I've spent 30 years making games and playful things: Grand Theft Auto at DMA Design, mobile before smartphones, television before app stores, then browser, social and whatever came next.
I've shipped 100+ games, led studios' product and production work, built an R&D centre and co-written a book about game making in the 21st century. The thread through all of it is helping people make something worth playing, and giving it a chance to find its audience.
At Denki we called the role Product Architect: shaping what a game becomes and building the process that gets it there. I like being close enough to the work to prototype an idea, question a feature or play through the latest build.
I'm grounded in game design and player motivation, commercially minded, and fluent enough in platform capabilities and technical constraints to work as an equal with engineers. I translate a founder's intent into priorities a team can act on, test assumptions early and keep scope, quality and commercial goals in view. I've spent more than 15 years managing remote, distributed teams and taking responsibility for budgets, capacity and delivery.
Product lead on an unannounced title, reporting to the studio founder: the creator of Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown and Lemmings. I work across product strategy, hands-on prototyping, community engagement design and the route to market, including direct-to-consumer monetisation.
Alongside this, my independent work includes product strategy for a sports-game studio and audience-engagement diagnostics for a games publisher.
Joined at inception alongside the industry veterans behind Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite Creative to productise brand engagement inside live games. I led product strategy, designed the core engagement engine and built functional prototypes, while conducting customer discovery with brands, developers and platform partners.
Headhunted to establish and lead InGAME, a £5.3m UKRI-funded research and innovation centre for games and immersive media, led by Abertay with the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews. With a team of 12, I was accountable for strategy, budget, portfolio prioritisation, programme delivery and impact evaluation, reporting to a board drawn from industry, universities and the public sector. Industry partners included Microsoft, Sony PlayStation and Ukie.
We brought researchers and studios together to test ideas, develop new products and explore markets. It beat every target it was set: 177 R&D projects (target 125), 2,283 professionals upskilled (target 500) and £11.1m industry co-investment (target £1.8m). 73% of the companies we worked with grew their turnover, and 93% would work with InGAME again. A 2023 independent assessment forecast £84.7m in gross value added to Scotland's economy over ten years: £15.90 for every £1 of public funding. How InGAME worked.
Ran a production and strategic advisory consultancy for media startups, indie studios, education providers and publishers. Selected projects:
Led development and live operations across mobile, TV, browser and console at a studio recognised as UK pioneers of casual gaming.
TV as a Games Platform at Denki We shipped playable games to Sky and DirecTV when the living room had no app store, no storefront and no second screen. Discovery was an electronic programme guide, the input device was a remote control, and the release date was a broadcast slot that did not move. It is the same problem connected TV is solving again now with cloud streaming and phones as controllers, and most of what we learned about designing for ten feet and a thumb still holds.
The production model. 100+ titles in nine years, against fixed budgets, licensor approvals, platform certification and immovable external deadlines. That volume was only possible because we built the system for it: a bespoke production model, a talent pipeline and a release cadence designed around the constraints rather than fighting them.
The games. I produced Quarrel, an award-winning original game, from vertical slice through release on iOS and Xbox 360, scaling the team and establishing the studio's original-IP process. Other work included Denki Blocks! and Save the Day!, alongside licensed games for Shrek, Moshi Monsters, Ben 10, WALL-E and Scooby-Doo, for partners including the BBC, Cartoon Network, DreamWorks, LEGO, Mattel, Microsoft, Mind Candy, Nickelodeon, PBS, Pixar and Square Enix.
DC Studios, 2005-2006: Director of Mobile Development, leading design and production on licensed games including Family Guy, Star Wars and NASCAR.
MediaCo, 2001–2005: Digital Producer on interactive campaigns for brands including 3M, Reebok and Nestlé - playable brand work a decade before anyone called it that.
DMA Design, 1996-2000: QA on Grand Theft Auto, mission design on GTA 2, QA lead on Body Harvest and level design on Tanktics.
My current thinking on games, audiences and attention lives in the notebook.
Speaking engagements between 2020 and 2023 included SXSW, Develop Conference, Dubai GameExpo Summit, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, Westminster Media Forum and the China Cultural Industry Parks Forum.
I'm based in Dubai and work with teams remotely, engaged B2B through my Dubai freelance licence or employed. I take on three kinds of work: contract producer and product-lead roles on new platforms; project engagements, meaning assessments, prototypes and pilots (how they work); and programme design for games ecosystems (like InGAME). I'm also open to senior permanent roles.
Email me to talk about the work or request my CV. You can also find me on LinkedIn.