Alan's passion for technology and games led to a 25 year career at Blizzard Entertainment where he helped develop several critically acclaimed titles such as Warcraft III, StarCraft II, and Heroes of the Storm. His journey has included both technical and game direction, and he's had the honor of leading teams both small and large. He's incredibly excited to start this new chapter with some pretty awesome people.

I guess if I had saved all the quarters I pumped into Street Fighter II at the arcade, I'd have a lot more money today. But then I wouldn't be as good with Blanka, so I think it was worth it.

In 2008, months before the financial crisis, Aleks had the choice of taking a software engineering role at a fintech company or to begin a career in Business Intelligence. His wife chose wisely, and after 3 years in the retail sector, serendipitously he landed a dream job at Blizzard Entertainment. At Blizzard, Aleks worked with giants of the industry, standing up analytics products for Hearthstone, Overwatch, Diablo 4, and other really cool stuff.

Aleks will not keep talking about the fact he was one of the 40 people to kill Ragnaros the Firelord for the first time in the world. What he omits to mention is that despite 25 years of pc gaming experience, he can no longer beat his 10-year-old son in Super Smash Bros. He also often forgets to mention his dogged but fruitless pursuit of the Gladiator title. But despite his often competitive nature, he most enjoys "wasting" his time on silly games with even sillier friends.

After immigrating to the USA, Ali began working as a Functional QA Tester at Activision Publishing. As long-time fan of the Call of Duty series, working on the franchise was a dream come true. In the years since, he has led QA testing efforts across several AAA titles in Minnesota and Texas, winning multiple company awards along the way by championing and empowering his colleagues, and innovating new processes. Ali believes in building an inclusive work environment and is excited to collaborate with the talented team at Dreamhaven.

Things I enjoy: Collecting vinyl and weird pop art, following combat sports, playing fighting games

Record: Bengal Sound - Culture Clash

Favorite label: Juan Forte. Great selection and fun artwork

Fighting game of choice: Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, I love the chaos and pretty colors

Goals: Finishing books I purchase, learning more about automation and building helpful tools, learning Spanish, figuring out coffee

Born and raised in Uganda, East Africa. Alvin's obsession with storytelling and entertainment led him to immigrate into the United States in pursuit of one day joining the entertainment industry.  Alvin has worked as Art Lead, Animation Director, Cinematic Director and Animator at companies such as Meta, Blizzard, Vicarious Visions, Fox and 2K games. Alvin believes that if you surround yourself with great and humble people, and submit yourself fully and openly to trust and collaborate, there is nothing that you cannot achieve together!!

Favorite Quote: ”..Your favorite food is something that you once tried for the first time..”

Favorite Game: Metal Gear Solid

Favorite Books: What Every Body Is Saying by Joe Navarro and Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmul

Favorite Outdoor Activity: Soccer!!! But really I call it football.

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During her two-decade career in gaming, Amy has held leadership roles on StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft in China, and Blizzard’s Global Esports teams. She is passionate about building & fostering communities. And believes that gaming  brings together an exceptional community of creators, competitors and players that connect across geographies, languages, and beliefs, to accomplish amazing feats and be a part of something much larger.

Favorite game of all time: StarCraft II

First completed game: Legend of Zelda

Hobbies: Board games, playing pretend, cooking/baking

Also loves: Any time spent with family and friends, travel adventures, dinner parties

Andy's 20-year trajectory at Blizzard started as a QA intern on Diablo II. He joined full time as a founding member of the Battle.net team before shifting to gameplay for Warcraft III and StarCraft II. He led gameplay engineering for Heroes of the Storm and directed all engineering for Warcraft Arcade Rumble. He's happiest when learning new things, solving interesting problems, and empowering colleagues to make games more easily.

Favorite Ships: Colonial Viper Mk II, B-Wing, USS Defiant, Sulaco, Normandy SR-2

Favorite Authors: John Scalzi, V.E. Schwab, Alastair Reynolds

Favorite Star Wars Movies: The Last Jedi, Rogue One, Return of the Jedi

Favorite Lego Sets: Voltron, Helicarrier, Tantive IV, A-Wing

Anne-Sophie originally started her career as a Web Designer. After a couple of years, she decided to change her career path and became a Software Engineer. She has spent the last 16 years in the video game industry working on Starcraft II, Diablo III and IV at Blizzard Entertainment. Her passion for programming led her to work on user interface, server development, tools and game play.

Hobbies: Spending time with my son, playing board games, being outside, enjoying nature, hiking and eating good food.

Fun fact: I learned how to sew and was making my own cloths before my son was born.

Mission: Still searching for the best French pastries in California.

Favorite food: Crepes (sweet or salted)

Formerly a scientist doing science stuff for big pharma, Arturo changed careers in 2008 and went into gaming. He started out as a brand manager at THQ on the Ultimate Fighting Championship franchise where he learned he had no business telling fighters what to do. Since then, he has worked at Riot Games, EA, and Respawn Entertainment building teams, launching games, and trying to have fun while doing it.

Having a BBQ with family and a chill group of friends might be the best thing ever. I am also a Radiohead fan who loves old school hip-hop and chill tracks to bob my head to. I’m pretty die-hard San Diego anything, and YES, the burritos are better there.

Audrey has been entrenched in gaming of all kinds growing up and decided to attend college studying game design. She's led game clubs, participated in collegiate esports, competed in games semi-professionally, started a career as an esports broadcaster, and helped grow diverse representation in those areas. Now, freshly out of graduate school, Audrey is excited that her first step into the game dev industry is with Secret Door.

