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MATT SCIBILIA - PRESIDENT / BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER |
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Matt Scibilia co-authored GET IN THE GAME! with Marc Mencher and Dustin Clingman, published in October, 2002 by New Riders Publishing, a recognized, authoritative reference about careers in the Game Industry. He is also a voting member of ACM/SIGGRAPH, IGDA, and IEEE and maintains long-term personal contacts with colleagues in the interactive, film and television industries. |
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He has
been working in the interactive game development industry
for close to fifteen years, working for such companies as
Microprose (now Atari), Magnet Interactive, Electronic Arts/Origin
Systems, Eclipse and Daylight/KalistoUSA, before co-founding
BigSky Interactive. A sampling of completed products include
F-15
Strike Eagle (NES), Darklands, Civilization
(SVGA), Crusader:
No Regret (PC/PSX), Wing
Commander: Prophecy (PC), and SpongeBob
SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (PS2/NGC).
Partnering with Billy Cain and Grant Pimpler, Matt formed
Critical Mass Interactive, Inc. in early 2003, as a full development
studio and contract service provider for interactive productions
on all major game consoles (PS2, GC, Xbox and GameBoy Advance),
PC, web and wireless platforms. Some of CMI’s recent
clients have been Electronic
Arts/Origin,
Vivendi/Universal Games, Sony Online Entertainment, NCsoft,
Inevitable Entertainment, Indiagames, Wayforward Technologies,
and Phoebe Development. |
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Contact:
Matt
Scibilia He will be glad to talk to you about your project
and company goals, and show you how Critical Mass Interactive
can assist you towards accomplishment and success. You can
also connect with him on www.linkedin.com.
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BILLY
CAIN - VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT |
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Billy Cain started his career at Origin Systems on the day they were purchased by Electronic Arts in 1992. He worked for EA/Origin for almost seven years before working for smaller companies, most notably KalistoUSA and BigSky Interactive.
After BigSky, he formed Critical Mass Interactive in early 2003 with Grant Pimpler and Matt Scibilia. |
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The variety of video game systems he has worked on ranges
from Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and the PC on up to the
more recent PlayStation®2, Nintendo GameCube™, and the Xbox 360.
Billy was the lead designer on Wing
Commander: Prophecy (PC), Rugby
World Cup ’95 (Sega Gen), MetalMorph (SNES), Savage
Empire (SNES), Ultima:
Black Gate (SNES), and many more. As a producer, Billy
worked on Abuse
Multiplayer (PC), Crimson
Order (PC), SpongeBob
SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (PS2/NGC),
Jimmy
Neutron: Boy Genius (PS2/NGC), USAF: Air Dominance (PC),
and many wireless titles, including games and applications for properties such as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and Entourage for HBO. |
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Contact:
Billy Cain.
He will be more than happy to assist you with any questions
you may have regarding production or development. You
can also connect with him on www.linkedin.com.
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WAYLON CALABRESE - LEAD PROGRAMMER |
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Waylon
Calabrese has been in the video game industry since 1997. He
has worked on a variety of titles for all of the major gaming
platforms, including Sony PlayStation®2, Microsoft Xbox,
Nintendo GameCube™, and PC. He has contributed to the
following titles: The Hobbit, SpongeBob
SquarePants, QB Club 2002, Nightcaster, Hired Guns 2, Seeker,
and The Tone Rebellion. Waylon has worked with a variety of
game technologies, in multiple areas of game development. |
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Most recently
he was a lead programmer for a casino gaming company's technology
team. Previously he was lead character programmer on numerous
titles, as well as contributing to AI, special effects, game
systems, and UI. Waylon's programming proficiencies are in C++/C,
C#, .NET, Java, HTML, and XML. |
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BRAD WOOLWINE - LEAD DESIGNER / QA
MANAGER |
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Brad Woolwine
is currently the Lead Designer and QA Manager for Critical Mass
Interactive, Inc. He also heads up CMI's cell phone game review
service, working on such titles as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Predator, and was the lead designer on the PC flight sim
USAF: Air Dominance that was produced by Critical Mass Interactive
for the United States Air Force. |
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Brad
was a Quality Assurance member on Deus
Ex: The Invisible War while at Ion Storm, and a
Design Assistant on Legends of Wrestling 3: Showdown.
