Héctor Padilla

Current

Lead Game Designer at Kaxan Publisher
Founder - Developer Producer at Radical Golem

Past

Board of Directors at IGDA-Mexico
Consultant - Video Games Program at Universidad de Artes Digitales
Computer Science Graduate Student at University of Alberta

Chair Digital Art Department at ITESM Campus Guadalajara
Flash / ActionScript developer - Freelance contracts at Self - Employed (Special Projects) (Self-employed)
Game Development TA at University of Alberta - Support from Bioware
Multimedia Developer at ITESM
Comic Book Arists - Co Founder at KaraOkulta
GUI Developer at Innox

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6 more...

Education

University of Alberta
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Western Illinois University

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Recommended

11 people have recommended Héctor

Connections

286 connections

Industry

Computer Games

Websites

My Website

Héctor Padilla’s Summary

GAME DESIGN
My passion is creating engaging interactive experiences. I love prototyping ideas and trying new things. Game design and the psychology of why people play games and how they remain engaged in them is a topic I truly love. I'm all the time reading books and articles about this topic.

I love games in general: from digital platforms to traditional board games and pen and paper RPGs.

Training in Game design:
+ Applied Game Design / Level Design Workshop: Matthias Worch
+ Game Mechanics Workshop: Noah Falstein
+ Interactive Storytelling Workshop: Lee Sheldon

SOCIAL NETWORK GAMES
Social networks are redefining how games are produced and monetized. The shift from creating a product to create an on-going service funded with virtual assets and micro-transactions is huge. I'm excited to be a part of it.

GAME DEVELOPMENT / PRODUCTION
I greatly enjoy programming/designing and getting my hands dirty to make things happen. Still, my ease to communicate with everyone in the team often pulls me towards production and project management and I love it! My background allows me to communicate well with both artists and programmers and I like keeping the vision and being the bridge between those two important sides of game making.

ACADEMIA:
+ I have been the chair of the Digital Arts Department in ITESM (México)
+ TA for two years in an academic project between the UofA and Bioware.
+ Consulting for Video Games program for the UAD
+ Multiple workshops in interactive media and game design

--

Over the years I have done studies on traditional art, figure drawing, hand drawn animation, music (percussions), singing and theater. This, among my academic formation in Computer Science has given me a good edge in what comes to Digital Art, Interactive Media and Game Design. :-) I feel like I can talk to everyone in the team and empathize with them. :-)

Héctor Padilla’s Specialties:

Game Design and prototyping (AS3), project management and production (Trained in Scrum), programming skills due to CS education, good sense of aesthetics and design by artistic formation, great inter-personal skills (communication / empathy)

Héctor Padilla’s Experience

Lead Game Designer

Kaxan Publisher

(Entertainment industry)

November 2008 — Present (1 year 3 months)

Lead Game designer for an upcoming Mexican themed Wii Party Game, and a series of iPhone games to be released simultaneously.

Due to the nature of the project and size of the team I often help in production and organizational roles.

(Leading a team of 2 game designers and 6 level designers/editors)
Founder - Developer Producer

Radical Golem

(Computer Games industry)

July 2007 — Present (2 years 7 months)

RIA development group with a focus on social game development (Facebook, OpenSocial, Twitter) - Last main client: Hive7.com

My key role in this team is "developer producer", I keep the team focused on what needs to be done (SCRUM), handle communications with the clients and publishers, and get my hands dirty with ActionScript coding.

In the past we have worked on several multimedia related projects with different clients. Some current/past clients are:

* ArcanaComics - Clockwork girl
* Slide.com
* PureSafety
* Bouchard Consulting
* Casacor
* Zynga.com
* ITESM
* UofA
Board of Directors

IGDA-Mexico

(Non-Profit; Computer Games industry)

October 2007 — December 2009 (2 years 3 months)

My main role here has been to give talks in Universities and Events about game design and game making, creating a "sparkle" of interest in young people and allowing them to see they have the tools and means to create great fun experiences and to make a demo that could land them a job in the industry.
Consultant - Video Games Program

Universidad de Artes Digitales

(Education Management industry)

April 2008 — April 2009 (1 year 1 month)

Helping this University define a good curriculum (based on IGDA's guidelines) for their Video Games program.
Computer Science Graduate Student

University of Alberta

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

August 2005 — January 2009 (3 years 6 months)

Research in Interactive Media and Education.

Teacher Assistant in interdisciplinary video game development class for the past 2 years.

Thesis pending.
Chair Digital Art Department

ITESM Campus Guadalajara

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

July 2007 — January 2008 (7 months)

Chair of Digital Art Department, tied to the University curriculum of "Bachelor in Animation and Digital Art", and creating joint ventures and projects with both companies and university worldwide to develop the Digital Arts industry in Mexico.

I let go of this position since it was very academy oriented, and I am in a stage in life in which I want to work in creative production environments. I do love teaching and could give a couple of classes, but mostly I want to get my hands dirty at this stage. :-)
Flash / ActionScript developer - Freelance contracts
Self - Employed (Special Projects) (Self-employed)

(Self-Employed; Executive Office industry)

June 2002 — June 2007 (5 years 1 month)

For many years I have had contracts with different companies to do special projects. While at the beginning this where "side projects" (appart from my full time job), I eventually took the leap into full time ActionScript freelancing.

I worked with many clients and projects, from small to large. Some clients I worked with are:

SLIDE.COM
Working on different aspects to embellish their photo slider product. (particle systems and such for "themes", illustrating and designing skis).

PURESAFETY:
Creating Flash applications for their online training courses. Developing quizzes, brain teasers, learning activities and interactive presentations for clients like: Disney, EBay, Caterpillar, etc.

BOUCHARD CONSULTING:
Working on a data visualization widget and on a "theatre planning tool" to setup and direct stage plays.
Game Development TA

University of Alberta - Support from Bioware

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

August 2005 — April 2007 (1 year 9 months)

Interdisciplinary class in which students from different departments would get together to make a game. The class was focused on game design in general: the students would learn about story telling, conceptual art, audio editing, 3D modeling, etc.

To put the game together at the end of the term we used the Aurora Toolset from Bioware

I really loved working on this, the relationship with the students and the creative atmosphere. It was great to help them get along with each other, give them tools to communicate properly with people with completely different backgrounds, and see the great things they came up with at the end of the term. Some of this guys got jobs at Bioware right away.
Multimedia Developer

ITESM

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

August 1999 — July 2005 (6 years )

Doing both Lingo (director) and ActionScript (flash) projects since their early days.

(I started doing complex Flash applications since Flash version 2!!)
Comic Book Arists - Co Founder

KaraOkulta

(Arts and Crafts industry)

November 2003 — May 2005 (1 year 7 months)

Writing, inking, base colors
GUI Developer

Innox

(Computer Software industry)

May 2003 — June 2004 (1 year 2 months)

In charge of setting up the CSS framework and templates system to use with the different products.

Héctor Padilla’s Education

University of Alberta

Masters , Computer Science , 2005 — 2007

Due to extremely high work load I have had to postpone my thesis, so I have not completed this degree.
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

Bachelor , Computer Systems Engineering , 1998 — 2003

Activities and Societies:

Plastic Arts Group (drawing), Ensamble (music performance), African percussions ensemble, Camerata (Singing - Opera), Kung Fu Shaolin group
Western Illinois University

Exchange Program , Computer Science , 2000 — 2001

Activities and Societies:

Vice-President Olson Hall, Representative in the Inter Hall council