My Resume

John P. Guentzel
Game Designer

jguentzel@gmail.com
www.john-guentzel.com

QUALIFICATIONS:
A multifaceted career in, among other things, the creation and implementation of computer-based games for several multi-million-dollar a year publishing companies. Skills include: Game Design, Story Development, HTML. Familiarity with the Internet, IBM PC systems, MS-Word, MS-Excel, Visio, PhotoShop, PageMill, 3-D Studio Max. Accomplished at problem solving, with strong organizational skills. Flexible in thoughts and ideas, creative and patient. Accustomed to working with a wide variety of people.

WORK EXPERIENCE:

Level Designer (Contract), Aug 2005 – Present
Roxor Games, Austin, TX
• Hordes: No Escape (in development) – Level design and creation of 3D environments.

Designer, Jan 2004 – Sept 2005
Atomic Games, Austin, TX
• Close Combat: Red Phoenix (in development) – Story development and editing. Campaign flow and mission design for 3 player campaigns. Created, edited and maintained data for terrain elements, weapons, soldiers, teams and vehicles in a Microsoft Access database.
• JTAC TDS (in development) – Joint Terminal Attack Controller – Tactical Decision Simulator
- training tool in development for PMTRASYS / USMC.
• AT TDS (in development) – Anti-Terrorism – Tactical Decision Simulator
- training tool in development for PMTRASYS / USMC.

World Builder & Content Designer, July 2002 – Nov. 2003
Verant Interactive & Sony Online Entertainment, Austin, TX
• Star Wars Galaxies – Created 9 of 16 starting player cities as well as numerous “historical” locations from the Star Wars universe and new fictional locations that fit within Star Wars continuity. Responsible for running and maintaining my own Linux server as well as creating and maintaining locations on a master world building server. Edited and compiled terrain files for all 10 “planets” in the game. Dungeon design and placement. NPC, Creature and Environmental spawner design and placement. Created and maintained server and shared object templates for thousands of static and tangible game objects and structures. Wrote scripts (using a form of java) for NPC movement and behavior inside and outside of structures. Responsible for creating and editing conversation string files for Quest NPC’s.

Software Test Engineer II , Nov. 2001 – July 2002
Volt Service Group, Austin, TX
On assignment to Microsoft’s Digital Anvil studio
• FreeLancer – Responsible for play-testing all game missions, compiling and running QA checklists for various game systems. Responsible for creating bug reports and evaluating/closing returned bugs.

Associate Designer , June 1999 – May 2001
Kinesoft Development, Inc., Austin, TX• Crimson Order – Involved in story and script development, co-designed an overview of all missions. Personally responsible for in-depth design and creation of 1/3 of the game missions and maps using an in-house level editor. Generated game-engine cinematics. Responsible for creating and maintaining data files associated with game objects and characters. Responsible for designing major component of the game such as: Weapons, Armor, Menu System and In-game interface (including mock-ups).

Associate Designer III, December 1997 – February 1999
Origin Systems, Inc., Austin, TX• Wing Commander Secret Ops – Involved in initial story and script development, co-designed an overview of all missions and mission branching. In-depth design and creation of approximately 30 main plot missions using an in-house mission editor (MED). Responsible for creating and maintaining all data files associated with all game objects. Generated game-engine cinematics. Converted still images for use as gameflow background screens and animations using in-house tools.

Associate Designer I, December 1995 – December 1997
Origin Systems, Inc., Austin, TX• Abuse – Used game editor to design and assemble multi-player game levels. Responsible for implementing, tracking and fixing bugs during both alpha and beta phases of the product.

• Privateer II – Designed and created approximately 40-50 game missions for non-plot critical portions of the game. Created in-game fiction associated with each mission. Responsible for implementing, tracking and fixing bugs during both alpha and beta phases of the product.

• Wing Commander IV: PSX – Worked closely in association with an artist to develop game-play displays (mainly associated with the “Heads Up Display” [HUD]). Helped develop game-controller layouts based on ergonomic and user feedback.

• Wing Commander Prophecy – Involved in initial story and script development. Worked closely in association with an artist to develop game-play displays (mainly associated with the HUD). Helped to develop keyboard layouts, templated game menus, designed and created approximately 20 main plot missions using MED. Converted still images for use as gameflow background screens. Created animations using in-house tools. Created the detailed “Wing Commander Universe Map”.

Design Intern, September 1995 – December 1995
Origin Systems, Inc., Austin, TX

• Prowler – Maintained game-object database, used in-house tool (EOR) to scale and assemble skeletal systems of game objects. Responsible for creating, maintaining and tracking data files associated with all game objects.

REFERENCES:

Available on request