# Chris Porter > Game Design Director & Product Lead | 30 Years Shipping Games | AI-Augmented Dev Workflows | AAA • Indie • Mobile • DTx • Gamification • Cognitive Training Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/chrisporter Currently helping to bring your vision to life as a Product Owner, Designer, and Developer. ## Work Experience ### Product Lead @ Robot Sea Monster Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Product lead at a remote-first game development studio, owning projects from client pitch through delivery with P&L responsibility. I design, prototype, and ship games, gamification products, and interactive experiences across VR, mobile, and web. • Lead design and development on multiple concurrent titles including a VR RTS, a mobile action-adventure, and client-facing gamification products • Introduced AI-assisted development workflows (LLM-driven documentation, spec-driven implementation via Kiro, rapid prototyping through Replit) to accelerate production while maintaining a strict human-in-the-loop standard • Hands-on in Unity and design tools; blockouts, systems design, GDDs, and boss fight choreography, not just specs and slide decks • Scope, estimate, and evaluate new business across digital therapeutics, branded games, and interactive entertainment ### Product Lead | Robot Sea Monster (RSM-Studio) @ Robot Sea Monster (RSM-Studio) Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Product lead at a remote-first game development studio, owning projects from client pitch through delivery with P&L responsibility. I design, prototype, and ship games, gamification products, and interactive experiences across VR, mobile, and web. • Lead design and development on multiple concurrent titles including a VR RTS, a mobile action-adventure, and client-facing gamification products • Introduced AI-assisted development workflows (LLM-driven documentation, spec-driven implementation via Kiro, rapid prototyping through Replit) to accelerate production while maintaining a strict human-in-the-loop standard • Hands-on in Unity and design tools—blockouts, systems design, GDDs, and boss fight choreography, not just specs and slide decks • Scope, estimate, and evaluate new business across digital therapeutics, branded games, and interactive entertainment ### Founding Game Designer @ Joon Health (YC W22) Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area Designed, built, and maintained a live ops pet nurturing, city building, adventure game aimed at improving executive function in kids with ADHD. Added retention focused systems and features that greatly expanded the gameplay footprint and re-contextualized existing content. ### Founding Game Designer @ Elsewhere Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area Blazed new trails in the co-op adventure space. Designed and prototyped a playable indie multiplayer PVE rogue-like action game with full proc gen of... everything. Designed from the ground up and implemented characters, classes, enemies, spells, abilities, and proc gen dungeon seeds. ### Lead Game Designer and Product Manager @ Akili Interactive Jan 2020 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area Creative vision holder responsible for integrating best practice mobile game design into our first of a kind FDA approved digital therapy for pediatric ADHD. Designed and implemented an all new infinite runner which contained our active ingredients which was aimed at adults. Assisted with getting a playable prototype VR experience up and running. • Managed a team that included both game and UX designers • Designed, implemented, and tuned new gameplay and meta game elements • Led rapid prototyping for multiple new games aimed at a variety of demographics and potential patient populations • Helped drive product roadmaps, milestone definitions, and sprint planning • Served as acting PM for 1 year during the run up to IPO. ### Senior Game Designer @ Akili Interactive Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area Designing systems and content which are part of an entirely new class of medicine that combines rigorous scientific validation with engaging video game mechanics. ### Lead AI Designer @ Hangar 13 Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area Initially hired as a Senior Systems Designer for the Mafia 3 DLCs and promoted to AI Design Lead after completing the project. • Designed, implemented, and tuned AI and enemy characters for all three Mafia 3 DLCs • The DLC gameplay was called out as noticeably improved over the stand alone game • Managed a team of designers tasked with a complete overhaul and modernization of the existing AI systems for future projects ### Senior Systems Designer (Contract) @ Toys For Bob Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 | Novato Senior Systems Designer: Skylanders Imaginators Senior Systems Designer assigned to the Character Design team. I shepherded multiple playable characters from concept to finished product. I collaborated with a team of animators and VFX artists to create “toys-to-life" characters for Skylanders: Imaginators. • Designed and implemented personas and abilities for a handful of playable characters • Turned animation into functional moves using the Havok Animation Tool • Used visual scripting tool to create player attacks, special interactions, and minion AI • Created VFX from scratch using a library of placeholder assets and a proprietary editor ### Design Director @ Sega of America, Inc. Jan 2011 – Jan 2015 | San Francisco Functioned