Interests: Esports, hiking/kayaking, reading fantasy or dystopian novels, breakfast food, cats, and collecting board games

Favorite Games: PUBG, Don't Starve Together, D&D, and Betrayal at the House on the Hill

D&D Class: Monk

A twenty-year veteran of the game industry both tabletop and digital, Ben’s roles have included college professor, illustrator, concept artist, art director, and creative director. He has a passion for building games and teams from the ground up, which he did for over a decade on Hearthstone where he helped to define the aesthetics and creative direction for the game from its earliest days.

Greatest Strength: The ability to answer most questions in the form of a song lyric.

Greatest Weakness: Using multiple metaphors to make a point, and misusing the word “literally” in conversation.

Three Best Smells: Fresh coffee, pipe tobacco, linseed oil

Plan “B” Careers: Music, photography, or woodworking

Freshly imported from Canada like a sack of Yukon Gold Potatoes, Betty has over 8 years of experience in both the game and animation industry. Her passion for games was initially sparked by her obsession for Runescape. From Runescape to Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid to Deadspace, Dead Space to you get the point, Betty has never stopped loving games. She specializes in character and prop design, and dabbles with illustration on the side.

Hobbies: Mycology,  betta fish mutations, her bunnies, Tim Hortons, and falling asleep half way through any movies

Favourite Games: Deadspace, Metal Gear Solid 1-3, Darkest Dungeon, Patapon

Pets: Two Bunnies, Bun and Chancho. One day hope to adopt the ugliest Chihuahua you can ever imagine and name them Bubbles

Brandon has been creating experiences for different platforms for 10 years - whether it's a phone, a console, or even public spaces. Getting his start working on events and platform in Philadelphia, he's made his way across the US to work with people of all different disciplines. He values technical polish, game feel, and growing teams to realize their true potential.

Hobbies: hiking, biking, music, board games

Like: Philadelphia sports

Dislikes: Philadelphia sports

With over 10 years in the industry, Bree started her career at Obsidian Entertainment as an artist on projects such as Dungeon Siege III and South Park: The Stick of Truth. At Blizzard, Bree led efforts across internal and external art development on Hearthstone as their outsource manager. It is Bree's belief that at the heart of every great game is an even greater team, and she is absolutely delighted to be at Moonshot.

Loves:  Coffee, cooking, gaming, traveling & planning travel for others, camping, reading, pottery, making fancy cocktails, spoiling my pups and husband, and 50+ house plants

Favorite local restaurants: 242 Sushi, Heritage BBQ, Vaca, and Centro

Longest hours spent on any game: Star Wars Galaxies, Counter Strike 1.6 & Source

Role queue: Damage, support(ish)

Brian's deep fascination with games began while touring the mines of Narshe, but didn't really solidify until his university years spent abroad in Norrath. He knew at this point that online games were his future. Since joining the industry, he has helped launch and service 7 MMORPGs and 3 online competitive games. Brian’s passion for online games focuses on ensuring a truly amazing player experience both inside and outside of the game.

Knoxxer

Purveyor of Infinite Hobbies: from overlanding to BBQ to lifting to golf to travel, he is never one to turn down an adventure that lets him gear up

Consumer of All Media: regardless of format - for the engaging characters, worlds, and communities that are uncovered

Arcana: StrengthRank 6: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Calia kick-started her video game career when she tackled the project management of the technology and infrastructure expansion to support the launch of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls. She then joined the World of Warcraft team and honed her passion for delivering particularly complicated projects on-time and within budget. While Calia still considers herself to be somewhat of a casual player, her Overcooked scores would put anyone to shame!

Favorite games of all time: A tie between Theme Hospital and The Dig

Career highlight (so far): Being the primary Game Producer for WoW Classic

Hobbies: Reading, cooking, embroidering, gaming, gardening, and woodworking

Other loves: My family. Sleeping. Food. ALL animals, but especially beagles.

Cat began her career working at the Bureau of Labor Statistics before realizing that statistical analysis is much more interesting when the data source is a video game. She has spent the past decade in analytics, data science, game economics, and product at a myriad of gaming companies including S2 Games, Carbine, Epic, and Blizzard. She is excited to help the great people at Dreamhaven make great games, so that she can play those too!

Too many interests, too little time! Hiking with the pup, gardening, reading, writing, and cooking are just some of the things that fill Cat's time outside of work and gaming. She is going to be building a ceramics studio at her new house in the near future, so that she can return to her one true love—making mugs with icons from her favorite video games on them.

Making software has been a passion of Chad's for over a decade. A game developer generalist, Chad has worked on everything from web servers to graphics engines. In that time he has helped creatives bring their visions to life on games like Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and more. He believes that teams that value transparency, respect, and diversity create the best games.

First Game Created: PvP tank simulator on the TI-84 calculator

D&D Class: Wizard, and sometimes Cleric

Favorite Beer: Ballast Point's Grapefruit Sculpin IPA

Hobbies: Writing D&D adventures, playing drums (poorly), and playing shooty shooty pew pew video games

A veteran of the video game industry, Chris has overseen the development of several award-winning video games including Warcraft III, StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone. Chris’s goal is to link arms with passionate developers to craft game experiences that bring players together and create positivity in the world.

Receiving the Wookie life pledge was the highlight of a recent trip to Disneyland. The original Star Wars movies probably had the most influence on turning Chris into the fantasy, science fiction, and D&D nerd that he is.

