As a lead UX designer for Amazon’s groundbreaking game engine project, I’ve played a pivotal role in creating the world’s first open-source AAA game engine in partnership with the Linux Foundation. This initiative, now known as Open 3D Engine (O3DE), showcases my ability to contribute to and lead complex, innovative projects in the game technology sector.

My responsibilities span a wide range of crucial areas. I’ve helped establish the UX community’s engagement rules as the elected chairman of the O3DE SIG UX/UI charter, managed feature approvals, and contributed significantly to the global BlueJay Design System. My work involves extensive travel to meet with customers, identifying and integrating diverse game and simulation use cases into the product. This hands-on approach has given me a deep technical understanding of game engine functionality, allowing me to contribute substantially to many features.

Innovation has been at the forefront of my work, resulting in two awarded patents and four pending patents for new game services technologies and designs. These innovations span areas such as prefabs, game physics, entity systems, and layers. I’ve also been a key contributor in developing important components of the O3DE toolset, including the Asset Toolbox, Entity Inspector, PhysX system, and various canvas tools like ScriptCanvas and GraphCanvas.

My role extends beyond technical contributions. I’ve reviewed designs and workflows with senior AWS VPs, mentored interns across various disciplines, conducted design workshops, and published UX articles and tutorial videos for AWS GameTech. I’ve also helped create college curricula to integrate our software development lifecycle, demonstrating my commitment to education and knowledge sharing in the field.

Leadership and recognition have been significant aspects of my journey. I’ve been twice elected as the UX chairman for the Open 3D Foundation SIG-UX-UI community under the Linux Foundation. In 2023, I was awarded the Think Big award at the AWS GameTech All Hands event for my multiple product inventions and creations.

Throughout my tenure, I’ve contributed to over 16 releases of Lumberyard and 3+ releases of O3DE, consistently pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in game engine design and user experience. My work encompasses a wide array of tools and systems, from asset management and terrain building to global notification systems and version control integration.

For those interested in a more detailed exploration of my work, video examples and in-depth feature breakdowns are available in the Multiplayer Sample and Learning and Tutorials sections of my portfolio. These resources offer unique insights into the UX design principles and methodologies that have shaped this revolutionary game engine.