Resume
Benjamin Nourse Miller
San Francisco, CA
www.rhetoricsend.net/
BenMiller45@gmail.com
703.586.7940
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Objective
Obtain a full-time position as a game designer.
Education
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, Pittsburgh, PA [2008 - 2010]
Masters of Entertainment Technology – Anticipated
- A unique specialized degree program in the interdisciplinary field of entertainment technology; a professional, terminal degree.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, Charlottesville, VA [2001 - 2005]
Bachelor of Arts: English major, Computer Science minor
HONORS: Dean’s List (6/8 semesters)
Overall GPA: 3.44/4.0
ADDITIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Design Experience
PROJECT IDEV, San Francisco, CA [Current]
- Creating innovative iPhone games on a four-person student-pitched project team over the course of 15 weeks
INSOMNIAC GAMES, Burbank, CA [Summer 2009]
- Worked as a game design intern on an unannounced project during the end of the pre-production and the beginning of production phases of development
GAME DESIGN, Pittsburgh, PA [Fall 2009]
- Designed a variety of non-digital games for Jesse Schell’s Game Design course
FIRST IGDA INTERNATIONAL GAME JAM, Pittsburgh, PA [Feb. 2009]
Designer, Artist (textures, animation)
- Helped design Balloon Man, a 2D art-house game, with four individuals, in 48 hours
BUILDING VIRTUAL WORLDS, Carnegie Mellon University [Fall 2008]
Designer, Writer, Producer, Artist (textures, modeling, animation, effects)
-Worked in five different teams of four to create interactive virtual worlds in a rapid prototyping environment
- Producer or co-producer for four worlds and writer, co-writer, and designer for all virtual worlds. Worked as an artist in varying capacities for every project
- Grumpy Gus, the final project, was showcased as the finale at the annual Building Virtual Worlds show, in front of 500+ audience members, held at Carnegie Mellon University
WILD POCKETS GAME JAM, Pittsburgh, PA [Fall 2008]
Designer, Producer, Artist (textures, modeling, animation)
- Organized a team of five to design a 3D physics-based shooting game for the Wild Pockets game engine in 24 hours
- Our game, Electropocalypse, was selected as the People’s Choice Game Jam winner
DIGITAL MOVIEMAKING, University of Virginia [Aug. 2004 - May 2005]
Director, Writer, Producer, Artist (modeling, animation)
-Conceptualized, directed, and wrote five short CG movies as group projects for CS440 and ARCH444
COMPUTER GRAPHICS, University of Virginia [Aug. 2003 - May 2005]
Designer, Programmer
- Completed three 400-level and audited two 500-level computer science courses focusing on Computer Graphics
- Main programmer and co-designer for a 2D remake of Defender. Coded the game in a team of two using C++ and OpenGL as the final project for CS445
- Programmer and designer for a 3D remake of Streets of Rage 2. Coded in C++ and OpenGL in a group of four as a semester-long project for CS446
Professional Experience
INSOMNIAC GAMES, Burbank, CA [Summer 2009]
Game Design Intern
- Scripted combat encounters and other single player experiences using a proprietary toolset
- Co-designed, built, and iterated on the design of a level from the ground up
- Helped the design team brainstorm and design meta-level elements and systems for both the single player and multiplayer portions of the game
SCIENTIFIC SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC., Charlottesville, VA [2005 - 2008]
Educational Project Manager
- Guided the development, marketing, and sales for the PedHeart line of educational software applications for congenital heart disease
- Discussed and explained technical, medical, and design attributes of software products to IT workers, medical professionals, artists, and programmers
- Conceptualized and designed future online educational services and products
- Primary user interface designer for the PedHeart Encyclopedia software product. Assisted in development and design for the rest of the educational product line
– Offered primary tech support for educational software applications
- Managed foreign language translation efforts for all educational products
Conference Planner and Lead Sales Associate
- Lead educational software salesman; helped raise educational software sales 150%
- Planned exhibits and attended conferences on congenital heart disease throughout the world
Webmaster
- Maintained and updated www.pedcath.com, www.pedheart.com, and www.magicgroup.org
- Scripted and debugged various online features in PHP and JavaScript
Educational Software Development [2004 - 2005]
- Completed a variety of office duties including, but not limited to, shipping, database management, image editing, and limited webmaster responsibilities
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, Charlottesville, VA [2005 - 2008]
Freelance Computer Graphics Artist
- Animated battle sequences in the Adventures of Cavman short cg films shown to thousands of people at home football and basketball games
- Created 3D models of ACC mascots
- Cleaned and combined motion capture data with hand-keyed animation
Technical Skills
Computer Applications: Xcode, Maya, MotionBuilder, Premiere, PhotoShop, Illustrator, After Effects, Perforce, Subversion, MS Office, ACT!, Corel Draw
Programming Languages: XHTML, CSS, PHP
Some experience with: Objective C, Lua, C++, Cg, Javascript, Max/MSP/Jitter, Shake
Personal
-Eagle Scout; Avid lover of literature, theater, cinema – particularly Faulkner, Aeschylus, and Kurosawa; Videogame collector – currently own 21 different systems and over 300 videogames, all in working order;International Game Developers Association member; GDC 2009 Conference Associate