Richard Rowan Email & Phone Number

Redmond, Wa, Us

Redmond, Washington, United States

Redmond, Wa

Senior lecturer and curriculum designer for game design and user experience design classes. Core faculty for the design department and known as a key contributor in design theory research, system design, content/level design, puzzle design, game development, and user experience design.I routinely teach 200+ students each semester and regularly develop new curriculum and refine curriculum for existing classes. Regularly advise Masters students on game development and user experience… Show more Senior lecturer and curriculum designer for game design and user experience design classes. Core faculty for the design department and known as a key contributor in design theory research, system design, content/level design, puzzle design, game development, and user experience design.I routinely teach 200+ students each semester and regularly develop new curriculum and refine curriculum for existing classes. Regularly advise Masters students on game development and user experience design. Show less

Redmond, Wa

Lead and manage the affairs of the department with coordination responsibility for Design faculty. Represent the department to the administrative offices, other departments, other academic institutions, employers, alumni, and students. Work closely with the directors of degree programs and the faculty to oversee the development, revision, and improvement of demartment curriculum and course outcomes to meet the educational objectives of the degree programs supported. Coordinate course… Show more Lead and manage the affairs of the department with coordination responsibility for Design faculty. Represent the department to the administrative offices, other departments, other academic institutions, employers, alumni, and students. Work closely with the directors of degree programs and the faculty to oversee the development, revision, and improvement of demartment curriculum and course outcomes to meet the educational objectives of the degree programs supported. Coordinate course scheduling, staffing, and other administrative needs of the department. Show less

Game business and production/design consulting for a variety of companies:Glu MobileEMP MuseumPremera Insurance8th Shore, Inc.

Greater Seattle Area

Auric Games is a developer of premium mobile and social online games. We have acquired the game Dragon Storm, a massively multiplayer strategy game for iOS, and published it as Dragon Storm Gold less than 2 months after founding. Since taking over the game, we have made significant improvements in some of our core metrics, in some cases tripling them.http://www.auricgames.com/

Redmond, Wa

Lecturer and curriculum designer for Game History class that covers games of all types from prehistory up through modern video games.

Kirkland, Wa

As part of the core management team of the Glu-Kirkland studio, managed two cross-discipline MMO teams including production, development, art, design, and QA. Worked closely with Glu executive team to publish and market two mobile (tablet and smart phone) freemium MMO game titles.* Visionary behind a generic mobile MMO infrastructure, including accounts, chat, mail, groups, leaderboards, transactions, game catalog, game events, metrics, notifications, and customer service infrastructure… Show more As part of the core management team of the Glu-Kirkland studio, managed two cross-discipline MMO teams including production, development, art, design, and QA. Worked closely with Glu executive team to publish and market two mobile (tablet and smart phone) freemium MMO game titles.* Visionary behind a generic mobile MMO infrastructure, including accounts, chat, mail, groups, leaderboards, transactions, game catalog, game events, metrics, notifications, and customer service infrastructure. Led the team to produce the core of these services in 3 months with a more robust set in 6 months.* Led team to design, produce and ship the freemium MMO game Dragon Storm, create live operations infrastructure, and improve the key monetization systems of the game.* Led a second team on an unannounced title. Show less

Issaquah, Wa

Recruited as the company’s first employee by the two founders and helped to build the organization from the ground up, hiring and training a team of over 90 producers, designers, engineers, artists, and QA. Work closely with co-founders to determine business strategy, develop budgets and create staffing plans. Negotiate partner and vendor contracts. Manage multiple concurrent projects including tablet/phone games.* Led team to design, produce and ship the MMO game Marvel Super Hero Squad… Show more Recruited as the company’s first employee by the two founders and helped to build the organization from the ground up, hiring and training a team of over 90 producers, designers, engineers, artists, and QA. Work closely with co-founders to determine business strategy, develop budgets and create staffing plans. Negotiate partner and vendor contracts. Manage multiple concurrent projects including tablet/phone games.* Led team to design, produce and ship the MMO game Marvel Super Hero Squad Online. Delivered in record time (less than 2 years) with no mandatory overtime or weekend work.* Built productive, empowered organization that routinely produces top quality work within tight timeframes. Created positive work environment with strong sense of camaraderie and accountability.* Drove enormous productivity gains by implementing Agile development methodology.* Delivered MMO game on schedule with zero project slips by managing development process closely from start to finish, reorganizing the team as necessary in order to meet the project’s changing needs. Show less

