Kirk Black

Kirk Black Email and Phone Number

Head of Global Engineering at Forte @ Forte
Kirk Black's Location
Rochester, New York Metropolitan Area, United States, United States
Kirk Black's Contact Details
About Kirk Black

"Connecting People through Impactful Interactive Entertainment"Passionate, Adaptable Innovator with Leadership, Entrepreneurial, Development, and Management experience that's helped lead the creation of multiple cutting edge market waves including Mobile, Esport, F2P (free to play) and MMO (massively multiplayer online) Internet entertainment services.Expert focus on architecting, implementing, operating and evolving massively scalable, persistent, dynamic and adaptable real-time server-authoritative game system platforms that are fun and satisfying to players while unlocking and facilitating strategic business value. End results include performant, accessible server-authoritative content development, efficient, economical operation and scalability, timely, effective customer supportability, cash in/cash out payment processing, real-world KYC customer identity verification and integrated analytics providing real-time KPI feedback and strategic deep-dive business intelligence.Projects------------Community Economics Platform - Forte, Head of Global EngineeringReal Money Tournament Platform - Capcom, VP Product DevelopmentSuper Senso - TURBO, Chief Technology OfficerEnspira Online - EntrepreneurTOME - KIXEYE, Executive ProducerLeague of Legends - Riot, Director of EngineeringLord of the Rings Online - Turbine, Director of EngineeringDungeons & Dragons Online - Turbine, Director of EngineeringFamily Time! Adventures - EntrepreneurStar Wars Galaxies - Sony Online Entertainment, Sr. Engineer, Lead DesignerTabula Rasa - NCSoft, Sr. Technical DesignerUltima Online - EA/Origin, Lead Engineer, ProducerTiny Toons Buster and the Beanstalk - Terraglyph, Sr. EngineerKidsongs Musical Mystery - Terraglyph, Sr. EngineerIBM System/360 Mainframes - Unitech, COBOL Engineer[(bpy)2RuII(pptd)](PF6)2 - Chemistry Researcher (published, first author, cited 24x)