He possesses an intimate knowledge of games and their workings,
and can help you understand what makes a game fun for both
hardcore and casual gamers alike. He can also clearly explain
the flow of the design process and how to utilize the best
tactics to draw a player into your game. He maintains a strong
background in console and PC games by playing both frequently. |
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Contact:
Brad
Woolwine. He will be more than happy to assist you with
any questions you may have regarding Design, Development, Quality
Assurance or General Gaming. You can also connect with him on
www.linkedin.com. |
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WES JENKINS - CREATIVE DIRECTOR |
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Wes Jenkins,
B.A., B.F.A., has provided effective and efficient concept,
story, character, design and game development for multimedia,
print, radio and broadcast for 30+ years. His
career experiences include: LEGO to Disney, ABC to PBS, IBM
to MCA, NASA to Zappa, Mindscape to Sierra, Stanford University
to the California Academy of Sciences, and finally Bill Graham
to Neil Bush. He has had a major high profile, pro-active role
in over 15 multimedia products including the
Lego
Island Series… earning profits, accolades
and numerous awards including the Award for Innovation from
the Smithsonian Institute and the Family/Kids Title
of the Year from the Academy of Interactive Sciences.
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While
translating the intended message to the desired audience,
Wes understands the creative process and has the experience
to reach a goal, on time, under budget with visual, verbal,
written and leadership solutions that cross discipline boundaries,
tightens the gap between technology and usability and allows
for a sense of ownership and fun for the team…and, most
importantly, for the audience. |
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Contact:
Wes Jenkins.
Wes is ready at any time to answer any questions about how he
can plug into your projects. |
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JIM BRAZELL - SERIOUS
GAMES EVANGELIST |
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Jim serves
as the Critical Mass Interactive “TEAMS AMBASSADOR”
for network learning games, network health games, network policy
games and all genres of “Serious
Games.” TEAMS is an acronym that builds on the idea
of STEM education and work to include art—Technology,
Engineering, ART, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS). |
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Jim’s
role is to leap the chasm between early adopter serious gamers
and real world case studies and projects that move network games
and game technology into other fields of human endeavor. To
read and see Jim’s early work related to TEAMS and GAMES,
please download the free report “Gaming,
A Technology Forecast.” |
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Jim is
affiliated with the Digital Charter School for Military Aviation
(San Diego-Orlando-Austin-San Antonio), the Digital Convergence
Initiative (San Antonio-Austin-Waco) and the Learning
Strategies Consortium (USA). |
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Jim
Brazell has 18 years of experience in the computer software
industry including 10 years of Internet Strategy serving enterprise
customers in heavy equipment, automotive, direct sales, financial
services, sports marketing and educational technology industries.
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ROB CARROLL - GAME DESIGNER |
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Rob is
a game designer with Critical Mass working out of the San Diego
Area. In his role, Rob takes client game concepts and develops
them in to full game designs. Rob is also called upon for time
to time to create game design proposals for interested parties. |
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Before
starting with Critical Mass, Rob was a producer and designer
for the massively multiplayer on-line game, Glympse,
which is in development by Sojourn Development, now Meta4
Interactive. At Sojourn, Rob directed a talented team of
independent developers, while working to design a rich and enthralling
world. |
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Outside
his game development work, Rob was a producer on the film "The Greater Meaning
of Water." Scheduled for release later this year.
Rob is on the Board of Directors for the International
Game Developers Association, San Diego chapter. He is
a member of the Program Advisory Committee for the Game Development
curriculum at the Art Institute of San Diego and has contributed
to the on-line game publication Stratics. |
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ALAN PEREZ - ARTIST |
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Alan is
a 12 year veteran of the game industry. After graduating from
the Art
Institute of Houston and stint in the US Navy as an Operations
Intelligence Specialist, he started at Origin
Systems in 1993 on in-game cinematics for Privateer’s
Righteous Fire, and did the intro sequence for Strike
Commander CD, concept sketches storyboards, game art for
Wing
Commander III, and Crusader:
No Remorse. |
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Alan
began his contracting business starting with Digital
Anvil building, texturing, rigging and animating organic
space ships and space stations for the game Conquest.
