Joel Seider

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.* August, 1993 – August 1998: Studio e / Nisus Software * August, 1994 - August, 1998: VP of Product Development

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.* July, 1992 - August, 1993: Black Pearl Software: Sr. Software Engineer

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.* September, 1986 - September, 1990: Independent contractor for Banana Development

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