Discover a Dragon Series: Patrick Rossetti, Game Design & Developer Extraordinaire
Patrick is a perfect-threat professional. Not only is he a creative developer who does game design, but he also does game programming. He’s a broken-hearted hockey fan who cheers for any team except Winnipeg (the team that stole his beloved Thrashers). He’s also obsessed with dogs.
Share a project or partnership that gives us a snapshot into your work.
We’ve done a couple of game design and development projects for WarnerMedia, including Ladder World and THE CUBE.
For Ladder World, the company wanted to release a new Web-GL game to coincide with the launch of a new show called Close Enough on HBO Max. The show was about a game developer who made a game called Ladder World. We took the concept and created an actual game. We got to do all the game design and built it in Play Canvas.
Then, when it was time for the US launch of the British TV show, THE CUBE, WarnerMedia asked for another game. It was the same strategy as Ladder World but this time, we designed and built the web-GL game in Unity. We created it as a web game to give it greater reach and the ability to host a built-in 12-week competition. Players could actually earn prizes, which was cool. (Try it!)
What attracted you to Dragon Army or why have you built your career here?
I had been working with Stanley on a game called Robots Love Ice Cream. When that project ended in 2013, I was looking for my next project and saw the announcement about the launch of Dragon Army. I was attracted to the idea of working with a new game studio and joined right away. I was excited that it was mobile-first and about the kinds of games they wanted to make. When I interviewed with Jeff and his partners, I didn’t know him but I loved everyone in the startup and what they were doing. I joined, got Stanley to join too, and have been here ever since.
What Dragon Army core value resonates with you most and why?
Putting the team first. One of the reasons I have been here so long is because the team is great. I actually went to a larger company for a short time but I decided to return to Dragon Army because of the great people here.
Give a snapshot into your day to help us understand your area of expertise.
What I do during my day can depend on the phase in the game development I’m in. It might be building systems for a game, or as we move through development, it can have me spending time doing more with designing the content and building it into the game. Or I might be building levels and setting up quests. Toward the end of a project, I work closely with our Creative Director to add polish and special effects to make it shine. In every case, when I sit down in the morning to work, I’m usually heads-down in a game until the end of the day.
Meet Patrick and learn more about what he does by connecting with him on LinkedIn.
