"Wolff" Daniel Dobson 54 Snowden Ave. Atherton, CA 94027 h: 650-367-1866 c: 650-521-6483 wolff@zebra.net Work Experience Lead Gameplay Engineer A Bit Lucky, Inc. (2009-2011) San Mateo, California A Bit Lucky is a startup that builds innovative, design-driven social games. Its first game, "Lucky Train", has reached 2 million monthly users and has nearly a million pageviews a day. * As a member of the founding technical team, built ABL's infrastructure, including core libraries, servers, source control, networking, and more. * Designed and built every kind of user-facing game feature for Lucky Train in ActionScript (Flash AS3), from game flow to animation to particle effects * Built original draft of scalable Ruby on Rails backend, and have helped maintain and extend it as it has scaled to millions of users * Worked with art and design team to bring the best ideas to life in Lucky Train as efficiently as possible, including in-game marketing, analytics, and track layout * Wrangled reluctant Facebook APIs into compliance * Designed automated test scripting system for AS3 client Co-founder AiLive, Inc. (2001-2008) Mountain View, California AiLive, Inc. (formerly iKuni, Inc.) is a 10-person startup that builds AI middleware for console and PC games. Staffed primarily by AI PhDs, AiLive focuses on using machine learning to transform people's gaming experiences. There are currently four public product lines: * AiLive co-developed the Wii MotionPlus (released 2009) with Nintendo, bringing accurate motion controls to the Wii. Wii Sports Resort, which depends exclusively on the MotionPlus, has sold over 20 million units. The MotionPlus's massive success has resulted in it replacing the original Wiimote entirely---every new Wii comes with a Wiimote. * LiveMove 2 (2008) is a custom tracking library for the Wii MotionPlus. * LiveMove (2006) and LiveMove Pro (2007) allow games to differentiate the various gestures players can make with motion-sensitive controllers such as the Nintendo Wiimote. Designers demonstrate examples of each kind of gesture that they wish to use in their game (e.g., sword slashes or tennis swings). LiveMove then automatically constructs a run-time classifer that accurately labels each player's moves. * LiveCombat (2005) lets both developers and players quickly train avatars using machine learning. Developers can use these avatars to provide out-of-the-box intelligent opponents or allies, and players can instantaneously create responsive teammates based on their own personal playing style. Further explanations of AiLive's patent-pending technology are available at http://www.ailive.net. My responsibilities at AiLive included aspects of design, engineering, and marketing: Creative Design * Steered research vision for AiLive's products, including being one of the key early designers of the MotionPlus * Combined game design skills and artificial intelligence training to find compelling ways to deploy machine learning in games * Designed and produced all five game applications that demonstrate AiLive's middleware Engineering/Programming * Implemented all game applications from inception to completion, primarily working alone * Devised AI debugging and editing tools * Constructed LiveMove development utilities on GameCube/Wii * Contributed to core development and rendering libraries on Linux, Windows, PS2, GameCube/Wii * Built AiLive's entire website, including purchasing/DRM system * Set up source control system, internal wiki, hourly build error tracker, etc. Marketing/Product Development * Successfully pitched advanced technology to executives and designers at EA, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and elsewhere * Wrote and edited demonstration movies, slides, marketing plans, game design documents, and documentation Other * Provided forensic game engineering for AiLive's sister company, BroadOn, Inc. * Managed outsourced art pipeline in China Artificial Intelligence Engineer Visual Concepts (1999-2000) San Rafael, California Title: NBA2K1 (Dreamcast) NBA2K1 won "Best sports game of the year" from EGM and perfect 100% ratings from several magazines and websites. * Co-lead for artificial intelligence * Created "street mode" on own initiative, a feature that became the core mode for network play * Designed new camera/flow-control system to enhance drama of the game * Implemented dozens of new offense, defense, and bench behaviors including dunks, blocks, spins, passes, fastbreaks, and coach reactions Title: NBA2K (Dreamcast) * Designed and implemented bench, coach, camera, and referee behaviors Post-Doctoral Fellow Northwestern University (1998-1999) Department of Computer Science, Qualitative Physics Group Evanston, Illinois * Built intelligent educational software as part of outreach program for NASA's Deep Space One probe * Prototyped 3D shared-visualization tool for Mars rover data in Scheme Doctoral Student and Research Assistant Northwestern University (1994-1998) Department of Computer Science, Institute for the Learning Sciences * Built educational software-making tool, INDIE - Coded complete, flexible interface-building tool with strong AI structure - Constructed rule-based engine that let non-technical authors design intelligent feedback for students * Served as teaching assistant for numerous university classes, including introductory programming, artificial intelligence, educational software development, and databases Education Northwestern University Ph.D. in Computer Science with an emphasis in artificial intelligence Princeton University A.B. in Computer Science with high honors Technical experience: Favorite languages: ActionScript 3 (Flash), C/C++, Python, Java, LISP Web: Ruby On Rails/MySQL Software: Flex Builder, OpenGL, GarageGames Torque Engine, Photoshop, GTK+ Platforms: Linux, Windows, Wii/Gamecube, PS2, Dreamcast, Facebook Other Interests: Mentoring for MentorNet.net, writing fiction, drawing Designed and built "Little Green Guys With Guns", a social wargame Won 2nd place as part of Team Dead Train in the 2010 Google HTML5 Game Jam for our game "Shellshocked" For more information on publications and invited talks, see http://www.lggwg.com/wolff