Adam Villareal • Game Designer

Orange County, CA • hello[at]adamvillareal[dot]com

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Production: Roadmap planning, resource allocations, budgeting, stakeholder management, risk and mitigation

• Game Development: Unreal Engine 5, Blender, After Effects, Sequencer, Perforce, C++

• Project Management: Confluence, Jira, Trello, Miro, Kanban, Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, Smartsheet

• Additional Software: Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom

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GAME DESIGN PROJECTS

• Luminbear (thatgamejam #01): Puzzle platformer in the style of Little Nightmares meets Ocarina of Time. Help Lumin and Luminbear escape a dark cave using both their unique skills.

  • Responsibilities: Lead Producer, Level Designer, Tech Artist, Programmer​

  • Led a team of 5. Created all level blockouts, puzzles, and game design documentation. Tracked internal milestones and made sure our team was aligned on the creative and mechanical vision of the project.

• Clocktergeist (Boss Rush Jam 2025): Boss rush FPS inspired by Bioshock (aesthetically). Help exorcise a haunted clock tower with nothing but your trusty nail gun and a grappling hook.​

  • Responsibilities: Lead Producer, Level Designer, Encounter Designer​

  • Led a team of 14. Created all level blockouts, boss mechanic diagrams, and lead all production efforts. Used my level blockouts to communicate artistic vision to our 3D artists and created asset needs lists based on that. Won Overall Best Art Direction out of over 800 entrants.

• Glyphweaver (Github Game Off 2024 Game Jam): First-person spellcaster game; discover secrets, learn spells, and survive hordes of enemies.

  • Responsibilities: Lead Producer, Level Designer, Narrative Designer, 2D Artist, 3D Artist, Programmer.

  • Led a team of 6, with teammates across the US and from different parts of the world. ​

• You.Asset (Panic Studios 20204 Summer Horror Game Jam): Narrative-driven, puzzle horror game. Escape the ominous and chaotic editor graveyard.

  • Responsibilities: Lead Producer, Level Design, Programmer, Narrative Design, Audio, Cinematics.​

  • Led a team of 3.

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

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FREELANCE - CONTRACT Santa Ana, CA

Producer and Unreal Cinematic Arist April 2025 - Present 

• Contract work as a Producer and Unreal Cinematic Artist with creative marketing agency Snack Creative and indie video game studio Silvergrove Studios, efficiently balancing multiple priorities from planning roadmaps with stakeholders, building workflow documentation, leading weekly sprints with cross-functional teams, driving post-mortems, and identifying and clearing project blockers.

• Oversee game design processes, ensuring that high-quality standards and deadlines are met.

• Lead on game testing, consolidating all bugs into a Trello board and prioritizing them based on severity.

• Build, organize, and maintain game design documentation; utilize project management tools and methodologies such as Sprints, Kanban Boards, and Confluence to meet deadlines and communicate with stakeholders.

• Monitor project progress and make necessary adjustments to ensure projects are completed successfully; create reports and presentations to present project updates as well as post-mortems at project completion.

• Create level grey-boxes and supporting level design documentation to communicate the game’s vision to our art team; design all boss encounters and boss arenas based on the game’s mechanics.

• Create 3D models, textures, and animations in Blender; set up and record scenes using Sequencer – most notably, was the cinematic artist for SEGA’s SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance story trailer.

• Most recently led a team 5 of to complete a 2-week game design project with 5 different environments – our team was able to finish our first playable within one week, giving our team an additional 9 days to test for bugs and polish.

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RIVIAN AUTOMOTIVE, LLC. Carson, CA

Mechanical Design Engineer March 2022 - March 2024 

• Identified and led cost savings initiative opportunities on our motor, leading to a bill of material cost savings of $2M+ over the lifecycle of the project.

• Translated cross-team discussions into clear implementation plans, aligning 30+ stakeholders across manufacturing, design, quality, and validation teams.

• Partnered with quality and operations to triage and solve issues and bugs in our manufacturing line.

• Drove all design engineering activities – created and maintained 3D models, 2D drawings, and design documentation.

• Iterated on designs with partners to improve manufacturability, while ensuring that product updates were cut-in during specific build events.

 

AXONICS, INC. Irvine, CA

Engineering Project Manager January 2020 - February 2022

• Maintained project lifecycle documentation including milestones, design requirements, risk assessments, test and validation plans, and product use documentation; led daily stand-ups, cross-functional meetings, and post-mortems as well as communicated project status to key stakeholders.

• Implemented a “manufacturing execution system” which digitized our manufacturing documentation, upgrading our paper-based manufacturing documentation to a digital environment, decreasing cycle time, human error, and paper waste.

• Compiled and reviewed FDA submission packets for a high-priority, high-impact launch; coordinated with engineering teams across the company to gather design documentation, test and validation data, then audited and edited each document for both accuracy and completeness to ensure FDA approval.

• Managed the qualification and implementation of two laser welding systems for in-house manufacturing.

 

VYAIRE MEDICAL Irvine, CA

Manufacturing Engineer / Project Lead December 2018 - December 2019

• Day-to-day point of contact for internal milestones and project planning, schedules, and statuses for a multi-disciplinary team of 12 from regulatory affairs, quality, document control, and manufacturing.

• Led a team of 4 to drive 3000+ component changes, working with vendors to minimize scrap while aligning with regulatory registration timelines. 

• Reviewed all product changes to meet domestic and international regulations.

 

FARADAY FUTURE Gardena, CA

Design Engineer May 2018 - November 2018

• Maintained pre-production build Jira board and coordinated with a cross-functional team of design, supply chain, manufacturing, and technicians to ensure build goals were met.

• Led daily stand-ups with directors, managers, and other key stakeholders to review daily build updates and potential roadblocks.

 

EDUCATION

 

CAL POLY POMONA Pomona, CA

Bachelor of Science, Major in Electromechanical Engineering

Minor in Astrophysics