Although Colton is a recent addition to the gaming industry, Colton has lived and breathed video games ever since he could remember. Coming from a background in a handful of tech startups in Canada, Colton previously worked on creating Marvel and Disney games and is now more excited than ever to be on the Secret Door team and to build great games with great people.

Pet: Cleo (Frenchie)

Games: RuneScape, Hearts of Iron IV, League of Legends

Authors: Brandon Sanderson, Isaac Asimov

Movies: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Avengers: Infinity War

D&D Class: Warlock (+Artificer multiclass)

With a 30-year career art directing, most notably on the Red Dead Redemption franchise, Daren recently spent five years working in the mixed reality medium at Magic Leap where he saw a glimpse into the future of technology. He has also contributed traditional illustrations to Hearthstone, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and Pathfinder, among others. Daren now finds himself in the enviable position of working with an extremely talented and passionate group of game developers at Dreamhaven.

Fun facts: I have a massive art book collection. My first concert was Rush for the Moving Pictures tour. I went to Kenya in 2019 and I haven't been the same since. I can't wait to get back!

Pointless facts: My resting face is a scowl. I am barefoot 95% of the time. Food is my weakness. Especially sushi. And desserts. Even cereal. And vegetables.

Dave's career has always centered around sound as a musician, studio engineer, and teacher, but as a lifelong gamer, a transition to interactive was inevitable. In 2014, he joined tech startup Magic Leap as their first "Sonic Artist," helping design the future of mixed reality and launch their groundbreaking device. Most recently, he’s been working on the magical battle royale "Spellbreak," and is thrilled to join such Moonshot to help bring the world of their new game to life through sound.

Hobbies: Free time mostly ends up in dad-mode with our two sets of twins (yup!), but I love playing with new and old technology (guitar pedals, synthesizers, cameras, etc), eating delicious BBQ and tex-mex with my wife, and supporting our new hometown club Austin FC!

Favorite Music: Radiohead, The Beatles, Radiohead, Rush, Radiohead...

Favorite Games: SNES-era Square RPGs, the Uncharted series, Destiny 2, The Division 2, Outer Wilds

With over 15 years designing and implementing user interfaces, Derek has helped shape the UX for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He believes UI can bridge art, design, engineering, and the player to help make a fun experience. He's humbled by the passion, dedication, and positive energy of gamers from around the world. In addition to UI design, he's passionate about promoting a positive and joyful team culture.

Strengths: Dad jokes, jack of all trades, doing things without thinking, Pokemon puzzle league

Weaknesses: Dancing, pastries

Favorite Restaurants: Alinea, Shibucho, Panda Express

Favorite Bakeries: Porto’s, Cream Pan, Paderia

Drew grew up playing every game console on the market and quickly found his passion for PC gaming with Counter Strike and Starcraft. He moved from Ohio to California to pursue his dreams of working in gaming and technology at Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games. Drew brings well over a decade of backend platform experience and cannot wait to help build the next great thing at Dreamhaven.

Huge dog lover. My cardigan corgi Reggie has been in my family over 10 years. I love outdoor hiking and lounging at the beach. My favorite food is pizza that does not have pineapple on it.

With twenty-five years' experience, Dustin has contributed to design and game direction on a variety of cool games, including StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, Command & Conquer, and Mechwarrior 2. Dustin believes great teams make great games and people should be creatively empowered and encouraged to try new things. Experiment and thrill in the joy of creation. Everyone is a game maker.

Hobbies: Baking, Dungeon Master. I am not really getting better at either and I have given up trying to improve, but I love them both. 

Secret Shame: I have seen the movie Starship Troopers several hundred times. Whether you think Starship Troopers is a fine example of artistic cinema or not, you must admit, that is too many times. 

Erin has been an HR leader for more than a decade and believes people are the heart of any company. She works hard to build trust with her colleagues and geeks out on organizational behavior, psychology, and analytics. She built out multiple teams across different disciplines while at Blizzard Entertainment and Surefoot and loves onboarding new colleagues, coaching high performing teams, and cultivating an inclusive culture.

Pets: Willie (pug), Charlie (boxer)‍

Favorite pastime: Singing Adele at the top of my lungs ‍

Favorite restaurants: Cafe Gazelle and Christakis‍

Favorite emoji:

Erin decided to set her sights on a career in video games when incorrectly concluding that making games is probably like Dungeon Mastering. She fell in love with production while leading a team of fellow students to publish their first game, Hollowed. Her experience spans from small, scrappy teams to huge AAA endeavors including Madden and League of Legends: Wild Rift. No matter the team size, she believes in promoting a flexible mindset and inclusive culture.

Personality Trait: I was not born with a whole lot of natural talent…but I work hard, and I never give up.

Ideal: Aspiration. To become Hokage is my dream!

Bond: Those who break the rules are scum…but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.

Flaw: I Like ramen. I hate the three-minute wait while the water boils.

As a lover of music, art, and technology, Fiona is passionate about bringing these together in video games. She's worked as an intern at several companies, ranging from front end work at Apple to writing shaders at Valve. Most recently, Fiona worked as a gameplay engineering intern at Blizzard and is excited to continue making meaningful games and explore different fields of engineering at Secret Door.

Fun Facts: I’ve played violin for over 12 years and love playing both classical and jazz electric violin. I also love video game music—I have 3000+ hours of game OSTs on my computer

Hobbies: Asian food, watching pretty sunsets, drawing, music, and binge-watching anime

Favorite Games: Hollow Knight, Ori, Hades, and a bunch of Nintendo games

Since childhood, Geoff has loved playing video games where he could craft meaningful experiences with his friends. Now, this love has translated into a desire to give back by helping create fun games that bring people together. After graduating from UC Irvine, Geoff spent his 7-year career at Blizzard developing game systems on various teams such as Heroes, Diablo IV, and the Unannounced Survival Game.

