Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Contact Information

Email: Ivogel1@comcast.net
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivogel
Phone: 206.306.6665

IN A NUTSHELL

Education:
Cornell University, Bachelor of Arts, English & Film Studies
Selected as a four year Cornell Grossman Fellow

Experience:
10 years of AAA development and numerous awards on titles such as Bioshock, Saw, Thief, and System Shock 2. See below for more details
Related Experience:
News Reporter/Photographer: NECN (Boston) and WLBZ-TV (Portland, ME). I covered presidents, plane crashes, and all kinds of insane and crazy stuff.

Somewhat Related Experience:
Fog Guy: Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"; Yeah, THAT Nirvana.

My former band has a song on Guitar Hero, which is just kind of cool.

Saw: Creative Director


Work includes: Business development, coordinating programming, art and design teams on numerous videogame projects on multiple platforms, managing team of 9 designers, designing game systems, UI, AI design, level and mission layouts and moment to moment gameplay repsonsibilities, script writing, working closely with art and programming teams on asset creation, asset management, and game system implementation. Additional responsibilities include press tours, interviews, and publisher relations. (Screenshots are a result of team collaboration)

Bioshock: Senior Designer


Responsibilities for this Xbox 360 RPG include: Game system creation, level design, prototyping, AI design, and interface design. Bioshock won "Game of the Year" in 2007 as well as numerous other industry awards.

Bioshock
won numerous industry awards including Game of the Year.

SWAT 4: Senior Designer


Design roles for this PC game include: Interface design and construction, level design, level construction, technical optimizations, fictional consultation, enemy AI design, level lighting, object placement, team scheduling, responsible for design milestones. Additionally, worked directly with general manager regarding employee and workplace management, and business growth/opportunities.

SWAT 4 won numerous editor’s choice and Game of the Month awards, among others.


The Lost: Lead Design


Lead Design roles for this PS2 game include: managing team of 6 designers, working directly with general manager and publisher, interface design/collaboration, level breakouts, level design and construction, level optimizations, fictional consultation, cut scene directing, enemy AI design, level lighting, object placement, team scheduling. As lead designer, responsible for all design milestones.
The Lost was released in India as "Agni"

System Shock 2: Level and AI design


Design tasks include level design for 1/3 of the game (including Recreation, MedSci, and The Many), level construction and lighting, User Interface consultation, AI ecology construction, object placement, AI design/creation, AI scripting, in-game scripting, quest scripting.
System Shock 2 received numerous industry awards, including Game of the Year , RPG of the Year, Scariest Game of all Time, and Top 5 Games of all Time among others.

Thief: Level Design

Level Designer and AI scripter for the original "sneaker", Thief: The Dark Project.

Thief- The Dark Project won numerous industry awards for groundbreaking gameplay.