Cadenza Interactive - Creative Lead, Lead Environmental/Level Artist

Retrovirus is a six degrees of freedom shooter which sends players into the depths of a computer on a search and destroy mission against an invasive virus. 
March 2010 - Launch January 31, 2013 on Steam, Gamestop, Desura, Amazon, Humble Store
RetrovirusGame.com OR Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/227800

World Building and Level Design Responsibilities

  • Personally responsible for the bulk (95%+) of the environmental artwork and digital asset development 
  • 3D models/props, initial rigging & animations, and materials development. 
  • Blocked out initial level layouts & environments (campaign and multiplayer)
  • Setup scene compositions, applied geometry, placed props, setup lighting, and created particle effects.  
  • Responsible for matching final game aesthetics (style, mood, lighting, atmosphere) to concept artwork. 
  • Performed level optimizations that contributed directly to performance gains.

Artwork Responsibilities

Environmental Artwork
  • Personally responsible for the bulk (95%+) of the environmental artwork and digital asset development 
  • 3D models/props, initial rigging & animations, and materials development. 
  • Developed all environmental prop 'surfaces' and assets used to theme the 8-12 hour campaign/multiplayer
  • 10 unique environments ranging from the Green Hills of the user's Desktop to the blue BIOS caverns.
  • Collaborated with creative team to ensure a cohesive vision and professional presentation for all assets.
  • Developed and optimized the majority of particle effects. 
  • Shipped assets on time over the course of the production schedule.
  • Hosted weekly art and technical asset reviews. 
  • Managed all environmental, level, particle, and material/ texture assets using subversion/source control.  
  • Assisted integrating animations, models and other assets into our projects and toolsets. 
  • Hosted monthly game design meetings, observed testing sessions and performed analysis of feedback. 
  • Managed/prioritized art related bug lists. 
  • Implemented actionable next-steps for integrating art related suggestions, critiques, community feedback
  • Helped identify, hire and mentor new artists in the Retrovirus art style. 
Art Development Pipeline
  • Worked with programmers to streamline digital content workflows using our in-house toolset 
  • Familiar with the dynamics of working collaboratively and iteratively using the SCRUM process
  • Worked in support of programmers who implemented tools needed to optimize the art workflow.
  • Actively suggested tool enhancements and improvements for our toolset.
Texture & Materials Development
  • Developed hundreds of material textures for environmental use. 
  • Generated texture maps from high-poly source content.
  • Developed UI/Menu texture assets. 
Character & Enemies
  • Designed and created all friendly and corrupted bots
  • Generated all retopologized character assets.
  • UV mapped all character assets and developed textures for each using Mudbox & Photoshop. (Diffuse, Normal, AO, Emissive, Height, Specular)

Cinematic & Video Responsibilities 

Additional Responsibilities 

  • Developed assets used for marketing/promotions, business documents/presentations
  • Developed Steam assets (storefront, promotions, trading cards,etc) 
  • Produced, recorded and edited the YouTube Retrovirus Editor Series & Retrovirus Trailer.  
  • Generated the Retrovirus editor wiki documentation for Steam Workshop
  • Actively engaged in project specific forums providing help to the community.