# Zeke Marks > Lead Product Manager | Former EA/Microsoft/Glu Mobile Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/zekemarks Ex-Professional Video Gamer turned Product Manager and Game Designer with over fifteen years of experience working on Mobile, Free to Play (F2P), Liveops, AAA, RPG, RTS, FPS, Console, and PC games. Recently worked on blockchain/NFT gaming, with expertise on free to play product management. Titles I have shipped or worked on include: - STG Football - Disney Sorcerer's Arena  - Card Brawl: Duel of Champions - Gates of War - War Commander: Rogue Assault - Backyard Monsters - Turf Geography - Hero Academy - Echo Prime - Orcs Must Die! Unchained - Orcs Must Die 2! - Orcs Must Die! - Halo Wars - Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties - Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs - Rise of Legends ## Work Experience ### Lead Product Manager, Monetization @ Together Labs Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Building new product features to increase revenue on IMVU! ### Lead Product Manager @ SuperTeam Games Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area Bringing Crypto and NFTs to Sports Games! ### Product Manager @ Electronic Arts (EA) Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area EA acquired Glu Mobile on April 29th, 2021. Built and designed many gameplay features and systems contributing to a significant portion of the $100MM that Disney Sorcerer's Arena made in its first year. - Liveops and Featured Events - Leaderboard Contests - Feature Design - IAP and Store Management - Season Pass - VIP System - Tutorial/Onboarding surpassing retention goals - UI/UX optimization for store offers ### Product Manager @ Glu Mobile Jan 2018 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco, California Built and designed many gameplay features and systems contributing to a significant portion of the $100MM that Disney Sorcerer's Arena made in its first year. - Liveops and Featured Events - Leaderboard Contests - Feature Design - IAP and Store Management - Season Pass - VIP System - Tutorial/Onboarding surpassing retention goals - UI/UX optimization for store offers ### Product Manager @ Cloudcade, Inc. Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area Lead Game Designer and Product Manager of Card Brawl: Duel of Champions ### Game Designer @ Plarium Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area Gates of War (iOS, Android, F2P RTS): • Designed feature which doubled retention and monetization • Lead design on new units and abilities • Balanced all units, buildings, and upgrades • Designed battle arena core mechanics, as well as future features • Worked with GUI team to design ladders, leagues, and interfaces for multiplayer • Designed promotions, sales, and various features to increase monetization and retention ### Senior Game Designer @ KIXEYE Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | San Francisco Bay Area Rogue Assault (live game, iOS): • Designed defensive turrets • Designed, created, and tested all deposit bases • Balanced and adjusted units and defensive turrets • Created specs for new features • Lead internal team playtests to balance deposit bases, offensive units, and defensive turrets Backyard Monsters (live game, iOS): • Re-designed and balanced entire game economy • Tweaked and balanced existing monsters • Adjusted costs for buildings, upgrades, monsters, fortifications, and towers • Modified existing unlock progression to be more streamlined • Designed and created defensive challenge • Balanced champion active abilities, passive abilities, and tech tree • Designed new champion rage system • Created specs for new features and events • Designed battleground event system • Worked with engineers to bring hard-coded items into data for smoother design workflow • Lead internal team playtests to balance champions and challenges ### Game Designer @ TinyCo Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 Unannounced mobile RTS title: • Lead design for existing and new units • Built a system to balance core and hard counter values • Created specs for automation tools • Pioneered the combat system rules for an intricate strategy game • Designed a progression system for heroes and their abilities • Designed hero passive and active abilities to benefit existing units and strategies • Designed an upgrade system for units with multiple pre-requisites • Lead team playtests to cultivate actionable feedback • Worked with Art team to establish necessary animations for movement and munitions ### Game Designer @ Robot Entertainment Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 | Plano, TX Hero Academy (PC, Mac, iOS, Android): • Designed mechanics, teams, weapons, armors, and powers • Created and implemented single player challenges • Designed a system to balance all teams, items, weapons, abilities, and powers • Thoroughly tested all aspects including compatibility, localization, and performance • Finely tuned mechanics including unit stats, bonuses, power up placement, items, and abilities • Designed and created the play boards that came with each new team Orcs Must Die 2! (PC): • Designed, created, scripted, and maintained multiple levels • Created weapon and trap matrices to determine power levels and a balance system • Thoroughly tested all aspects including characters, weapons, levels, traps, compatibility, localization, and performance • Balanced characters, upgrades, weapons, levels, and enemies • Ran playtest sessions and gathered actionable game feedback Orcs Must Die! (PC, Xbox 360): • Assisted design with weapon, trap, and combat game balance • Created level design concepts • Performed localization testing on multiple platforms • Conducted memory, frame rate, and many other bench-marking tests ### Game Balance Designer @ Ensemble Studios Jan 2006 – Jan 2009 Age of Empires 3 (PC), Halo Wars (Xbox360): • Balanced and calibrated units, abilities, upgrades, civilizations, cards, and leaders • Designed and created balance spreadsheet matrices to test and compare units across the board • Produced game design core system, mechanics, and feature ideas • Contributed to the development of systematic testing methods and used these improved systems to perform extensive testing to reach a high level of game balance at product launch • Involved in post-launch update, repair development and testing process ### Balance Tester @ Microsoft Jan 2006 – Jan 2006 | Redmond, WA Balance Tester for Rise of Legends (PC): • Contributed game design ideas and input for core game systems • Quality assurance testing • Provided expert-level game balance feedback ### Pro Gamer @ Independent Professional Gamer Jan 2003 – Jan 2006 World renown Age of Empires player, taking first place in national and international tournaments. Ran a website showcasing recorded games, wrote strategy articles, and coached people online. • 1st Place: GGL V-Sports All-stars. Age of Mythology. Los Angeles, CA, May 2005 • 1st Place: Lantacy tournament. Age of Mythology. Antwerp, Belgium, Oct 2004 • 1st Place: USA World Cyber Games. Age of Mythology. Irvine, CA, Aug 2003 ## Education ### BA in Pre-Law/Criminology The University of Texas at Dallas ### Associates in Science Dallas College ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/zekemarks --- Source: https://flows.cv/zekemarks JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/zekemarks/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05