About
About us
Something Wicked Games is an Independent AAA Video Game Studio founded in 2022 by Jeff Gardiner in collaboration with game industry leaders from Bethesda Games Studios, Obsidian Entertainment, and BioWare.
Something Wicked Games is a cooperative environment, driven by radical creativity, smart iteration, empowered decisions, and proactive scheduling. Our dynamic studio is looking to attract the best talent the industry has to offer. We are open and inclusive, dedicated to fully remote work with a great mix of veterans and visionaries.
Jeff Gardiner
CEO & Founder
The minute Jeff put his hands on the basic Dungeons and Dragons book he “borrowed” from his best friend’s older brother, his destiny was set. Jeff has been designing and producing video games for over 20 years. He has shipped seven AAA games, with titles ranging from Lead Designer to Lead Producer and Project Leader. Jeff has spent the majority of his career at Bethesda Game Studios where he worked on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4 & Fallout 76.
Ekram Rashid
Technical Director & Co-Founder
Ekram found a new passion and a hobby after coding his first program in third grade on an Apple IIe. Little did he know that solving puzzles on a computer would end up being his profession. Over the years, he has worked in many sectors, from large scale distributed systems to security software and finally video game development. Game development brought him back to his passion for video games as a kid. His current interest is to build and manage talented engineering teams.
Charles Staples
Director of Design & Co-Founder
Charles has always been a fan of video games ever since his early years of DOS gaming where he played any game, he could get his hands on, and he even started to create his own games in QBasic. Eventually, this led to a career in video games where Charles has done design work ranging from level and narrative design to systems and gameplay design. Charles has spent most of his career working on role playing games such as Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and The Outer Worlds.
Jessica Gardiner
Director of Operations
Bringing over 18 years of project management and business operations experience, Jessica is excited to apply her knowledge to the video game industry. Spending the last 5 years helping build & grow small businesses, she brings a diverse group of skills to build the administrative foundation for our studio to thrive and excel. Outside of work, Jessica spends her time gardening, leading a pack of misfit dogs, or fighting off zombie hoards in 7 Days to Die.
Jeremy Bryant
Managing Art Director
Like many, Jeremy grew up on the games and music of the 80’s and 90’s, living in the near-arctic conditions of Minnesota. It is true that he once sold his entire collection of video games to fund the purchase of tickets so that he and a friend could attend a Slayer concert. Lamentations of the past demand that he still buy games on physical media, even if he is the only one in the world to do so… He now focuses his efforts on motion capture equipment, mini-excavators, and building things of all sorts. He’s spent the past 2 decades working on several military themed shooters, with his most recent contributions having included Bethesda’s Skyrim, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Starfield, and nearly a dozen of their post-launch DLC’s.
Tess Taplin
Production Director
What was life before video games? Tess couldn’t tell you – from the moment she held an NES controller in her tiny toddler hands, she knew video games would be her obsession and her destiny. With 15+ years in the industry across a variety of disciplines including QA, Design, Product, and Production, she has been blessed to work with beloved IP such as Fallout, South Park, Lineage, Disney, and Apex Legends.
Her ringtone remains a Secret of Mana MIDI to this day.
Marc Salha
Art Director
Marc is an accomplished art director with more than 22 years of experience in game creation at Square Enix, Behaviour Interactive, ID Software, Electronic Arts Canada, Midway Games, and Ubisoft. He has contributed to several successful games, such as Dead by Daylight, Dead Space 3, Rage, Stranglehold, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and Batman. In 2000, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and immediately sought work in the video game development field. Marc is skilled in all facets of game production. He is a dedicated team leader and an avid lover of all things to do with art.
Steven Hernandez
Audio Director
Steven’s life-long love for music inspired him to pursue his career in sound and audio technology. With almost 15 years of experience, he has shipped on multiple AAA titles for companies such as Funcom, Ubisoft Montreal, and Weta Interactive in New-Zealand. His vast experience has made him an industry expert in sound design, voice-over production, and music composition. Steven is thrilled to join SWG and help build the world of sounds in Wyrdsong. He spends his free timing surfing in Portugal, hiking, and producing hip-hop beats.
Chris Cold
Lead Concept Artist
Art can take many forms and can be utilized in many ways during the development of a project. As an artist and visual developer Chris often fills out multiple roles during a project’s life cycle, from storyboarding and concept design to world building and promotional illustration.
Akil Hooper
Lead Systems Designer
Akil has been working in the game industry for over 20 years. In that time he’s had the pleasure to work with amazing franchises such as Fallout, EverQuest, and Disney. He’s worked in various genres, and has worked in various technical and creative aspects of game design. When not working or playing games, you might find Akil baking bread, spinning poi, or at the climbing gym.
Will Shen
Lead Content Designer
The original NES and an old x286 PC defined Will’s early gaming experiences. Will has been designing video games for over 16 years and has worked on six AAA titles. He was previously at Bethesda Game Studios, where he was the Lead Quest Designer for Starfield, was the Lead Designer for Fallout 4: Far Harbor and was a Quest Designer and Writer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.
Dominic Lavallee
Technical Lead Programmer
Born in the era of Atari and Nintendo, Dominic grew up with all the games and consoles. He discovered his passion for coding and creating while transcribing game code from game textbooks. He decided to study computer science to turn his passion into a profession. Spanning almost two decades in the industry, he has worked on many game engines, mastered many languages, consoles and operating systems. He has worked on too many games, to name a few: “Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings” and “Dragon Age: Inquisition”.
Jessica Sliwinski
Lead Narrative Designer
The first “game” Jessica ever played was Storybook Weaver, an old MECC title that let kids create their own illustrated stories on the computer—and her career path was set from there! She has extensive experience in game writing and narrative design for many different genres and platforms, and has played in the famed sandboxes of Star Wars, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and more.
