Rick Schmitz

Developer BIO

Rick Schmitz is the Art Manager on Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar at Turbine Inc. As the Art Manager, Rick is the supervisor of a team of 11 artists. He maintains schedules and approves assets for artistic quality and style. Rick makes concept drawings, models, textures and animate many assets himself as well. He also works closely with the other members of the Dev team to make the best game possible within their ambitious schedule. Rick started out at Turbine in the role of Art Director for AC2: Legions. As the Art Director he guided the look of the project, managed a team of artists and personally created many of the game’s art assets as well. Before that at, Sony Online Entertainment, Rick was on the Everquest 2 team as the Concept Lead. In that position he was responsible for shepherding the look and feel of all the races and environments of the EQ2 world and created hundreds of drawings himself as well. Rick also spent some time working on the Playstation 2 version of Everquest. Previous to that he was the Character Lead on the Scars of Velious expansion where he created and animated characters and headed up a 5-member team that created tons of new assets for the game. Rick’s time at SOE started as the character animator/designer for the original version of Everquest. Rick started out in the Game industry at Blue Sky Software/Sega of America, where he was Lead Artist on Vectorman 2 on which he creating half of the levels himself. Rick also worked on many other Genesis projects including Roadrunner and Coyote, Ren and Stimpy, Shadowrun, Spider-man 32X as a Background Artist. Rick has a B. A. in Studio Art from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Before making video games, his professional career spanned a number of fields including Comics, Editorial Illustrations and Educational Software. A list of former clients and employers includes Image Comics, Marvel Comics, SCEA, 989 Studios, Presto Studios, Highlights for Children Magazine, and Humpty Dumpty Magazine. Rick has also taught Drawing classes and he has been a guest lecturer at Cal Arts for Character Design classes.

Websites

• rickschmitz.com -- Personal website with his portfolio, resume, links and contact information

Games Credited

Peggle (2009), PopCap Games, Inc.
Zuma's Revenge (2009), PopCap Games, Inc.
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (2007), Midway Games, Inc.
EverQuest II (2004), Sony Online Entertainment Inc.
EverQuest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath (2003), Sony Online Entertainment Inc.
EverQuest Online Adventures (2003), Sony Online Entertainment Inc.
EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers (2003), Sony Online Entertainment Inc.
EverQuest: Planes of Power (2002), Sony Online Entertainment Inc.
EverQuest: Shadows of Luclin (2001), Sony Online Entertainment Inc.
EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark (2000), Sony Online Entertainment Inc.
EverQuest: The Scars of Velious (2000), Sony Online Entertainment Inc.
EverQuest (1999), 989 Studios
The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire (1996), SEGA of America, Inc.
Vectorman 2 (1996), SEGA of America, Inc.
Desert Demolition Starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote (1995), SEGA of America, Inc.
Vectorman (1995), SEGA of America, Inc.
The Journeyman Project: Turbo! (1994), Sanctuary Woods, Inc.
Shadowrun (1994), SEGA of America, Inc.
The Journeyman Project (1993), GameTek UK Ltd.
The Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy's Invention (1993), SEGA of America, Inc.
TechnoClash (1993), Electronic Arts, Inc.
The Case of the Cautious Condor (1992), Compton's New Media