as the sole Design Director for the US territory and all Sonic the Hedgehog related titles originating from Japan. Additionally, my responsibilities included the Aliens franchise, Bayonetta, Super Monkey Ball, The Cave, and various mobile and F2P projects. • Provided design and production support to both internal and external teams • Embedded with developers to help out with systems and levels in a design lead capacity • Assessed new proposals, GDDs, and milestone builds for all games managed by Sega of America • Crafted proposals and RFPs aimed at refreshing and invigorating existing or dormant Sega IPs ### Design Lead @ LucasArts Jan 2007 – Jan 2010 Design Lead: Star Wars the Force Unleashed (SWTFU), Star Wars the Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition, Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 Hired as a Senior Designer on the SWTFU franchise, I went on to lead various teams including Systems and Special Content. Despite short production cycles and a lot of upheaval we delivered fun and compelling game play on time and on budget. My area of responsibility and the size of my team grew after each project. • Led brainstorming sessions and wove the best ideas into coherent designs • Directed a prototyping team made up of engineers, artists, animators and designers • Coordinated scheduling, milestones and project planning across all disciplines • Added several new game play modes and scenario types • Mentored junior designers • Picked up scripting and level editing slack when necessary ### Executive Producer @ Lamplighter Studios Jan 2005 – Jan 2007 Executive Producer Project Highlights: Guild Wars: Nightfall, Bio Shock I managed a large offshore content creation studio and a small internal development team at this startup company. We provided art services to a handful of high profile clients and also built several small complete games. The systems and teams I built were eventually acquired by a major outsourcing company. • Managed teams on three continents totaling more than 40 employees. • Grew company from under 10 to 40+ • Created project plans and budgets • This was a client facing position, and as such I “sold” our team and process to our clients. • Developed custom solutions per client that allowed them to direct the content creation daily. ### Lead designer @ stormfront studios Jan 2003 – Jan 2005 Lead Designer: Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone. Managed a team of 4 level designers responsible for the design and implementation of all levels and boss battles. I also served as the systems designer and game play tuner. I designed the AI, enemies and game play systems and tuned all the levels. Lead Systems Designer: Eragon. Building on the systems created for Demon Stone, I redesigned the combat system, AI and other game systems to account for multi-player co-op. I also added systems to account for flying game play and a robust companion AI. ### Game Designer @ shiny/atari Jan 2000 – Jan 2003 Senior Game Designer: Enter the Matrix. I directed a team of 5 artists and 4 game play engineers while designing and implementing a majority of the levels in the game. Interfaced directly with the Wachowski brothers and maintained a 700 page Hollywood style script, allowing the brothers to maintain direct control over the direction of the game. ### Game Designer @ bungie software Jan 1998 – Jan 2000 Game Designer:: Oni. I was accountable for the design of all aspects of the product. This included creating, documenting, and storyboarding initial concepts and refining these concepts into detailed design spec documents. I worked with engineers to develop the tools, feature sets, and scripting language that I used to create levels and game play scenarios. I also created a robust multiplayer component where every character was balanced and there were many “Bungie style” multiplayer modes. ### Game Designer @ crystal dynamics Jan 1996 – Jan 1998 Level Designer: Akuji the Heartless, Gex3, and Blood Omen. Primary focus was designing, implementing, and producing a certain number of levels within the game. Areas of responsibility included creation and documentation of initial concepts for my levels, creation of 3d level geometry, game play scripting, and texture art. I was also responsible for scripting enemies and debugging or closing out a significant number of levels. ### Production Assistant, Designer @ capcom usa Jan 1995 – Jan 1996 Level Designer: Major Damage. As a level designer on Major Damage; an unreleased 32 bit title, I created levels using a variety of tools, including Capcom’s proprietary layout software (which I helped design). I also aided in the testing and debugging of said software. My duties also included testing and implementing new game technology, designing level bosses, main character weaponry, general playability, and modifying game art and design documentation to keep up with a mid development platform change. Test Lead: Street Fighter Alpha (Playstation), Foxhunt, Super Street Fighter (PC network and modem play), Mega Man X (PC), and Tang-Chi. As a lead tester, I performed and coordinated quality assurance testing on all of the above games. I maintained bug reports, interfaced with programmers on a regular basis, trained all new testers, and edited game manuals. ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/chris-porter-a20a9a1 --- Source: https://flows.cv/chrisporter JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/chrisporter/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13