Matt Highison

Studio head of Art, Audio, Creative, and part of the Franchise Narrative team building original IP. (Unannounced AAA Multiplatform Game)

Making Aliens: Fireteam Elite, building a world class AAA team, and running the studio! Along with 2 other studio heads, grew Cold Iron from a small startup to a world class 60+ person team. We developed and published the successful Aliens survival shooter Fireteam Elite, and it's follow-up expansion, Pathogen. I love making games, and wore a lot of hats: - Head of Art, Audio and Music, and Outsourcing departments - Art Director for the game and marketing materials - Audio and Music Direction (Soundtrack, sound effects, mixing, voice casting) - Marketing and Publishing oversight and direction - Direct contribution creation of marketing assets and key art to build the identity and brand - Creation of platform storefronts and physical disc/packaging - Recruiting and Operations direction - Website and social development and direction - Franchise licensing - Corporate development Individual contributions as well - I love making games and actually getting my hands in there! We used Unreal for Aliens. I was heavily involved in implementing lighting, color grading and post processing, character materials, environmental and combat VFX, player flashlight system code and art, weapon scope-in FX and HUD. Along the way since founding Cold Iron, we also worked on unannounced original IP before successfully getting the exciting Aliens franchise license and pivoting the entire studio to work on that.

Art Director on an unannounced original IP under development for next gen consoles and PC. Part of the core leadership team developing IP, game design, and next gen art pipeline and technology.

Project Art Director on Neverwinter, with a team of more than 25 internal artists, and more than 15 external co-development artists at a sister studio. Part of the Neverwinter Project Leadership determining development plans and responsible for keeping the project high quality and profitable. Part of the Xbox One console team responsible for launching the very first console game at Cryptic. Providing art and project direction and leadership company wide on live games and various R&D projects

- Senior Lead Character Artist providing direction and leadership studio wide across multiple projects. ---------------------------------------------- - Lead Character Artist on Neverwinter - Lead Character Artist on Star Trek Online - part of original core R&D team, developed script based costume customization system and managed team of character artists, help steer direction of the project with other Project Leads ---------------------------------------------- - Create high quality art - models, textures, materials/shaders, skinning - Manage thousands of character assets with a complex scripting system - Assist Art Director with determining artistic vision, and strategies to achieve it - Collaborate with and direct Concept Artists, Animators, UI and the Environment team to help maintain a high level of quality and cohesiveness - Design and manage real money store cosmetic items - Develop live game updates and on-going content expansions - Work with Game Designers and Writers and franchise licensors to ensure faithfulness to Star Trek and D&D IP ---------------------------------------------- - Provide company-wide direction for development of art tools and systems - Create and manage a pipeline to outsource real money store art assets - Train Cryptic Engine licensee companies and partners on art systems and asset creation - Mentor Junior Artists and students ---------------------------------------------- - Character Artist on Champions Online and multiple Unannounced R&D titles

- Created 2D and 3D animations, backgrounds, and UI for Leapster educational games using Maya, Flash, Photoshop, and plenty of traditional paper and blue pencil. - Upheld the specific style guide based on an existing Cartoon Network IP