A little about me

How I Got Started

I’ve been tinkering with games since I was a kid, making new ways to play with Yu- Gi-Oh! and Magic cards and building custom maps in StarCraft’s editor. I liked figuring out how games worked and what happened when I changed the rules.

In 2004, while I was still in high school, I took over Ninja Academy, an online role-playing community. I developed it from a free-form experience into a game with rules, stats, and a battle system. That was where making games became something I wanted to do for a living.

It was also where I started learning to lead. Our moderators and gamemasters were volunteers, so the work needed to be fulfilling. I wrote design guides, explained the thinking behind our systems, and explored ideas with people. Ninja Academy was built around user-created content, and I enjoyed helping someone take what they wanted to make and find a way for it to be powerful, cool, and useful within the game. Helping people grow as designers became part of what I loved about making games.

Growing into Leadership

As my professional career grew, I found myself drawn to that same work: being a gardener of ideas and people. Helping a designer develop an idea, gain confidence, or take the next step in their career became some of the most rewarding work I did.

I still like being close to the game and working through design problems myself. Leading teams gave me a way to stay involved while helping more people do work they could be proud of.

How I Work

I like keeping the work enjoyable. A little humor helps, especially when a team is under pressure, but I also care about getting to the heart of a problem and making decisions people understand.

I want designers to feel comfortable bringing me unfinished ideas or disagreeing with me. My role is to help them work through those ideas, give feedback they can act on, and provide clear direction when it’s needed. Building that trust is a large part of how I lead.

Games Outside of Work

Games have always been a big part of my life outside of work. I’ve played Magic: The Gathering for more than 20 years, and I enjoy making tabletop systems and running campaigns. I like thinking through how rules work, what choices they give players, and how those choices change once people actually start playing.