I'm an adventure-seeker through and through. I like long scenic hikes, climbing rocks, surfing, camping...pretty much anything out into nature.

This selfie was taken on top of the tallest peak in Norway, Galdhøpiggen.

My D&D group has been adventuring every week consistently for 6+ years

Fun fact: I've been a vegetarian my whole life!

Fifteen years ago, Gina dreamed about one day working in the gaming industry. Her career journey has taken her to multiple entertainment companies, including Disney, NBC-Universal, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. Eventually, her dream was realized as she supported talent acquisition for AAA studios such as Netherrealm, Monolith, Disney Interactive, and Blizzard Entertainment. 

Gina’s been obsessed with video games since childhood. Her parents would hide her SNES system, but Gina and her sister would find it every time to sneak in a few rounds of Mario Kart before their parents came home. She also enjoyed PC gaming at a young age and loved playing the King’s Quest and Space Quest series from Sierra games. Today, you can find her playing Final Fantasy XIV (MMO), Fortnite, and Overwatch.

Grant has been writing code since he was 6 years old and has been developing video games his entire adult life. He has made everything from action games to racing games and has lived on three different continents. Grant believes that teams with a shared purpose and complementary skills create the best experiences for both players and developers.

Happiest when playing Ultimate four or more days a week.

Reads at least 30 science fiction and fantasy books a year.

Only likes to cook if it's BBQ and there's beer in the fridge.

Hadidjah's 10-year career in games has seen them in Technical Art, Environment Art, and finally VFX. In that time they've worked on everything from indie games to MMOs to building and leading Hearthstone's VFX team. They believe strongly in the ability of games to make the world a happier and more connected place, and are thrilled to be pursuing that with Moonshot.

Interests: drawing (poorly), reading (slowly), game dev (but outside of work this time), rating fishing minigames, dice-making, crafting, animation, tabletop games, insta-locking Support, accidentally saying hi to people's dogs first, good food, great drinks, making bold claims about VFX color palettes, taking naps in different countries, baking, animals, ethology, bookbindin-

Hasiba has been in the gaming industry for several years at both small and large studios including Blizzard and EA. She has worked on Hearthstone and has shipped 3 other mobile game titles. She is passionate as a UX designer about crafting cohesive experiences that feel effortless and enjoyable for players. She is excited to be working with a highly creative and empathetic team.

Likes: Board games, K-pop, hot drinks in the summer

Unhealthy Obsessions: Baby Yoda, BB-8… yeah I'm their target audience

Video Games: RPGs, MMOs, card games

Fatal Flaw: Takes an entire 2 hours to write up a bio 😅

Ian started his career in the entertainment industry over a decade ago helping build Nintendo's first online account platform. Eventually he found is way to Blizzard and helped deliver online features used by most of Blizzard's catalog, and some other super cool stuff. Recent years have been spent with Riot Games working to make it easier for engineers to build online platforms quickly and reliably, and even more super cool stuff.

Loves being active outdoors playing Ultimate, rocking climbing, cycling, hiking and camping.

Enjoys playing video games with friends and his kids, but relishes getting lost in a single player game most of all.

Fiddles around on the guitar frequently, but doesn't have much to show for it ;-).

Back in the day, Jason started his career as an artist for the Walt Disney Company. He learned from a bunch of talented folks while there and later had the chance to join Electronic Arts as an art lead and development director. He found joy there while working with small and scrappy teams and brought that passion with him to Blizzard where he helped build Hearthstone and some other really cool stuff.

The 1985 Tri-Logo Yak Face action figure. I love collecting as much as I love Star Wars, so it was a good day 35 years ago when I completed the full 92 figure set…right until the discovery of a 93rd figure! Never released in the US, Yak Face was impossibly hard to get for a kid in Texas before the internet. Through secret magics, he arrived as a surprise gift from my folks, and remains the best birthday present I have ever received.

Jeff built his first "computer" out of lawn chairs and garden hoses at a young age, eventually learned Logo in second grade, and began a journey of writing code in the sixth grade. He has worked in core networking, streaming media, electronic signature, and now games, applying that same childhood creativity to solving engineering problems for humans.

Interests: Electronics, programming, making sound with synths, field recording, travel

Favorite Sound: The wondrous and beautiful resonance of a self-oscillating filter

Role Queue: Support

Guideline: Hope is not a strategy

First Game Modded: gorillas.bas

Jenny’s greatest passion is people - their stories, interests, ideas, and dreams. She's from a small town in Pennsylvania where she worked as a white water rafting guide and mental health counselor for at-risk children. She packed up her car in 2015 and drove across country to pursue her dream of working in game dev and has worked at Ubisoft and The Walt Disney Company. Jenny finds Production to be the sweet spot that combines her passion for people and experiences with her knack for process and planning.

Words to live by: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson‍

Life ambition: Jenny wants to follow in her great-grandfather’s footsteps by opening a bicycle shop of her own one day. She plans to travel the world to meet diverse groups of cyclists, visit their local shops, and in time build the most innovative community bicycle shop she can dream up.

Jenny grew up loving video games and animated films, and also spent a lot of time drawing. She studied 3D art in college while also taking math and science classes to get a ‘real’ job. Once she realized there were careers that combined technology and art, she never looked back. Jenny started as a technical artist intern at Blizzard, where she learned a lot from really talented people and eventually worked on some cool projects including Overwatch. From there, she had the chance to join Apple and work on AR/VR applications.

