Castleville

I supervised a significant chunk of asset creation work for the web-based game Castleville, created by Zynga Game Studios. This work earned us the distinction of trust as a Preferred Outsourcing Vendor. One day during asset production, I read the bio of one of the game's hero characters: The Miner. Of all the details in the bio, the one that caught my eye was the mention of his pet rock. The contrast of this big burly guy having a tiny, inanimate object as a pet set my mind ablaze with funny scenarios. Thus, the tale of The Miner, The Bird, and Skippy (The Pet Rock) was born.

The trailer was created as a pitch to show the producers and creatives at Zynga what could be possible from a marketing standpoint with little animated stories for all these great characters. As part of the pitch, we even sculpted several real replicas of Skippy The Pet Rock. These Skippy clones were packaged up nicely and delivered to the project stakeholders along with a URL to the video to watch for the first time. The response was overwhelming and it spawned interest in creating more elaborate trailers across the entire 'Ville family of games.

Responsibilities:

• Supervising 3D/2D asset creation needs from the game studio
• Creative Director and Writer on Miner short film