Founded and managed studio focused on the production of casual video games. Hired and led team of 9 developers, artists and designers. Negotiated contracts with publishers and technology licensors including Microsoft, Capcom, and Epic.* Bootstrapped the business’s growth, funding development through contract assignments and shipping two titles (UNO Street Fighter for XBLA and Labyrinth for Zune HD).

Redmond, Wa

Hired to manage the production of 3rd party games but subsequently promoted to spearhead 1st party production, leading team of 3 producers managing multiple concurrent development projects. Acted as UI design and game presentation consultant across multiple groups. Earned reputation as the go-to subject matter expert on all Microsoft gaming technologies.* Instrumental in transforming the organization from a pure 3rd party distributor into a respected and successful game development studio… Show more Hired to manage the production of 3rd party games but subsequently promoted to spearhead 1st party production, leading team of 3 producers managing multiple concurrent development projects. Acted as UI design and game presentation consultant across multiple groups. Earned reputation as the go-to subject matter expert on all Microsoft gaming technologies.* Instrumental in transforming the organization from a pure 3rd party distributor into a respected and successful game development studio, Carbonated Games. Shipped a total of 34 games across multiple platforms (web, IM, Xbox Live, downloads).* Built and nurtured a development team in India from the ground up, creating a top-performing team that reduced costs approximately 60% while producing high-quality work. * Delivered multiple hit games including UNO (#1 title on Xbox Live Arcade with nearly 500K units sold and an unprecedented ~50% conversion ratio); Sudoku Web (top 5 list on MSN Games); UNO for Windows Live Messenger (#1 title, with daily peaks of over 22 thousand simultaneous players).* Authored vision document for the redesign of all legacy card and board games. Successfully helped transition these games from their previous 10-year-old ActiveX technology to modern Flash implementations.* Created numerous development and production processes including specifications, scheduling, status reporting, and 3rd party approval processes. Show less

Initially hired as Test Lead for Asheron’s Call but promoted in 2000 to manage all Xbox testing for the studio. Built the Xbox testing organization from the ground up, hiring and training team of 11. Deployed extensive process improvements for massively-multiplayer and Xbox titles. Managed 11 different titles.* Brought Asheron’s Call back on track by mapping out clear schedule that ensure every subsequent milestone was met.* Stepped in to turn around slipping MMO game Allegiance. Worked… Show more Initially hired as Test Lead for Asheron’s Call but promoted in 2000 to manage all Xbox testing for the studio. Built the Xbox testing organization from the ground up, hiring and training team of 11. Deployed extensive process improvements for massively-multiplayer and Xbox titles. Managed 11 different titles.* Brought Asheron’s Call back on track by mapping out clear schedule that ensure every subsequent milestone was met.* Stepped in to turn around slipping MMO game Allegiance. Worked with production team to streamline features and secured additional resources. Delivered the game on schedule.* Developed testing processes for the new Xbox platform and created test plan template used by 2,000+ testers across Microsoft Game Studios, ensuring that the first wave of titles were released on time. Show less

Bachelor Of Arts, Gaming Systems & Applications (Also Studied Computer Science, Business, Psychology)

Edens Hall N resident, spent sophomore year at University of Missouri-Rolla

(1 Year), Management Information Science, Theater

Activities and Societies: Show-Me Anime Club Treasurer, Various Theater Productions Thomas Jefferson Hall resident, 8th Floor