Random Facts: I used to compete in figure skating, and my first job in high school was as a figure skating instructor. Before getting into the gaming industry, I considered a career in biological research. I spent a lot of time growing cell cultures, running DNA tests, and even studied wildlife in Costa Rica.

Favorite Games: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Breath of the Wild, Diablo III

Jerrick is captivated by the endless whimsy of the human experience. He’s devoted to advancing the video game medium as he believes it the best way to encapsulate that wonder. On projects such as God of War, Grounded, and The Dragon Prince, he applied design and engineering principles to empower his peers to better craft experiences - and make those experiences more accessible for players. He’s excited to make awesome games and amazing memories here!

Skills:

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Jess made the jump into games after exploring design and tech in her early career. Moving from Google to Riot Games in 2015, she found a home working with the creator community around League of Legends, building the program and team there, before heading to Epic Games to lead their influencer/creator team. Through the years, she’s found a passion for nurturing teams and pushing the industry to be more inclusive, thoughtful and positive.

Pets: Chloe (14yrs, fluffy mutt) + Babka (2yrs, brindle mutt)

Games: Anything Zelda. Animal Crossing. Couch co-ops. D&D. Legos. Tabletop game night.

Pastimes: Cooking, baking, watching cartoons, reading fantasy novels, enjoying a nice whisky, planning the next adventure, diving deeply into a conversation.

D&D Character: Ghostwise Halfling Druid

Jo-Jo’s initial foray into talent acquisition was as the founder of a gaming specialist group that showcased new products at high-profile industry events. She brings years of AAA recruiting experience (Riot and Blizzard) to her current role, along with familiarity in growing diverse start-up teams. Mentorship, community outreach, and meaningful representation in games are causes that are close to her heart, and she is excited to make a positive impact along with her amazing teammates.

Jo-Jo lives on the Big Island of Hawaii with her husband and tiny dog loaf, Foxy. When she isn’t harvesting fruit, crafting, or collecting kawaii things, she makes costumes and can be found roaming the halls of comic conventions dressed as her favorite video game characters. She’s a lapsed musician, tries to do yoga, and is sort of okay at vegan baking. Her goal is to always be kind to people, animals, and the land.

Working as a software engineer for the last twenty years Jonny has helped build a catalogue of games including the Driver series, Grand Theft Auto V, StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm. Specializing as a tools engineer Jonny enjoys a diverse range of work with a consistent goal of making game development as frictionless as possible for the rest of his team.

World's Greatest Football Team: Newcastle United

Favorite Quote: "The meaning of life is that it ends"

Guitar Heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Frusciante, Dave Gilmour, Dimebag Darrell

Julia has over 5 years' industry experience in the Boston area, with Dreamhaven being her first West Coast adventure. From building mobile match-three RPGs at Demiurge to launching the cross-play battle royale Spellbreak at Proletariat, Julia navigates her career by wearing many hats and greeting each project with the unending desire to learn. As a UI Engineer, Julia is eager to make Moonshot's first game intuitive, immersive, and accessible to players of every kind.

Freshly minted homeowner trying to fix the holes in the walls faster than we create them. Growing (and murdering) houseplants and vegetables in the meantime. My boyfriend and I share our home with my African Grey parrot Jammi, our lab-mix Miko, and my collection of 300 hats. You can find me hiking, camping, skiing, and listening to video game lo-fi. Still studying Japanese on my own for that trip we thought we'd take early 2020.

Kara has spent her life building skills in the areas of Playing Around and Making Up Stories. Starting at her grandmother's poker table, she developed a deep love for creating memories through gameplay. She's designed for board games like Descent: Legends of the Dark and Mansions of Madness Second Edition, she thrives on creating games that embrace emotional experiences and invite the players to tell their story.

My true hobby is collecting hobbies. Board games, video games, RPGs, needlepoint, papercrafting, gardening, reading, writing, baking, cake decorating, sculpting, with a dabbling in 3D printing, sewing, and interior design. I am in love with the many ways in which people have created ways to express themselves.

Kendall first started in the industry in 2016 after graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She relocated from the East Coast to California a year later to work with Treyarch. In her time there she worked on two titles and had the pleasure of working on spaces for zombies, multiplayer, and Blackout. It was the ability to connect people with one another that inspired her to pursue a career in games, and she looks forward to building that alongside the incredible team at Moonshot.

Interests: Knitting, gardening, hiking, biking, singing, playing ukulele, DMing DnD, watching documentaries, reading, and taking long walks with her dog

Fun Facts: She's featured in at least one Easter Egg in Call of Duty Black Ops 4, has jumped from a three story platform onto a stunt bag, was a colonial reenactor in high school, and her dog, Teddy, actively refuses to take a photo with her

Laura has been working in the video games industry since 2007. She has had the opportunity to work at both small start-ups and large companies including Blizzard and EA where she worked on Need for Speed and FIFA. She has a passion for backend services and cloud development and finds joy in building technology for awesome games and empowering other engineers to do the same.

Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Laura embraces her latin roots with her favorite foods and also loves to dance; you will find her on the dance floor at any party! She moved to Canada after high school and has embraced becoming Canadian as well. When not traveling abroad or visiting family, Laura and her husband spend time on hikes with their rescued dog Shadow whom they love to bits.

