary at Crystal Dynamics. While animating the Tomb Raider games, he also started rigging characters and props, and eventually managed the cinematics pipeline. Following that, he worked on a variety of mobile games at DeNA – San Francisco such as We Rule, We City, and Dreamtopia. He also worked freelance on other projects, such as an avatar system designed to help people with hospital discharge instructions. Phil started teaching character and creature rigging at Academy of Art University in 2012, and has developed curriculum for technical animation, animation, and virtual reality.

Education: Columbus College of Art and Design

Industry Credits:

• Worked for Shaba Games at Activision/Blizzard
• Worked for Broken Myth Studio as a 3D training sim prop artist
• Worked for Big Huge Games as a creature artist
• Worked for Supergenius Studio as Lead 3D Artist, prop artist, and environment artist
• Worked for New Fuel Studio as a vehicle modeler

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Spiderman: Web of Shadows
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Gold Edition
• Shrek the Third
• Tony Hawk American Wasteland 2
• Shrek Super Slam
• Tony Hawk Underground 2 Remix

Education: University of California Berkley

Industry Credits:

• Worked for Crystal Dynamics as a level designer
• Worked as a Senior Designer and Level Layout Director and Level Producer at 3DO Company
• Worked as a Multiplayer Level Designer for Cyclone Studios
• Lead VR PRoduct Designer at FreeRangeXR
• Lead VR Product Designer and Systems Designer at Free Range Games

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Rube Goldberg Workshop
• Oddworld: Soulstorm
• Goosebumps
• PocketGunfighter
• Smash the Blocks
• SummitX Snowboarding

Education: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Industry Credits:

• Worked at Deviant Games as a gameplay engineer.
• Worked at Treyarch as a gameplay engineer.
• Worked at Activision Blizzard as a software engineer as part of the Level Up U 13 week internal bootcamp.

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Designed and implemented their own game mode within the Call of Duty engine.
• Wrath of Raoden
• Created the FrogBot Discord Bot

Education: California College of the Arts

Industry Credits:

• Lead Character Artist at HelloVR
• 3D Artist at Bed Bath & Beyond
• 3D Designer/Outsource Manager at Reali
• Graphic Designer at ART Creative Marketing

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• MetaWorld

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Senior Artist at Vector Unit
• Senior 3D Artist at Jam City
• Senior Artist at Sanzaru Games
• Senior Artist at Shaba Games/Activision

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Marvel Powers United VR
• Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery
• Spider-Man Web of Shadows

Position: Part-Time Faculty, Game Development (Concept Art Discipline)

Industry Credits:

Game credits include Toxic Grind by Blue Shift, Inc, WarJetz by 3dO Games and Dungeoneer card game by Atlas Games.

Illustration Clients include Marvel Comics Licensing, Livermore Valley Wine Growers, County Connection Transit Authority, and Pelican Travel Agency.

My Fine Art paintings have been exhibited in both group shows and individual shows throughout the United States, and also in Canada and in the United Kingdom.

Feature articles about my work have been published in Art Business News, Fine Art Collector, and SkyWest Magazine.

I have participated in outdoor art festivals and was named the Feature Artist for two different festivals, San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival, and ArtExpo Las Vegas.

Position: Concept Art Instructor for the Game Department
Industry Credits:

Character Concept Artist at Velan Studios, 2019
Titles Shipped:

• Knockout City
• Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit

Texture Artist at Telltale Games, 2016
Titles Shipped:

• Batman: A Telltale Games Series
• The Walking Dead: Michonne Mini Series
• Tales from the Borderlands
• Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series

Education: University of California, Santa Cruz

Industry Credits:

• Web Designer for Primo Angeli INC
• Design Assistant to Mr. Primo Angeli
• Freelance Web/Visual Designer

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Owner of Ryan Medeiros Design. Clients included: Real Skateboards, Future Farmer REcordings, and Baywell Technologies.
• Subcontract work for San Francisco design firms including The Ideas Group, Primo Angeli Inc, and Impact Design

Education: Virginia Commonwealth University

Industry Credits:

• Worked for Massive Black
• Worked for Blu Mobile
• Worked for Loot Drop INC

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• The Mortal Instruments City of Bones Official Game
• Ghost Recon Commander

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Art Supervisor and concept artist for Soba
• Concept Artist for Livid Interactive
• Concept Artist for Helios Interactive
• Background Designer for Powerhouse Animation Studios

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Masters of the Universe
• Sonic Superstars Trailer
• Game of Thrones
• Cartoon Network
• Saw 8
• Shattered Might
• Sonder – Best Picture winner of the LA Inde Film award. Audience choice award winner Sioux City international film festival. Best Animation winner California Independent Film Festival, Best animated short Winner California INT. Shorts Festival. Along with numerous nominations throughout 2018.

