Ryan Stancl

Current

• Game Designer at Sanrio Digital / Typhoon Games
• Game Designer at Aloha Island Inc.

Past

• Lead Designer at Outsourced Games
• Service Unit Team Member at AQS - Applied Quoting Systems
• Clerical Associate I - Annuity Processing at Bank One/Chase

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Education

• Vancouver Film School
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Northern Arizona University

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Connections

47 connections

Industry

Computer Games

Ryan Stancl’s Summary

Long:
Game designer and published author with over 2 years of industry experience, a B.A. in English, and a Game Design degree.

• Lead designer / writer on 2-part educational RPG series for the DS and 2 casual games for the PC and Mac

• Game designer / writer on upcoming game based on a popular Cartoon Network franchise

• Created systems and mechanics for an RPG, a casual dash game, and a trivia / board game hybrid

• Wrote & maintained 4 full-length design docs, 10 shorter design docs, several pitches, dialogue & cutscenes

• Scripted levels for PC dash game, boards for PC trivia game, and dialogue for RPG using in-house toolsets

• Created 1 full-conversion game in UT – Seas of Europa – 2 board games, 2 level mods, and 2 Flash games

• Designed 8 user-interface systems, prototyping two and implementing several others

• Twice-published author on Gamasutra – 3-part article titled Katamari Damacy – A Critique & a postmortem

• Graduated from secondary schools with Honors; won 2 game design awards at VFS; won 1 ELAN for Seas

• Worked 10 years in professional team environments



Short:
I make games. I would love to continue to make games.

Ryan Stancl’s Specialties:

Specialize in all aspects of writing that revolve around the creation of a game, from the creative to the technical, as well as systems and mission design – including combat tweaking, AI tuning, level planning, mission scripting, and encounter tuning. Experience in front-end design, cutscenes, scripting, and pitching.

Ryan Stancl’s Experience

• Game Designer

  Sanrio Digital / Typhoon Games

  (Computer Games industry)

  June 2009 — Present (6 months)

• Game Designer

  Aloha Island Inc.

  (Computer Games industry)

  March 2007 — Present (2 years 9 months)

  Seventh full-time employee at a small educational games company based out of Honolulu, HI. Making games with a purpose. In paradise. Not bad.
  
  As the resident game designer, I:
  - Created and maintained all game design documentation, including design docs and game pitches
  - Wrote dialogue and cutscenes for our educational RPG
  - Scripted levels, game board layouts, and dialogue using in-house proprietary toolsets
  - Play tested levels and mechanics both on paper and in game
  - Created and helped implement all user interfaces
  - Ran all play test sessions, with users ranging from 7-year-old children to 37-year-old women
  - Collaborated with Lead QA and QA Testers on bugs found and bugs fixed
  - Was in charge of a Junior Game Designer
  - Acted as producer on several occasions, creating programming / design schedules and asset lists

• Lead Designer

  Outsourced Games

  (Partnership; 1-10 employees; Computer Games industry)

  June 2006 — October 2006 (5 months)

  - Wrote and/or edited almost all documentation for Outsourced Games' flagship title Seas of Europa
  - White-boxed SoE level design in Unreal Ed, with set dec trials
  - Pipelined art assets into the Editor and then into game
  - Code monkey - second to David Bowring - on SOE, working on almost everything except the heavy gameplay programming
  - Handled much of QA and bug tracking

• Service Unit Team Member

  AQS - Applied Quoting Systems

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Insurance industry)

  June 1999 — September 2005 (6 years 4 months)

  - Handled most editing/proofing of multiple reports to ensure consistency
  - Entered insurance rates/figures in MS-DOS with the 10-key pad
  - Compiled spreadsheets of various insurance-related facts for in-house use
  - Built trusting relationship with supervisor; able to work from home last 3 years at company

• Clerical Associate I - Annuity Processing

  Bank One/Chase

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Banking industry)

  September 2002 — July 2005 (2 years 11 months)

  - Helped coordinate new system for processing insurance policy agent changes
  - Solely managed individual insurance policy agent changes
  - Carried out data entry of annuities through Internet program EAI
  - Interacted with clients via Lotus Notes

Ryan Stancl’s Education

• Vancouver Film School

  Diploma , Video Game Design , 2005 — 2006

  - Intense 1-year Game Design program
  - Produced fully working 15-minute game demo (Seas of Europa) on 12-week production cycle with team of 4 (Outsourced Games)

• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  Bachelor of Arts , English , 2002 — 2005

  - In Film program for 1 year
  - Transfered back to English
  - Graduated with Honors with B.A. in English
  - Cumulative GPA of 3.67

• Northern Arizona University

  Bachelor of Arts , English , 2000 — 2002

  - Studied English and Film for 2 years
  - Cumulative GPA of 3.95
  - Transfered to UW-Milwaukee for Film program

Additional Information

Ryan Stancl’s Interests:

Reading, writing, comics, television, movies, anime, video games, fishing and other outdoor activities

Ryan Stancl’s Honors:

- 3-part critique of Katamari Damacy published on Gamasutra
- Seas of Europa Postmortem published on Gamasutra
- Best Game: Seas of Europa - VFS Game Design Awards (2006)
- Best Game Design: Where the Sun now Stands - VFS Game Design Awards (2006)
- Best Art Direction in a Student Game: Seas of Europa - ELANS (2008)
- Nominated for Best Student Game: Seas of Europa - ELANS (2008)
- Graduated with Honors from UW-Milwaukee
- Scholarship to attend NAU for 2 years based on volunteering a certain number of man-hours each semester

Ryan Stancl’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch