Joel SeiderDeveloper BIO
Joel Seider is a twenty-year industry veteran, knowledgeable in all facets of development, such as art, programming, production and business. He has experience in managing large groups of people and working with all levels of the company, from rank-and-file employees to the CEO. Seider worked with a wide range of platforms, from early 8-bit computers to current-generation consoles, and he is knowledgeable in a wide range of applications such as Word, Excel and Project on the production side, to Visual Studio, Maya, Max, and custom IDEs on the development side. He has good foundation knowledge in languages such as C++ and assembly, and software engineering principals such as Object Oriented Design and Agile Development
Experience- August, 1998 - Present: Midway Games
- July, 2005 – Present: Director of Central Groups
Joel Seider took over management responsibilities for all Chicago Central Groups, which comprised Cinematics, Animation, UI and Audio. He created three more central groups to better serve game teams: Concept, Characters and Environments. He expanded the central groups to deliver content to other Midway studios and 3rd party developers. Central groups became the de-facto in-sourcing resource for all of Midway. Seider streamlined production processes to improve resource allocations, forecasting and reporting to “client” game teams and continuously acted as a buffer to allow central groups to operate autonomously while still delivering what the game teams expected. He assisted VP in day-to-day running of studio and maintained relationships with local colleges and universities
- March, 2004 - July 2005: Studio Development Director
Joel Seider implemented best practices across all game teams in the Chicago studio. He created discreet phases of development and migrated each team over to new process and significantly increased the amount of planning and scheduling each team did. He spearheaded development best practices across the entire company and hosted Midway’s first-ever company-wide Production Summit. Seider played central role in studio headcount planning and budget forecasting, assisted VP in day-to-day running of studio and actively spearheaded Midway Chicago’s push to build relationships with local colleges and universities. He built relationships with professors and faculty and advised on curriculums.
- June, 2002 - March, 2004: Studio Technical Director
Joel Seider reported directly to VP running the Chicago studio. He helped with day-to-day operations, began technical standardization of Chicago studio, implemented Internal Technical Reviews of all products, was heavily involved in relationship with Criterion, our middleware vendor at the time, and he was Technical manager and programmer on
MLB SlugFest 20-03- August, 1998 - June, 2002: Senior Software Engineer
Joel Seider programmed
CART Fury for coin-op arcade and he was a programmer on
NFL Blitz 20-02.
Seider managed day-to-day running of the studio, produced and did programming on
VMX Racing for Sony PlayStation for
Playmates Interactive and programmed
Beasts of Bedlam for PC.
- August, 1993 - August, 1994: Senior Software Engineer
Seider was involved in the formation of Nisus Software (later renamed Studio e), an independent developer based out of Lombard, Illinois. He personally hired all initial staff. Seider programmed
Shadow Hawk (licensed from the Image comic book) for the Super Nintendo.
Seider programmed
Total Carnage for the Super Nintendo for
THQ.
- April, 1992 - November, 1992: Independent contractor for Solid Software
Seider was a programmer on
Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind for the Super Nintendo for
Accolade.
- September, 1990 - July, 1992: Atari Corp.
- June, 1991 - July, 1992: Senior Programmer
Seider programmed and created art for
Pinball Jam for the Atari Lynx, he created art for
Rolling Thunder for the Atari Lynx, and was involved in the creation of the development environment for the Atari Panther (a console that was never released)
- September, 1990 - June, 1991: Programmer and Artist
Seider programmed and created art for
Pac-Land for the Atari Lynx.
He was involved in the formation of Banana Development, an independent developer based out of Brookfield, Wisconsin, participated in business deals to have Banana develop
Contra and
Rush 'N Attack for PC for
Konami. Seider created art for prototype of the
Road Runner game for Apple IIe for
Mindscape, and he programmed and created art for
Skate or Die for the Apple IIe for
Electronic Arts.
Memberships- On the Board of Directors for the Chicago chapter of the IGDA
- Member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences
References- Scot Bayless, Midway Games, Vice President, Chicago Studio
- Matt Booty, Midway Games, Sr. Vice President, World Wide Operations
- Michael Weilbacher, Midway Games, Chief Technology Officer
- Chip Sineni, Midway Games, Art Director, Chicago Studio
Websites
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Games CreditedMortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
Blitz: The League (2005), Midway Games, Inc.
MLB Slugfest Loaded (2004), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (2004), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
MLB SlugFest 20-03 (2002), Midway Games, Inc.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002), Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.
NFL Blitz 20-02 (2002), Midway Games, Inc.
Arctic Thunder (2001), Midway Games, Inc.
CART Fury: Championship Racing (2001), Midway Games, Inc.
Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (1993), Accolade, Inc.
Total Carnage (1993), Malibu Games
Pinball Jam (1992), Atari Corporation
Pac-Land (1991), Atari Corporation