Then he contracted with Origin to work on Ultima Online 2, and
Ultima
Online Third Dawn where, along with regular artist work,
he converted four LOD versions of characters and delved into
motion capture and character wearables. |
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In
2001 he worked as an in-house contractor for BigSky Interactive
(Formerly KalistoUSA) creating various title screens, concept
creation, and implementation for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius,
as well as character and object building, texturing, rigging,
animation and implementation and cinematics for SpongeBob
SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman. |
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After
that he continued with several short term contract positions
mainly, but not exclusively, from his relations with Critical
Mass Interactive that included Sony
Online (building and texturing character wearables), Wireframe
Interactive (reworking, rigging, and animating characters),
Vivendi’s
Lord
of the Rings, Electronic Arts - Ultima
X Odyssey, CMI’s game demo - Sword of Dracula, Electronic
Arts Ultima Online: Samurai Empire (Redemption
and Evil elements) and USAF: Air Dominance.
He just completed a contract through CMI for an Xbox 360 launch title
for THQ/relic
(The Outfit), where he
got a chance to create and implement normal mapping and other
new high end procedures. |
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KAREN WELFORD - 3D ARTIST |
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In 2002,
Karen graduated from Ringling
School of Art and Design with a B.F.A. in computer animation
(Maya) and a minor in photography / digital imaging. She then
completed an internship with the local CBS station (Mobile,
AL) where she used Maya and AfterEffects to create 3D elements
for the opening sequence of their Mardi Gras coverage and created
a commercial for Chrysler
Jeep. Afterwards, she interned with a local sound studio,
Dogwood
Productions, editing music and audio using Motu and Protools.
In 2004, she was hired at Acclaim
Entertainment, Austin to edit in game cinematics for 100
Bullets (AfterEffects, Premiere, SourceSafe). While waiting
on assets from 3D artists, she assisted with modeling and texturing
(3dStudioMax, Photoshop). |
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She joined
the CMI team in February 2005 and has worked on projects for
Majesco
and THQ/relic,
modeling and texturing - including unwrapping UVs, creating
LODs, damaged states, normal, diffuse, and specular maps, and
optimizing geometry (3dStudioMax, Photoshop, DeepPaint3d, AlienBrain). |
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MIKE TAYLOR - LEAD ARTIST |
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Formerly
with Acclaim Studios Austin, Mike is a 10 year veteran of the
game industry. Mike began his career at Acclaim on NFL Quarterback
Club 96 working on U.I. design and later stadium models and
textures. He went on to serve as Assistant Lead Artist on NFL
Quarterback Club ’97, Lead Artist on All Star Baseball ’99 and 2000, NFL Quarterback Club ’02, 03, NBA
Jam (’04) and All Star Baseball 2006. Mike also served
as Assistant Director of Sports Graphics at the Austin Studio.
His main artistic contributions to the many sports titles he
worked on at Acclaim include the creation of realistic environment
models, textures and lighting as well as true to life player/character
textures. |
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As a contract
artist Mike has worked on projects such as Microsoft Flight
Simulator 2004 for Big Sesh Studios, Microsoft Train Simulator for Train Artisan and Area 51 for Midway Studios Austin. Since
joining the Critical Mass team in April, 2005 Mike has worked
on upcoming titles for Majesco and THQ. |
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MICHAEL GIACOMO - SOFTWARE ENGINEER |
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Mike is
one of CMI's engineers, currently working on new technology
for some of our upcoming projects. |
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MICHAEL BELLIPANNI - LEVEL DESIGNER |
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"Living"
levels are what Michael is known for in the Unreal community.
He is building a demo level for one of our games in preproduction
right now. |
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Michael
got his start in the game development industry at the IC2
Institute’s Digital Media Collaboratory at the University
of Texas at Austin. There he learned about game development
from industry veterans. While working at the lab he developed
several award winning projects with the Unreal Engine. Michael
tries to always do something original with all of the maps and
mods that he develops. He hopes that his work can inspire other
level designers to create maps with new and original concepts.
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CONTACT CRITICAL MASS INTERACTIVE: |
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NEW PHYSICAL ADDRESS ! |
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7427 North Lamar Blvd., Suite 200 |
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Austin,
TX 78752 (CLICK FOR MAP) |
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(512) 219-1600 voice |
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(512) 219-1976
fax |
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MAILING ADDRESS: |
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PO Box 203924 |
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Austin, TX 78720-3924
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SHIPPING / SIGNING ADDRESS: |
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12805 Steeple Chase Dr. |
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Austin, TX 78729 |
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IF YOU WISH TO BE CONSIDERED FOR A
CONTRACT POSITION THROUGH CRITICAL MASS INTERACTIVE, PLEASE
CONTACT: |
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Jobs
at Critical Mass Interactive |
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Read more
about our contracting services on our Jobs
page. |
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TESTIMONIALS! |
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"Billy
and his company CMI were there for us when we were in a real
pinch to get enough audio assets complete for our E3 2004
premier of Tabula Rasa. Billy got us a sound engineer and
we started receiving sound assets within a week. You don't
often see that kind of responsiveness and agility."
