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Ara
Shirinian |
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ara@housenet.org ~ http://www.shirinian.net/ |
EXPERIENCE
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2008-Present |
Game
Designer, Unreleased Driving Project (Xbox 360),
Rainbow Studios Designed
and planned a tile-based system of world construction to maximize asset
re-use, design flexibility and overall efficiency. Led
a team of artists to build a downtown city full of interesting gameplay
devices while fulfilling art needs as well as the overall game vision. Independently
researched and established best practices for the use of Havok-based physics
objects. |
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2006-2007 |
Game
Designer, Cars: Mater-National (Xbox 360, PS2),
Rainbow Studios Responsible
for design and implementation of three road circuits, a Monsters, Inc. themed mini-game, and the game's collectible item
system. Led
efforts to establish guidelines and direction for AI difficulty level tuning
and coordinated the work among the other designers. Successfully
took initiative in coordinating efforts to solve important gameplay mechanics
problems that plagued the driving engine since the original Cars. Collaborated
closely with artists to ensure that environment artwork supported and
integrated well with the design. |
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2006 |
Designer,
MX vs. ATV Untamed (Xbox 360, PS3), Rainbow Studios Coordinating
with track designers and artists, designed blueprints for world layouts
including asset specification and spaces built to maximize gameplay
interaction. |
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2005-2006 |
Game/UI
Designer, Unreleased Wrestling Project (Xbox 360), Rainbow
Studios Primary
designer responsible for architecture and documentation of the game's UI
system of about 150 unique screens, including player data save/load systems
and unlockables systems. Established
internal interface guidelines, tracked and supervised UI production. Ensured
that all UI design and art satisfied Microsoft TCRs. Designed
a novel and intuitive UI system for Create-A-Character mode, which allowed
rapid and easy manipulation of over 40 screens of user-adjustable parameters. Designed
and documented prototype gameplay mechanics. Implemented mechanics via our
proprietary toolset. Worked with programmers to devise improvements to our
tool to maximize designer productivity. |
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2003-2004 |
Game
Designer, The Red Star (Xbox, PS2), Acclaim Studios As
a core designer, planned, implemented and tested enemy behaviors and gameplay
devices under minimal supervision. Responsible for production of the shooting
elements of gameplay and major enemy encounters. Rapidly
gained advanced proficiency of the proprietary toolset with minimal training;
within six months began to train and delegate tasks to junior team members. Proposed
viable improvements for Acclaim's proprietary scripting tools to increase the
speed of common user operations by a factor of 16 or greater. Work
samples can be found at: http://www.shirinian.net/redstar/ |
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2003 |
Level
Designer, Apollyon's Tear Project Independently
designed and implemented a level design project using the Unreal Warfare
engine. Ranked in the 80th percentile overall on mapraider.com. Developed
custom scripts extending the functionality of the Unreal class hierarchy. Work
samples can be found at: http://www.shirinian.net/leveldesign/ |
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1999-2003 |
Senior
Editor, Tips & Tricks Magazine Completed
over 80 video game strategy guides since 1997, more than any other staff
member in the magazine's history. Analyzed each game with strong attention to
detail. Deconstructed
game rule and scoring systems, distilling them into clear and concise
strategies with data-rich visualizations. Consistently
achieved a level of quality greater than competing strategy guides and books. |
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1998-1999 |
Software
Engineer, WPI Inc. Designed
and implemented custom electronic performance support systems (EPSS) for
FDIC, NSA and other clients. Conducted formal interface usability testing as
a key part of the human factors software development methodology. |
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1996-1997 |
Research
Assistant, Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory Developed
video and image-browsing tools and user interfaces for the Library of Congress project.
Independently designed and implemented automatic HTML generating tools. |
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1995-1996 |
Graphic
Designer, PrimaNET Communications
Inc. Designed
and created 2D and 3D artwork. Produced logos, brochures, and web interfaces
for PrimaNET and its clients. |
SKILLS
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Programming
Languages |
Lua,
UnrealScript, JavaScript, Perl, HTML, C++. |
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Tools |
Maya,
Havok, 3ds max, UnrealEd, Photoshop, Illustrator. |
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Operating Systems |
Windows,
UNIX, MacOS. |
EDUCATION
B.S. Computer Science with a concentration in Mathematics.
AWARDS
Academic
Honors and Dean's List, Computer Science: Spring 1997, Fall
1997.
Self-published Spectrum Fanzine,
nominated for "Best Gaming Fanzine of 1993" in Electronic Games Magazine.
PUBLICATIONS
AND MEDIA
Shirinian,
A. (2005) So You Want To Work In the
Game Industry. Game Informer,
May 2005 |
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Shirinian,
A. (2004) Difficult Questions About
Videogames. Editors Newman, J. and Simons, I. |
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Shirinian,
A. and Dickelman, E. J. (2002) Applying
Video Game Interaction Design to Business Performance, Round 2. Performance Improvement
Journal, Volume 41 No. 10 |
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Shirinian,
A. (2001) It's All Part of the Game: Connecting
Video Game Interaction Design and Business Performance. Performance Improvement
Journal, Volume 40 No. 7 |