Kirk Black's Current Company Details
Forte

Forte

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Head of Global Engineering at Forte
Kirk Black Work Experience Details
  • Forte
    Head Of Global Engineering
    Forte Oct 2019 - Present
    San Francisco, Ca, Us
    I oversee the product design, architecture, development and operations of the Forte Platform, a comprehensive cryptocurrency economy and financial exchange service platform for game developers.I am leading 100+ developers distributed in teams all around the world including the US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Finland, UK, Hungary and Malta. The Forte Platform currently supports over two dozen game companies and publishers with more to come online throughout 2024 and beyond.
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  • Capcom
    Vp Product Development
    Capcom Jan 2018 - Feb 2019
    Osaka, Jp
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  • Turbo Studios
    Chief Technology Officer
    Turbo Studios Nov 2013 - Oct 2017
    I was the Tech Leader, Strategist, Architect and Team Builder for TURBO Studios, a mobile F2P eSports game company started with major investments from Softbank, Nexon, McKinsey and GungHo as our publisher.My expert contribution focused on client/server/content architecture, server authoritative content systems implementation, development and process, server platform development and scalability, service logistics and support, Live operations, analytics, business intelligence, KPI analysis and orchestrating all that in concert to support and drive my team to success under aggressive time, budget and resource constraints. I architected, built and operated the entire backend infrastructure and server platform in Enterprise Java and AWS from the ground up. This included analytics, persistent player account and game data, social media integration (Facebook, Gamecenter, GooglePlay), game systems, content development tools, customer support tools, app store integration, remote push notifications, automated load testing, operations and Live service monitoring and maintenance.Additionally, I managed the client engineering team which built the front end app in Unity for iOS and Android as well as directed the entire organization to meet strategic company milestones. The result was my team being able to work over the past four years in concurrent parallel development cycles on multiple, simultaneous versions of our midcore mobile F2P eSport focused product, Super Senso. We were honored by Apple as Best New Mobile Game App in 2016 and featured as Editor's Choice on the Apple Store in North America in April 2017, reaching #5 most popular app across all categories with nearly 500,000 total downloads. I also took out the office trash, washed dishes, laughed more than I should at cat videos, doge jokes and inflicted on my teammates way too much terrible and awesome '80s hair metal during 4am Live deployments.
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  • Kixeye
    Technical Director
    Kixeye Dec 2012 - Nov 2013
    Victoria, British Columbia, Ca
    Led a very talented team with the development of TOME, a MOBA intended for Facebook and eventually mobile release.
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  • Riot Games
    Technical Director
    Riot Games Jan 2010 - Dec 2012
    Los Angeles, Ca, Us
    Managed and built up the Game Engineering team from 8 engineers to 40 engineers with regularly scheduled 1:1s and three week development sprints. Eight of my engineers (six of whom I hired during my tenure) won the coveted Riot Culture Award, the most of any department within the organization.Converted and trained all development departments (Art, Design, Engineering, Platform, DevOps and Web) across the entire organization (nearly 400 people at that time) from Accurev to Perforce which dramatically improved productivity and decreased development iteration times, particularly with the performance gains experienced by our remote contractors and external offices.Created a new DevOps Team to facilitate scaling the League of Legends from a player base of a few thousand active players in North America and Europe to over 30 million active players worldwide in China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, North America and Europe. Architected and led the implementation of the technology that enabled League of Legends to become a world-class eSport platform with Spectator Mode, Replays and Broadcaster Announcer tools.
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  • Turbine, Inc
    Technical Director
    Turbine, Inc Feb 2008 - Jan 2010
    Needham, Massachusetts, Us
    Led the successful conversion of DDO and LOTRO MMOs from subscription-only to F2P (free to play with microtransactions) which is considered the first major commercial western game property to do so successfully at scale. Increased player acquisition, retention and engagement by 10x and revenue by 500% as a result.
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  • Family Time! Interactive
    Entrepreneur
    Family Time! Interactive Aug 2005 - Jan 2008
    Family Time! Interactive® was my personal venture created to develop the MMO service, Family Time! Adventures®. Family Time! Adventures® was a non-violent, cooperative Internet game designed for the whole family. I architected and created a full featured, scalable server platform with fun sample content generated by the creative team I assembled. The game was playable on a Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
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  • Sony Online Entertainment
    Lead Designer
    Sony Online Entertainment Jun 2003 - Aug 2005
    San Diego, Ca, Us
    Helped launch Star Wars Galaxies working as senior programmer then became Lead Designer shortly after launch and managed up to 18 game designers.
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  • Ncsoft
    Senior Technical Designer
    Ncsoft Jun 2001 - Jun 2003
    Bellevue, Wa, Us
    One of the original designers for the first iteration of Tabula Rasa.
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  • Electronic Arts (Ea)
    Lead Engineer, Producer
    Electronic Arts (Ea) Aug 1997 - Jun 2001
    Redwood City, Ca, Us
    Worked at the Origin Systems studio on Ultima Online which is considered to be the first mainstream successful MMO. Expanded Ultima Online into Japan, Europe, Korea, China and Australia and grew it to 242K subscribers.
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  • Terraglyph Interactive
    Senior Engineer
    Terraglyph Interactive Aug 1995 - Jul 1997
    After spending all my free evenings for months learning C++ and game programming after coming home from working on COBOL mainframe programs, I finally managed to get hired at a game company. I was one of three game programmers that developed and released four CDROM-based children's edutainment games written in C++:1. Hansel and Gretel and the Enchanted Castle2. Rumpelstiltskin's Labyrinth of the Lost3. TinyToons: Buster and the Beanstalk4. Kidsongs: Musical Mystery
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  • Unety Systems, Inc.
    Consultant Internet Developer
    Unety Systems, Inc. Jan 1996 - May 1997
    Naperville, Il, Us
    Implemented UNETY’s first interactive websites using Perl CGI scripts on BSD and Windows.Trained the staff in website and CGI web development.
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  • Unitech
    Cobol Programmer
    Unitech May 1994 - Aug 1995
    In
    Programmed Unitech's COBOL products on the IBM360/MVS Mainframes and PC platform.Trained new programmers and supported remote sales offices in Canada, London, Australia.
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  • Eastern Illinois University
    Chemistry Researcher
    Eastern Illinois University 1990 - 1992
    Charleston, Il, Us
    Chemistry Researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Mark McGuire synthesizing new chemical compound, [(bpy)2RuII(pptd)](PF6)2.Published (first author, cited 24x): Journal of Inorganic Chemistry
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Kirk Black Skills

Game Development Game Design Mmo Game Programming Online Gaming Xbox 360 Technical Leadership Mobile Games Casual Games Ps3 Mobile Game Development User Experience Unity3d Web Development Jira Server Architecture Level Design Console Mobile Applications

Kirk Black Education Details

  • Eastern Illinois University
    Eastern Illinois University
    Computer Science

Frequently Asked Questions about Kirk Black

What company does Kirk Black work for?

Kirk Black works for Forte

What is Kirk Black's role at the current company?

Kirk Black's current role is Head of Global Engineering at Forte.

What is Kirk Black's email address?

Kirk Black's email address is ki****@****ast.net

What is Kirk Black's direct phone number?

Kirk Black's direct phone number is +161764*****

What schools did Kirk Black attend?

Kirk Black attended Eastern Illinois University.

What are some of Kirk Black's interests?

Kirk Black has interest in Football, Exercise, Sweepstakes, Home Improvement, Reading, Sports, Watching Basketball, Golf, Watching Sports, Collecting Coins.

What skills is Kirk Black known for?

Kirk Black has skills like Game Development, Game Design, Mmo, Game Programming, Online Gaming, Xbox 360, Technical Leadership, Mobile Games, Casual Games, Ps3, Mobile Game Development, User Experience.

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