Three studios, three acquisitions (Microsoft, Zynga, Netflix), and a steady move from making the art to
running the whole thing. A drift at first, then a decision.
Now Independent Startup and AI consulting, indie games, and the next machine on the bench Open to talk
2013–25 Boss Fight Entertainment → Netflix IT Director, then Tech Art Lead, EP on Dungeon Boss, and GM through the Netflix acquisition Acquired
2009–13 Bonfire Studios → Zynga One of the founding three. CastleVille, Zynga's fastest-growing launch at the IPO. Acquired
1998–09 Ensemble Studios → Microsoft Employee #18, Age of Empires franchise 25M+ units
Self-Employed
Startup & AI ConsultantDec 2025 – Present
Advises startups on adopting generative AI. Recently drove it across a full product-pitch pipeline, helping one put five distinct product concepts in front of major publishers.
Builds working prototypes and runs local ML infrastructure firsthand using Claude Code, diffusion models, and RAG/MCP-based workflows.
Netflix
General ManagerMar 2022 – Nov 2025
Scaled two products from zero-team prototype concepts to shipping teams totaling 140 with development budgets exceeding $100M.
Sustained top-4 monthly engagement platform-wide for Netflix Stories (13 narrative games shipped in ~18 months) with zero user-acquisition spend.
Led Squid Game: Unleashed to #1 at launch on Netflix Games: #1 Top Free Game in 24 countries, 10.7M+ downloads, free-for-everyone at launch, a first for Netflix Games.
Initiated a generative-AI pilot for in-game asset creation, from evaluation through production trial.
Boss Fight Entertainment
General ManagerJul 2020 – Mar 2022
Built the prototypes that led to the studio's acquisition by Netflix, directing a 90-person team through the four-month deal.
Boss Fight Entertainment
Executive ProducerJan 2017 – Jul 2020
Executive Producer on Dungeon Boss in its late-lifecycle years, managing the product to a modest 8% engagement rebound in a category losing 10–20% a year, before handing it off to go start the Netflix prototypes.
Led a two-year development program with Activision-Blizzard from early prototype to a full development team.
Grew from production leadership into general management, earning promotion to General Manager.
Boss Fight Entertainment
Director of IT · Technical Art LeadJun 2013 – Jan 2017
Built and ran the studio's IT infrastructure single-handedly as it grew from zero to 60 employees, then returned to lead technical art.
Technical artist on Dungeon Boss through its 2015 launch, doing VFX and engineering work in the final push to ship.
Zynga
Lead Technical Artist · Software EngineerOct 2010 – Jul 2013
Key contributor to CastleVille, Zynga's flagship launch timed to coincide with and maximize its December 2011 IPO. A critical success and the fastest-growing Zynga title to that point, with 26.5M players in its first month.
Adapted production systems from a sub-10-person founding team to a 3,000+ person public company.
Bonfire Studios
Lead Technical Artist · EngineerApr 2009 – Oct 2010
One of the first three employees out of Ensemble Studios; built the technical art pipeline that ran at scale through Zynga's acquisition and IPO.
Ensemble Studios → Microsoft
Technical Artist · 3D ArtistJan 1998 – Mar 2009
Joined the independent studio as employee #18; Microsoft acquired Ensemble in 2001.
Shipped on the Age of Empires franchise (25M+ units) from Rise of Rome (1998) through Age of Kings, The Conquerors, Age of Mythology, Age of Empires III, and Halo Wars.
Education
Texas Tech University · Computer Science, B.S. Program
The Art Institute of Dallas · Associate of Arts, 3D Art and Animation
Lessons that cost me something
You don't get to be exactly right. So pick the direction you'd rather be wrong in, and commit to it.
There's always a bottleneck. Polishing anything else feels great and accomplishes nothing, and fixing the real one just relocates it.
Everyone quotes 'what gets measured gets managed.' What gets managed is whatever was easy to measure, which is rarely the thing that mattered.
Conway was right. I've watched two teams that didn't talk ship two things that didn't talk.
Bezos calls them two-way doors. Most decisions are cheap to undo, so make them fast. Save the agonizing for the ones that only swing one way.
The downloadable résumé is generated from the same data as this page, so the two can't disagree.