Laurel has worked as an artist in the games industry for over a decade. Her first job of note was character design for Splash Damage's 2011 game, Brink. After which, she spent years at Blizzard Entertainment, where she painted many a concept, key art and 2.5D cinematic. She makes a lot of different sorts of artwork, from illustration to concept design to physical sculpture.

From the wilds of northern Canada, I learned how to evade large predators (mostly bears). Now in Southern California, there are fewer bears, but way more rattlesnakes. My training has left me woefully unprepared.

All Time Favorite Animal: Allosaurus

Favorite Living Animal: The Ossifrage

Least Favorite Animal: Elephant seals (Pinnipeds! What is their deal?)

Before phones had colors, Laurent got introduced to video game development with long lost technologies. During the MMO golden age, he dove into platform development at scale. Thanks to the great teams he worked with, he had the chance to contribute to some iconic games, such as Diablo III. He found a new home in Dreamhaven with a lot of familiar faces.

Super Power: Eating melting cheese by the pound

Weakness: Losing track of time while playing video games

Hobby: Taekwondo

Dream: Sword fighting in chain mail while riding a horse

Luke started making games in the 4th grade, first with pen & paper, then on an Apple IIc. Following his dream, he entered the industry soon after earning his computer engineering degree in Vancouver, BC. Over the past 16+ years, he has worked at EA, Slant Six, Sucker Punch, and Blizzard making sports, shooter, and action-adventure games. Luke likes making good games with good people.

Hobbies: Anything to do with the ocean - surfing, snorkeling, and scuba diving

Fitness: Martial arts, weights and kettlebells

Pets: Doggy, husky/lab mix named Mocha

On a typical weekend: BBQ and board games with wife and friends

At anearly age Markus knew he wanted to make games. His parents had a crisis meeting when he was a child about his dreams to be a game developer (rather than a fire fighter or super hero). He quickly fell in love with animation and how it affects the feel of gameplay. Since 2007, Markus has worked on many different games in both the single player and multiplayer space at studios such as People Can Fly, Starbreeze, MachineGames, Bioware and Blizzard.

Favorite Games: Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3, Diablo II, Elden Ring

Favorite Bands: Vildhjarta, Moonsorrow, Behemoth, Mechina

Jobs before game development: Commercial Newspaper delivery boy, candy cane baker, game store clerk

Favorite Quote: "I'm So Embarrassed. I Wish Everybody Else Was Dead." - Bender

Michael has worked as a software engineer for 15 years in a variety of jobs, including observatories on the Big Island of Hawaii, detector readout firmware for JWST, and as a tools engineer on several video games including Telltale’s A Wolf Among Us and Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. He enjoys saving everyone’s most precious resource time, and expresses that through making great tools for his awesome coworkers.

Hobbies: Lifting heavy things, homebrewing beer, reading, baking, visiting national parks‍

Useless Talent: According to my wife, I always choose a tastier dish than hers at restaurants

Role Queue: Flex

Hopes: you’re doing well, and thanks for reading!

Mike wrote his first line of code on his Bally Professional Arcade gaming console when he was in sixth grade. He loved it. A decade later he was writing code as one of the cofounders of Blizzard Entertainment. He eventually became the company's CEO, overseeing all creative and operational aspects, and during that time helped launch more than twenty consecutive #1 hits. Mike's values-driven leadership and passion for bringing people together in positive ways remain stronger than ever.

Music: Rush, The Beatles, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julie and the Phantoms

Books: Lord of the Rings, Hyperion, The Three Body Problem, On Intelligence

Hobbies: Piano, guitar, Texas Hold 'Em, bass player for Elite Tauren Chieftain‍

Best of Times: Time spent with my wife and daughter

Nathan has been in UX for over a decade and has had the amazing opportunity to work alongside talented developers on franchises such as Mortal Kombat and World of Tanks. As an avid advocate for improving the player experience, Nathan has been a games UX mentor for over 5 years. He is thrilled to make amazing games with the crew at Moonshot.

Favorite Game: Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon

Happy Place: Galloping Ghost Arcade

Fun Fact: I'm a history nerd and have a specific interest in Han dynasty China. My loved ones adore when I relate any modern debacle to an allegory from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Nicole has been in the industry for over ten years. I’ve worked on everything from Skylanders to Destiny to Tony Hawk and Diablo 4. I’ve worked as a level designer, activity designer, generalist and now PvE designer. My inspiration for making games is the stories they can tell, the challenges they can present and the enriching experiences they can offer players unlike any other media can create.

I enjoy cooking, baking, hiking, painting, gardening, and making my own gin.

A consummate builder, Omar has always been fascinated by putting things together and making them work. Combined with a love of gaming, it’s no surprise he’d end up a game programmer. For over 15 years, he’s contributed to the technology that powers World of Warcraft. Omar now dedicates his efforts to taking the fantastical worlds that exist in the imaginations of artists and designers and materializing them for all to enjoy.

Loves: My wife and our pupper, Bubbles‍

Likes: Camping, swimming, beaches, scotch, steaks, Calvin & Hobbes, Legos, Iron Man, and napping

Dislikes: Wet socks, waking up early

Trivia: If he were any more laid back, his DNA would start to unwind

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Paul is a lifelong gamer who is living his dream of working with amazing people to bring games to players around the world. As an experienced entrepreneur and industry leader in global game publishing, development, community development, and esports, he’s been fortunate enough to work on some of the most renowned franchises in gaming, including Diablo, League of Legends, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft.

When Paul is not playing games (which isn’t often), he’s skiing, bodysurfing, traveling, and hanging out with his wonderful family and friends. Paul cannot drive by a local comic book shop without stopping in and adding to what’s becoming a massive collection of trade paperbacks.

