Employment History:
IGDA Game Accessibility SIG
Chairperson: November 2010 – Current
- With help of the steering committee, defined the 2011-2012 goals for the SIG and worked to accomplish them
- Acted as community manager and content provider for the website, forums, Facebook, Twitter and listserv
- Was a speaker at various events and lead the GA SIG round table at GDC 2011
- Worked to provide students and developers as many resources as possible and helped spread accessibility
- Organized a team of accessibility experts to the update the white paper along with other research papers for the SIG
Firebrand Games: Merrit Island Office
Quality Assurance Lead: November 2010 – Current
- Managed dug databases, including the internal system across 3 studios and publisher QA systems
- Ensured that the team had met all requirements for milestones before signing off on builds
- Insured that titles were meeting submission requirements for Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony
- Consulted on accessibility and usability ensured a positive usability experience for the user
- Managed and directed the off site QA team by assigning them tasks, test plans and schedules
- Acted as build tech, preparing and testing builds being sent to off site QA and publishers
Pursuit of Happiness Foundation
VP of Industry Relations: January 2010 – Current
- Worked as an event planner for several activities and conferences the foundation was involved in
- Was a speaker at colleges and conferences on game accessibility
- Became well versed in specialty hardware and software for gamers with disabilities
- Provided accessibility reviews and consultations, and worked to ensure better usability for all gamers, and gamers with disabilities
- Acted as an advocate, consultant and educator for game accessibility
AbleGamers Foundation / AbleGamers.com / AbleGamers.Org
Staff Writer : September 2009 – November 2010
- Attended various events as a representative and reporter
- Wrote articles on news that directly pertained to gamers with disabilities, which included coverage of game features, gaming studies and teaching about game accessibility
- Reviewed games (AAA titles) and rated them based upon their levels of accessibility, in addition to more traditional reviews
- Highlighted how features or lack of features directly affected different gamer groups
- Organized, attended and brainstormed small fund raisers for the AbleGamers Foundation
- Interviewed various people related to the gaming industry for AbleGamers.com
Volition Inc / Champaign QA / THQ
Quality Assurance Tester: March 2008- May 2009
- Reported any software stability issues in a short report that was passed to programmers
- Reported when areas of the software could become broken or unplayable due to the player’s actions in a short report that was passed to the design or programming team.
- Worked closely with production to ensure that the current title was properly balanced
- Supervised and documented players’ actions during extended play tests and usability tests
- Mentored new hires and team members recently transferred onto new projects to ensure they were adjusting to their work environment, their bug writing was of the proper standard, and to answer any questions they may have
Shipped Titles:
- Red Faction: Guerrilla, 360/ PS3 – QA Tester
- Destroy All Humans: Path of Furon, 360/PS3 – QA Tester
- Cars 2, DS/ DSi – QA Lead (Out this Summer)
- Kick Off, iPhone/ iPad/ iPod Touch – QA Lead (Out this Summer)
- Unannounced Project, DS/ DSi/ Wii/ 360/ PS3 – QA Lead
Additional Work Experience:
- Speaker at Games for Health, Boston May 2011 “Building Guidelines & Best Practices for Accessible Games ” with Eleanor Robinson
- Speaker at Game Developers Conference 2011 – IGDA GA SIG Roundtable (Session Leader), Industry Game Accessibility Ratings System: Promoting Mainstream Games to the Gamer with Disabilities (Session Leader, Sub for Michelle Hinn)
- Speaker at Game Developers Conference 2010 – ”Accessibility Arcade: Bringing AAA Game Titles to Disabled Gamers through controller Hacks”, lead the IDGA Game Accessibility SIG round table discussion with Thomas Westin
- Guest Speaker at IGDA Orlando Chapter Meeting – February 2011
- Speaker at Interfaces 2010 – “Accessibility Basics- Guidelines to a Better Game” hosted by the International Academy of Design & Technology – Detroit, May 2010
- Guest Speaker at Full Sail University, December 2010
- Presenter at the Orlando Science Center’s Otronicon, January 2010
- Accessibility advocacy has been covered by GameSpot in an article– “Controller Hacks for Disabled Gamers”
- Organizer of the IGDA GA SIG Global Game Jam Merritt Competition – Central Florida
- Mentor to students at IADT – Detroit
Skills:
- experienced with HTML, CSS, and Dreamweaver
- experienced with Perforce
- familiar with several FTP programs
- basic programming with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/Visual Basic, Linux, C++
- familiar with modeling in Maya, and basic Mel Scripting
- has an exceptional knowledge on gaming accessibility and accessible game design
- excellent professional writing skills, note taking