Position: Part-Time Faculty

Industry Credits:

• 15 years experience as a professional artist and designer in games and tech.
• Worked on several #1 mobile games on iOS and Android.
• Shipped Facebook Avatars to a global audience.

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• 3D Artist at Lunchtime Studios LLC
• 3D Environment Artist for ArenaNet LLC
• 3D Character Artist for Zero VFX
• Senior 3D Character Artist at HappyGiant AR
• 3D Artist for Blizzard Entertainment
• Senior 3D Artist for Demiurge Studios
• Senior/Lead 3D Artist for Wizards of the Coast
• Principal/Lead Character ARtist for Volition
• Senior 3D Artist at Fang & Claw
• Senior 3D Artist at Boston Dynamics

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Lords of New York
• Character art lead on project Sam & Max: “This Time It’s Virtual!”
• Dragonmonz AR Battle by Spin Master
• Untamed – Madlab AR by WowWee Group Ltd
• Saints Row 5 DLC’s: Sunshine Springs, Doc Ketchum’s Murder Circus and A Song of Ice & Dust
• Unnanouced title Tanaka

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Works at Eminence Gaming as a web developer
• Works at Vision Science Labs as a lead developer
• Worked at More Equal Studios as VP of Technical Integration

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Command Tower

Position: Part-Time Faculty
Industry Credits:

• Founded Living Vertex, a small 3D art company with a handful of trademarks.
• 3D Character Artist at 2K games
• Developed VR Training software for various industries such as Oil and Electric.
• Co-created a neuro-divergent friendly discord of likeminded artists

Position: Adjunct Game Design Instructor

Shipped Titles:

• • Fortnite
  • Justice League VR
  • Temple Run 2
  • The Sandbox Evolution
  • Snapimals

Education: Full Sail University

Industry Credits:

• Programmer for NetDevil
• Software Engineer for Playdom Boulder
• Senior Software Engineer for Electronic Arts, Maxis
• Senior Software Engineer for Linden Lab

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Founder and Systems Engineer for Denetron
• Sims 4
• Lego Universe

Bachelor of Science, Art Institute of California (Los Angeles, California, Game Art & Design)

Position: Part-Time Faculty

Industry Credits:

• Created Usiak Games and Designs LLC company. Funded my first board game off Kickstarter in 2022.
• Been an ongoing instructor for various universities and schools in the U.S.
• Was part of a large successful project for Roblox’s Changi-Verse at Accenture, which has a few million joiners.
• 3D artist for over 15 years including work on Video games, board games.
• 2D Artist for over two decades for book illustration and other forms of art.

Website: www.artstation.com/jonu5123
www.usiakart.com

SKEPTICS Board game online:

• https://usiakgames.com
• Board Game Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/199418/skeptics
• Tabletopia: https://tabletopia.com/games/skeptics
• Tabletop Sim: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2350017514
• Snapimals

Education: Academy of Art University

Industry Credits:

• Design Intern at Robot Invader
• Unity Engineer at Playviews Inc
• Level Designer and UI Programmer at Arachnid Games Inc
• Technical Level Designer at Galxyz Inc
• Founder and Lead Developer at Paladite Games LLC

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Founder of Paladite Games LLC
• Blue Apprentice
• Ballpoint Universe: Infinite
• Diluvion – Worked on and successfully kickstarted this project.
• My Pet Monsters
• Wind-up Knight

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Academy of Art University (San Francisco, California, Game Development)

Industry Credits:

• Senior Game Designer with over 25 years of experience in the game industry.
• Senior Game Designer at Sanzaru Games
• Senior Game Designer at Planet Moon Studios
• Senior Game Designer at Crystal Dynamics
• Senior and Lead Game Designer at Vision Scape Interactive.

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Sly Cooper
• Pac-Man
• Jurassic Park
• Tom Raider

Education: Otis College of Art and Design

Industry Credits:

• Worked at Hasbro Interactive
• Worked at 3DO
• Worked at Crystal Dynamics
• Worked at Zynga

Award/Accomplishments/Video Game Titles/ETC:

• Tomb Raider
• Legacy of Kain Defiance
• Zynga’s Poker and Slots Franchise games
• Against the Cosmos