This one was fun to make. I created the storyboard based off the ad concept I was given, roughly: select a character, unlock her in gameplay, return to the initial screen with the cta and logo. From there I made the video in After Effects for 4 sizes, 1080x1080, 1080x1350, 1080x1920 and 1920x1080, the wide one being linked here. The gameplay sequence is simulated with as much game animations as I could export from the Unity game version we could access.
This one was also fun to make. It was the first creative ad I was given to make from concept to complete at my latest stint in the Big Fish Marketing dept. The focus for the ad I was given was to highlight the fashion aspect of the game with a lot of gameplay footage. This was also made in After Effects at 1080x1080, 1080x1920 (linked), 1080x1350, and 1920x1080 sizes. The game itself is locked to the portrait mode, so that is the best one :).
This is another Evermerge video that I enjoyed putting together from a creative concept roughly like this: Start off with the game shown on an iphone, include an opening voice over, highlight assets to make gameplay sequence standout, logo/cta. From that I storyboarded and created this ad in the same 4 sizes, 1080x1080, 1080x1920, 1080x1350, and 1920x1080, using After Effects, the wide ad linked here. For the simulated gameplay sequence I exported all the game's unicorn event creature animations from Unity to make the ad standout.
I really enjoyed every chance I got to make these playables, it was great to pick back up with the Flash ads I had made years ago also at Big Fish when Flash was king. Now Adobe calls it Animate, but it is very much Flash's successor. The process used for these made the ads so small and fast without losing any quality that I wish I had more opportunities to work on these during my time in Marketing. The goal I concepted out and created the ad based off was to lightly show the gameplay of Cooking Craze, highlighting the sushi restaurant stages. It's a responsive ad that displays correctly at either landscape or portrait orientation at any size.
This one was a Cinemagraph ad, which means it was short and only the one small square size. Most the video work I did for the game Toy Story Drop was localizing English ads to all the other supported languages (11 on that game), but this one was a nice little creative ad I got to whip up from a concept along the lines of "highlighting the daily rewards". Not much more is needed for a 5 second animation, but I think I gave it some character. It was made in After Effects.
I had the opportunity to help make a few of the preview videos for Big Fish's PC/Mac games, this being one of them. These videos are for a completely different audience than mobile games, generally an older fan of hidden object adventure games. The goal on them is to start with branding, show the most engaging game sequences, and end with the logo. I captured the footage with OBS and put together the ad in After Effects, at only the one size linked here.
I am Ryan Rockers, I live in Seattle with my wife and daughter and have been working in the video game industry since 2003. I am a hard-working, creative, unstoppable autodidact that will change everything at your business for the better.
I began working with game software first in Quality Assurance. I tested software for all major platforms and eventually lead testing teams for multiple projects and clients. While testing and managing testing efforts on contract jobs, I got the opportunity to work directly with development teams at Google, Sega, Nintendo, Microsoft, Activision, and Right Hemisphere. I gained a huge amount of industry knowledge and loved the work. It was a great introduction to the business.
I started at Big Fish in 2008 as a full time QA tester, and soon became test-lead in the Content Management department. At the time, Big Fish was a PC and Mac game publisher with the slogan "A Game a Day!" and that was no joke. Additionally the company was growing fast with many international sites (14 in total at the height), and often released more than one game a day on the main US site. The QA department I was leading was responsible for ensuring each release met the company's release standards (similar to Nintendo Lot Check and Microsoft TCR testing). In my time heading Content Management's testing efforts I was proud to maintain a consistently low rate of errors for the games released thanks mostly to my great team.
In 2010 I was able to leverage my ActionScript skills to secure a position on the Content Management Marketing team as a Technical Artist. On the team I used Photoshop and Flash to create web assets for the game releases, programmed Flash animation effects for our team, and created Strategy Guides and custom software in Flash. Back in 2010 .swfs were still all over the web. I learned a great many design and animation techniques from my awesome teammates in the year or so I spent in the department.
I transferred to the Localization department in 2011 where I was given a Specialist role on the team. My primary assignment was to help create international versions of the US releases for a few partner developers. The games I was working with had their file structure open, so all the images and videos used were able to be swapped out as easily as the dynamic text files also used in the games. The original idea was that the developers were to send all the needed Photoshop and After Effect files with each asset's displayed English text for translation, and I would then create all the new needed files for each language and resolve any issues that showed up in testing. There were significant issues with the files received however (missing assets, incorrect text, files not setup to create game assets, etc), so my job was expanded with identification of all needed assets and translations and preparation of the files to be used. I created a few custom tools in Python to help with the procedural needs, and eventually created a efficent system with little-to-no extra cleanup work. I also maintained the Subversion repository used for version control, and edited game scripts as needed to resolve text-based and localization specific functional issues and needs. In my time in the Localization department I witnessed the company's continued growth to its height of 14 language sites, when I was leading a small team of 3 people to do the work. I had the opportunity to help with our internal game studios on the international versions of Mystery Case Files: Shadow Lake, Fetch, and Fairway Solitaire. I also got a chance to work with some of my favorite people from all over the world, and help out with some of the Engineering tasks for the department to switch to Memcache from Trados for the translation database. In the same work period I also witnessed the company's first contraction to 5 language sites and changed focus on US mobile games. Eventually the company focused on free-to-play mobile games (and casino), with 2-4 international languages supported while I worked in the department.
In 2019 I transferred to Big Fish's Marketing department as a Motion Graphic Designer. It was a great opportunity for me, and I embraced the chance to contribute as much as I could. I was mainly focused on creating localized versions of the US static and video ads, but was also given great creative original tasks for the US game ads as exampled in the portfolio section above. I contributed some small JavaScript tools for Photoshop and After Effect needs, and got to help with some playable ads using the Flash successor Animate. In the short year I was working in the Marketing department (half of which was remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic), I grew exponentially in my animation, storyboarding, composition, typography and general art skills. I had great mentors, managers, co-artists, and friends and loved the work despite the chaos.
I will bring the same passion, creativity, inquisitiveness and relentless drive to your business to help it ride my continued growth. Thank you for your visit here, I hope to talk with you in person soon.