– Starr Long, Producer at NCsoft |
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"Critical Mass Interactive's wireless reviews have been very helpful to us and they have definitely put in a lot of extra effort and advice to make sure the game succeeds. As this is our first game, they have been coaching us on making sure we understand the gaming business to ensure we end up with a finished, shippable *product*, not just a finished binary. The game plays so much better, and we've gotten lots of positive feedback from whomever we show it to."
– Aaron Isaksen, President of AppAbove |
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"It was a pleasure to work with Billy. He oversaw all the work Critical Mass was doing for my company and he ensured that everything was delivered on time and to a very high quality. I highly recommend him and his company for your artwork needs."
– Dan Osborn, Owner of Phoebe Development |
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"I've been working directly with Billy and Critical Mass for six months (since March, 2004) and his knowledge of the gaming industry is bottomless. As one of the best networked gaming professionals in town, Billy has proven a valuable ally in my business development efforts. He's a focused professional, and - bonus - fun to work with! I highly recommend Billy as an expert in his field."
– John Cooper, Founder of VENewNet |
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"Billy Cain and Critical Mass have breathed new life of integrity and honesty into the game business. Couple those attributes with hard work and know-how and you end up with excellent partners."
– Bill Money, Co-Owner of Pixel Mine Productions |
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"I am putting together a Video Games Program at Austin Community College. Billy is serving on the Advisory Board to guide the development of that program. He has been extremely helpful with concrete suggestions on both the direction and the details. Additionally, he has put me into contact with a number of other members of the Austin Video Games community. He has a lot of insight, energy and fun."
– Bob McGoldrick, Technical Certification Coordinator at Austin Community College |
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"Billy is always on top of his game and somehow manages to get his teams to accomplish great work that goes far beyond average even when facing tight deadlines. I have enjoyed being in league with him for several years and hope to work with him again soon. His knowledge, experience and rolodex run deep and he uses them all to the greatest advantage!"
– Aaron Thibault, Coordinator at University of Texas' IC2 |
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"Billy Cain understands that pursuit of excellence in the business of game development requires real professionalism. I was particularly impressed with the quality and consistency of organizational skills Billy's group brought to bear on the needs of my project at the time. I definitely recommend Billy and Critical Mass."
– Carly Staehlin, Lead Designer at NCsoft |
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"I have worked with Billy on two projects over the last five years. His professionalism, attention to detail, and passion for games is unmatched. He has an ability to lead and manage projects that I have not seen in too many people, and I've worked with an awful lot of project leads. I would unhesitatingly work with Billy again, and I recommend working with him to everyone I can."
– Brandon Salinas, Designer at Inevitable |
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"Attention to detail and dedication to a job well done characterize my work with Billy. Other things that come to mind about Billy are solid follow through, clear communications, and consistency of action. These qualities reflect a strong commitment to client satisfaction. I know that when I work with Billy, professionalism and excellence are what I have come to expect and receive."
– Ariel Comstock, President of Austin Game Developers, the Austin IGDA Chapter |
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"Working with the team at CMI has been great. We have done a number of projects together and throughout each project they have been collaborative, easy to work with, offered and taken suggestions, and most importantly – hit their deadlines and stayed within their budgets. We plan on working together for a long time!"
– Roman Bialach, Owner of periMind Corporation |
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"Jim Brazell explodes the myth of a receding future and takes us into the reality of the present we didn't know had arrived. He grants to us his gift of insight uniting Technology, Engineering, Math, and Science with -- surprise -- Art. He rearranges these disciplines making TEAMS of emerging generations interconnecting at play while simultaneously solving the deepest problems in economics, medicine, and more."
- Jim Bryce, Attorney, following presentation to Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society |
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"I have gained more respect for Matt in the short time I've worked with him than I have for just about anyone in the industry. His business philosophy and methods of building professional and personal relationships are truly visionary. I feel fortunate to have an opportunity to learn from Matt how to become a better artist, a better businessman and a better human being."
- Derek Robinette, Artist |
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