When he was a little over 10 years old, Philip started making maps for fun for games like Quake, Quake 2, and later on, Half-Life, joining various mod projects for these games. He has worked on a variety of single player and multiplayer games since joining the games industry in 2005. He thinks quick turnaround and plenty of iteration is key to making great games, while having fun making them.

Interests: Very fond of lizards and reptiles in general. Looking at buildings and bridges. Games are pretty fun too!

Weakness: Anything where you need to be handy.

Rachel has been a gamer since before they could use a mouse and keyboard, when they would tell their Dad where to send his units in Civilization 3. They started making games in Little Big Planet when they were 10 years old and haven’t been able to stop since. After bouncing around between programming and art for several years, they decided to pursue them both and become a technical artist.

Favorite Games: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Minecraft, Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Hobbies: Reading fantasy novels, crocheting, baking, drinking coffee and other sugary beverages

Cats: Hocus Pocus (small) and Pepsi (big)

Role Queue: Tank or Support

Ray spent the last twenty years in the game industry, feeding his obsession with computers, video games, and the internet. That combination resulted in him specializing in providing reusable online platform technology to launch games. His journey ranges from studios like Turbine and Cryptic Studios, to big publishers like WB Games. Ray enjoys solving complex problems that involve people, process, and technology.

Ray’s an avid gamer. His favorite genres are RPG, MMO, and Survival. These days he can be found in Final Fantasy XIV and Minecraft. He’s a cosplayer, and taught himself how to sew and make props from YouTube. He also enjoys anime and baking. One day he’ll finish the fantasy novel that he’s been writing for 15 years.

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Rick is Moonshot’s resident Math Artist, and he's a kaleidoscope of skills. His 17 year career spans 3D Modeling, Technical Art, and Tools Engineering. He is just as likely to be found creating props as he is spinning up servers. Rick helped make Tomb Raider, StarCraft II, and Heroes of the Storm. Now he’s excited to be with Moonshot weaving wonderous games.

Favorite Curve Function: Cubic Hermite Spline

Favorite API: Maya’s MPxCommand

Secret Super Power: Better than average at feeding fish

Career Highlights: Sold turnips at 473 Bells

Role Queue: Damage, Support

Rod began his career working in product development while attending law school. He landed his dream job at one of the preeminent video game companies and has now worked as an attorney in the game industry for over 20 years.  We won't bore you with his legal specialties, but he's had the pleasure of working with some of the most creative and talented people in the industry. Despite his friendly demeanor, he is also sometimes fondly referred to as "The Hammer."

Interests: Ideas, design, architecture, art, craft beer, roadside attractions, and a good practical joke

Fun Facts: Operates a themed bed and breakfast and is working on opening an alien-themed boutique motel near Joshua Tree (shameless plug). Once surprised one of his co-workers when he was delivered to their office in a package.

Ryan started working in games well before graduating college, helping launch a multiplatform online co-op game as a QA Intern. Since then he's been managing QA processes for games like The Pathless, Ghostrunner, and Gunfire Reborn. After an enjoyable stint in game publishing, Ryan is excited to return to the collaborative and passionate environment of a development team.

Hobbies: Rugby, gardening, playing the viola

Favorite Games: Seemingly singe player games that also have PVP

Star Trek Captains: Picard, Janeway, Sisko, Kirk (in that order)

Ryan has known since the 6th grade that he wanted to create video games and has spent his entire adult life doing that. Before Moonshot he spent 8 years on Overwatch working on servers, anti-cheat, gameplay and AI. He believes in the power of games bringing people together to create friendships and memories.

Most Memorable Gaming Moments:

Morrowind: Exploring the world

StarCraft: Getting introduced to the universe

Halo: Lan parties

World of Warcraft: First time entering Ironforge

Overwatch: Launch

Scott has always been passionate about creating art and bringing stories to life, working alongside talented people in both game and feature film studios like Digital Domain, Turtle Rock Studios, MPC, Framestore, Zoic, and EA. One of his favorite career moments was helping bring Thanos to life with lighting in Avengers: Infinity War. He's so happy to be part of this new adventure with such amazing people.

Hobbies: Nerding out about cinematography and lighting, collaborating on art projects, watching movies with my wife, playing soccer, video games, lifting weights, basketball, and hanging out with buddies

Weakness: Saying “dude” way too much

Best Moment (besides having my kids and marrying my wife of course): Meeting my childhood hero Arnold Schwarzenegger at a dumpling house in LA and talking to him about Predator

Sean set his sights on becoming a 2D animator from an early age, but when confronted with the reality of doing thousands of drawings of the same subject over and over, decided to pivot to concept art instead. Since then he has worked on a variety of projects in video games, film, animation, theme parks, and toy design.  He grew up on LucasArts adventure games and consequently has a soft spot for games that are heavy on personality, heart, and storytelling.

Sean likes bad puns and knows way too much about Miami Vice. He loves his family, dinosaurs, film history, and making things. He is an undefeated 4th-grade-level competitive swimmer, and pretty good at writing novelty parody songs.

Shane swears he was a gamer in the womb, and anyone who knows him would agree. He’s committed his life to making games and supporting and cheering on game developers. Shane knows that it takes a village to make video games, and he’s had the opportunity to work with teams on amazing franchises like World of Warcraft and StarCraft. He feels the most rewarding work is helping others realize their dreams of making great games.

