Grace M Sylvan San Jose, CA grace.sylvan@gmail.com FACEBOOK SOCIAL NETWORK GAME DESIGNER
Multifaceted game designer, with over 15 years experience designing games, graphics, content and websites. Designed top Facebook games and founded and built a top 10 website for children.
Artist and game designer for Lil Green Patch, a #1 game on Facebook for many months, attracting over 6,000,000 active users each month. Launched 7 more Facebook games, including Lil Farm Life, which became a top 20 game within 4 months from launch. These successes lead to acquisition of our start-up first by Playdom, and then by Disney within 2.5 years from my beginning work on Lil Green Patch.
EXPERIENCE
PLAYDOM / DISNEY — GAME DESIGNER — 2009-2011
After Playdom acquired Green Patch, Nov 2009, continued content planning, production, and features designed to enhance monetization, retention, engagement, and virality for our games. Designed Lil Farm Life, a top 25 Facebook game with over 5,000,000 MAU, and Verdonia, among the fastest growing games July 2010, leading Disney to acquire Playdom in August 2010.
GREEN PATCH — GAME DESIGNER AND ART DIRECTOR — 2008-2009
1st employee hired. Our 1st game, Lil Green Patch, was the #1 game on Facebook for several months, with 6,000,000 MAU. The first major Facebook game with a social activism tie-in, Lil Green Patch raised money for Nature Conservancy to preserve rainforest; earning it the nickname: “the granddaddy of green Facebook apps”. Our small team produced several more games in just 2 years, including: Lil Blue Cove, Lil Eco Racer, Mafioso, Fashionista. Robin Hood, and Lil Farm Life. My duties included game design, content planning, developing all necessary specs and text, UI design, and managing artwork.
MODTHESIMS — FORUM ADMININSTRATOR — 2005-2008
Managed the ModTheSims Forum for creating custom content for Sims 2, focused on modifying character meshes to create new outfits. Created 3 extensive tutorials that taught everyone from teens to grandparents how to modify 3D meshes. Managed forum areas, user groups, and training new staff.
ABCTEACH AND EDHELPER — CONTENT DESIGNER — 2002-2008
Created illustrations, graphics, charts, art projects and articles for children's education sites - primarily edHelper.com and abcteach.com.
KIDS DOMAIN — FOUNDER — 1995-2001
Founded leading kids related information site. Site’s rapid success and continued growth lead to a string of acquisitions by larger companies: Games Domain, Attitude Networks, theGlobe, Kaboose and ultimately by Disney. Developed web site from scratch to a top 10 site for children and families, with over 14,000 pages of content. Widely recognized as a major resource by K-12 educators and librarian organizations, praised by parents and beloved by children, Kid’s Domain received many awards. Wore many hats, evolving from principally production roles into mainly management activities as the site grew. Managed employees, selected projects, site promotion, and developed custom advertising with the advertising/marketing teams.
OTHER ROLES HELD
Created Interactive Demos, User Interface Designer, Technical Writer, User Support and Systems Manager
EDUCATION
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY – NEW BRUNSWICK AND NEWARK, NJ CAMPUSES
Merit Scholar (NCAS) and Dean’s list. GPA=3.6
UNION COUNTY COLLEGE – SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ
Continuing education courses (non-degree program) in Computer Science including IBM Basic Assembler Language (BAL) courses. GPA=4.0