Bio

Proven Design Lead and Director with shipped titles in entertainment, healthcare, education, and games for change, bringing 15 years of game development experience, from AAA to Indie, across console, PC, mobile, and VR platforms. In addition to in-engine production, Jessica specializes in repeatable, systemic design, and healthy studio culture for all departments through playtesting, with a goal of helping developers find creative ways to give players a unique experience with meaningful mechanics.

Production Experience

Senior Playtest Specialist

Nov 2023 - Aug 2026

Among Us 3D, 20+ Undisclosed Projects - Schell Games

Architected and scaled a modern end-to-end playtesting process, including growing and maintaining a back-end layer database, communications and scheduling, and multi-format playtesting sessions for the entire studio, across 8-10 simultaneous projects.
Partnered with product and data science leadership to define core success metrics (DAU, retention, conversion, and feature engagement), utilizing player behavior to drive measurable week-over-week improvements in consumer product ratings.
Championed a user-first culture across multi-platform ecosystems (PC, mobile, console, and emerging AI workflows)
Mentored and upleveled cross-functional teams, training developers, designers, and engineers on rigorous playtest methodologies and user-centric decision-making.

Senior Design Manager

Nov 2021 - Nov 2023

Until You Fall DLC, Out of Scale: A Kurzgesagt Adventure, Undisclosed Projects - Schell Games

Design Director for "Until You Fall" DLC, and for a confidential, unreleased project. Design Director for Pre-production through Vertical Slice of "Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire", leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver polished, high-engagement consumer products.
Lead Level Designer for "Out of Scale: A Kurzgesagt Adventure", spearheading systematic level scripting solutions using Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) Level Blueprints.
Assembled competitive pitch packages and assisted with grant writing for prospective studio projects, blending product strategy with compelling storytelling.
Launched and completed a comprehensive documentation initiative to archive and organize 15 years of studio design documents, modernizing team communication, ensuring project preservation, and initiating the studio’s first centralized "Design Site" Wiki.

Lead Designer

Mar 2016 - Jun 2021

Kena: Bridge of Spirits - Ember Lab

Wrote, pitched, and maintained design documents for core gameplay features, character abilities, progression, levels, systems, and world.
Lead design team, in-office & remote worldwide, with daily check-ins to deliver high-level goals and solve low-level challenges, and mentor new members in our process, standards, and goals.
Designed levels for action/adventure 3D Platformer with focus on story and flow, from concept, to documentation, blockout, playtesting, whitebox, polish, and optimization and bug-fixing.
Supervised designers for and creation of all levels.
Created initial pitch documents & designed playable demo resulting in publisher deal with Sony.

Game Designer In Residence

May 2015 - Dec 2018

Various Projects - University of California, Irvine

Lead Designer on 5 educational and healthcare games, partnering closely with university Medical and Humanities departments to drive human-centric design and curriculum integration.
Developed and structured independent study courses modeled after professional studio production teams, preparing students directly for industry employment through project feedback and network connections.
Co-authored safety, ethics, and diversity guidelines on an institutional eSports committee, culminating in a published academic paper.
Lectured for the core course "Game Systems and Design" (Jan–Mar 2016), teaching fundamental principles of human behavior, systems thinking, and interactive design.

Co-Founder, Chief Creative Officer

2012 - 2015

Fallstreak Studio, LLC

Art Director for Axle - Illustrated game & marketing materials, style guide.
Assembled and ran a successful $20,000 Kickstarter Campaign for Axle.
Developed pitches, co-authored grants for games in healthcare and education.

Systems Designer

Dec 2014 - May 2015

Armored Warfare - Obsidian Entertainment

Balanced all playable (approx 100) tanks, optimized 3D meshes, researched, and created data for stats.
Researched systems and suggested tools for accurate measurement of meshes for automatic systems simulations and overall performance in-game.
Fully documented all systems and trained others to grow the department, then later hand-off.

User Interface Artist

Mar 2014 - Dec 2014

Armored Warfare - Obsidian Entertainment

Illustrated and implemented functional UI for menus and play screens in Flash and Scaleform .
Created and revised icons for ammo, skills, and vehicles.

Character Artist

Feb 2012 - Mar 2014

South Park: Stick of Truth - Obsidian Entertainment

Concepted, illustrated, and implemented puppet-style animatable characters with complete customization system for playable and in-game cutscenes.
Illustrated & revised storyboards, animations, icons, and VFX, for cutscenes and gameplay.

Level Designer

Aug 2011 - Feb 2012

Crabs & Penguins - Ember Lab

Illustrated and revised storyboards for a Coke and McDonald’s commercial.
Designed, illustrated, and revised levels for a 3D side scrolling Android and iPhone platformer.

Lead Instructor

Jun 2012 - Aug 2011

iD Tech Camps

Taught students, ages seven to fifteen, game design and programming.
Managed all data assets for location and filled in for Director for 60+ student campus.

2008 - 2012

Chapman University - Dodge College of Film and Media Arts

Emphasis in Storyboarding, Film Production: Directing & Editing, Social History
GPA: 3.8. Dean's List, Chancellor's Scholarship

Bio