Hobbies: From boardgames to video games - you name it, I'll play it

Hobbies Part 2: Okay just so I'm not one dimensional - fishing, astronomy, travel and... games

Things I Love: My wife, my niece, family, friends, and games

D&D Class: Cleric. Teamwork makes the dream work!

Stephen has worked in games since 2015, supporting art teams with tools and processes on projects including Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch. His proudest technical achievement is having decreased WoW dungeon export times by a factor of ~100, though "made little guys wiggle when attacked" comes in close second. Having been a part of game teams both large and small, he couldn't imagine being in any other industry.

Games: Kentucky Route Zero, Tribes 2

Music: Peter Broderick, Yes

Desserts: Tiramisu. Or sticky toffee pudding. Do I really have to choose?

MtG Auras: Sentinel's Eyes, Rancor

Rocks: Olivine, for sure

Steve is a 3D generalist who has worked in the game industry for over 12 years.  He's created assets for a variety of games including Starcraft II, Heroes of the Storm, and Diablo IV.  Steve believes that video games are an interactive form of Art, and he wants to contribute to that Art in every way he can.

Hobbies: Programming, martial arts, dancing, hacky sacking, but mostly parenting‍

Fears: Irrational numbers, Fermi Paradox, sharks ‍

Favorite Stuntmen: Scott Adkins, Lateef Crowder, Tony Jaa,  Damien Walters

Favorite Celestial Bodies: Earth, Titan, Europa

Stemming from drawing his first animation flipbook to writing his first function, Steven's love for games, art, and coding led him to a career in technical art in the game industry where he could pursue each of those passions. He has helped bring characters to life in the God of War series and Heroes of the Storm. Steven believes in the power of games as a medium to have a positive impact on players and the world.

Interests: Gaming, nature-y activities, learning about random stuff (currently excited about tilt-shift and night sky photography), pork belly

Pet: S'mores (Jackawawa)

Go-To Game Genres: RTS, action-adventure, platformer, battle royale

From a young age, Sully knew two things: He wanted to be a magician, and he wanted to make a video game. It was not for many years, and just as many attempts to learn to code and just ending up playing with particle systems, that he realized that VFX was a career that he could pursue while literally contributing to the magic of gaming.

Hobbies and Interests: Writing music, baking, tabletop, Buying the same hoodie 3 times, Getting good at pottery/ceramics (some early stuff shown!).

Favorite Games: Every Zelda Game, Viva Piñata, TFT, LoL, LoR, Overwatch.

Favorite Gaming Memory: Getting Play of The Game on Symmetra by placing sentries, and sitting in a corner somewhere.

My Weakness: Cheesecake.

After spending his early career getting to learn from titans of industry at Bain and rocket scientists at Boeing, Tom joined Blizzard's finance team in 2012 (and later Activision Blizzard's). He discovered that being a gamer didn't make him any good at forecasting games, but luckily didn't break anything along the way. He believes finance should be a tool, not a terror, to support the game development process.

Some Favorite Gaming Memories:

Pre-history: Repeatedly destroying my palms playing Activision Decathlon

Ancient: Pulling all-nighter to make it through the Stygian Abyss in Ultima IV

Classical: Downing Gruul

Modern: Making it to the end of Inside and feeling my brain turn to mush

Tom's career in games started in the early days of esports. He was on the original team that built out Red Bull esports, signing teams and players in SC, DOTA and COD. He led brand campaigns for League of Legends esports and most recently created the brand for Riot's second IP, VALORANT. Before joining Dreamhaven, he helped scale marketing teams and brought to life gaming experiences for NA esports org, 100 Thieves.

Interests are all over the place. A die-hard fan of the global sport of football. Go Chelsea FC & LAFC! In games, his heart is with shooters playing thousands of hours in Counter-Strike, VALORANT, Tarkov, Rust, and Overwatch. A huge LA foodie and deep techno enthusiast. On the weekends, you can catch him discovering new artists, eating new food spots and indulging in any brand partnership experiences he can find.

Wes is a generalist game developer who dreams of building experiences that forge meaningful connections between people. His experience is diverse, having worked in different roles across the industry, from indie games to connected products and toys to triple-A mobile games. Wes is thrilled to return to his passion of creating social games that bring people together.

XP: Game development, wilderness survival, improv comedy

Hobbies: Wilderness backpacking, fitness & nutrition, writing music, gaming

Interests: Tabletop RPGs, Star Wars, being outside, learning new things

Weston has been an artist and gamer since childhood. He has taken that passion to several studios over 14 years, including Blizzard, Carbine, Hi-Rez Studios, and CCP. Weston takes joy in the collaboration and problem-solving aspects of game development. As a character lead, Weston has helped mentor several artists, established efficient pipelines with other discipline leads, and helped set quality-bar standards for several games.

I placed sixth in a city-wide karaoke tournament in 2013. Also, I cannot sing. I started with "Mr. Roboto" and "I Would Do Anything For Love, But I Won't Do That." On to round 3! The competition was intense. These people are actual singers...with talent. What next? With every fiber of my being, I belted out "My Heart Will Go On" by the legendary Celine Dion. Although I didn't win that day, I continue to train and prepare for another shot at karaoke glory.

Xavier’s had a passion for games and storytelling from an early age. After majoring in Video Game Design and minoring in Creative Writing, he’s spent nearly a decade in the games industry working on many titles from the social casino space, 4x city builders, and his personal favorite, turn-based role playing games. He loves narrative and story in games and strives to make endearing experiences for all.

The King of Lycopolis can be often found plotting the next feats of his great city, writing dark fantasy novels, playing Fire Emblem, and laughing manically when he thinks no one else is looking.