Robert Land
Lead Level Designer
Robert started on the path to game design after playing Adventure on the Atari 2600 as a child. Once he got his hands on Adventure Construction Set for the Commodore 64, the desire to make games professionally was set in stone. He was lucky enough to start his career officially in 2007 and has been loving it the whole time, working on such games as South Park: the Stick of Truth, Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, and Guild Wars 2. When he’s not making games, he’s playing them, hiking, or finding somewhere to do karaoke.
Charles Kim
Senior Artist
Charles got his start in the video game industry over twenty years ago as an environment artist, back when bump maps still reigned supreme. He eventually made his way into character art, where he’s been ever since. His favorite games are fantasy and sci-fi RPGs, and the games he’s most proud of having worked on are The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. Most recently, he has contributed to Ark: Survival Evolved’s Genesis: Parts 1 & 2 DLCs, and to the upcoming sequel, Ark II. On his days off, he can often be found wandering the Lands Between.
JF Tremblay
Senior Programmer
Hooked on videogames since the 80’s and on computers in the 90’s, JF combined both interests and became a software engineer. He has been a gameplay programmer since 2003, working on over 13 game titles across several platforms.
Preston Palmer
Senior Artist
It all started in school with my interest in math, because those math books had the most room on the pages to draw on. From there, it was on to every other medium I could get my hands on. That lead me to a long career in the games industry where I get to bring all those things to life every day. Take that Mr. Patterson!
Joaquin Lopez
Senior Programmer
Joaquin has been playing video games since the NES when we would spend all weekends renting and playing games from the local video rental store. It’s best not to mention the hours spent adventuring in Zelda. A technically minded spirit, he started learning games programming by high school and then studied in software development and electronics. With an interest in 3D graphics, he honed his practice in the AEC industry developing CAD plugins for architects, engineers and general contractors working various roles in product development, management and delivery. On his spare time, Joaquin enjoys nightly drives and long walks.
Jaimee Davis
HR Manager
Having over 18 years of Human Resources experience, Jaimee is excited to apply her skills into the video game industry. Many years of Jaimee’s experience has been rather diverse including manufacturing, IT/Engineer staffing, construction and at a very young age, she was even a flight attendant. Outside of work, Jaimee likes to travel, hike, bike, camp, swim, garden, read, and write. She also has two dogs, and a very busy daughter who is in cheerleading as well as, gymnastics.
Georges Giroux
Senior Programmer
Georges has played games for as far as he remembers, and his passion for them has never let up. He started his journey in game programming when he discovered that game companies actually existed in Montreal, and immediately applied to Ubisoft. His long career has spanned years across Ubisoft, Warner Bros Montreal and Bethesda. His love for role-playing games led him inevitably to Something Wicked for an exciting new chapter in his life.
Chad Bordwell
Senior Level Designer
Chad had been in the game dev biz since 1997. During that time, he has had the pleasure of being a part of some great titles. Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 4, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Farcry 5, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands to name a few. Chad has worked in several different design roles ranging from level design, mission design, combat design, & game design. Chad eats, sleeps, and breaths games. When he’s not making them, he’s playing them.
Thomas Hopper
Senior Producer
The itch to work in gaming began as a result of playing a ton of World of Warcraft. Once Thomas finished college, he parlayed his love for games into a full-time job and went to work at Blizzard Entertainment doing whatever he could — which was taking phone calls as a temp in the billing department. Fast forward 15 years and now you’ll find Thomas supporting and producing teams to help them realize their creative vision. Coming up through the ranks of customer service and live operations, Thomas is a champion for the player experience. Having done stints in live operations at Blizzard Entertainment, live game production at Bethesda Game Studios, and publishing production at Jagex, Thomas is stoked and honored to work with some of the most talented people in the industry at SWG.
Olivier Monsonego
Senior Programmer
Video games and computers have always been in the way of Olivier’s education. He was late for school because of the arcade on the way there, he skipped recess to hang out on the Commodore 64 at the back of the classroom, homework was often neglected because of the Amstrad CPC he and his brothers got for Xmas, and the Pentium 90 he had during his university years was mostly used in VGA Mode X… All these “issues” became assets the day he took the decision to combine his love for computers, games, and coffee to become a game programmer. That was 25 years ago and today he is thrilled to be part of the epic team at SWG to create something wicked!
Nobert Varga
Sr Environment Artist
Norbert is a passionate 3d Artist with 16 years of experience. He started his career working in car advertising, then moved on to work in Cinematics, TV, and Film. His projects include the Halo 2 anniversary cinematics, Call of Duty WW2 cutscenes, and Independence Day: Resurgence. His first game was Cyberpunk 2077 where he created environments and lighting for several street stories. He is constantly looking to learn new techniques and loves to draw and paint in his spare time.
Martin Daraiche
Senior Animator
Martin had his humble beginning 25 years ago in traditional animation as an editor and compositor for children’s programming.
His hitch for animating ever-present, he finally made the switch to 3D and video game animation in 2008 after graduating from the Ubisoft Campus.
He’s been around, AAA, independent, garage-type of production… he’s seen it all. Now, he dedicates himself to his love for gameplay animation and systems; to be able to create and provide players with an immersive and responsive experience.
Sopheaseth Pheng
Sr Game Programmer
Sopheaseth grew up in the NES era and was immediately hooked when arcade cabinets of Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct started appearing in his neighborhood coffee shops. The gathering power of those games was undeniable as new communities started to build around them. At the time, it never occurred to him that there were real people behind those games, and you could make a living making them. Little did he know that a couple years later, he would find his way into the games making industry with a combination of passion, hard work, and a bit of luck. Sopheaseth has now shipped over a dozen games, including Batman: Arkham Origins, Fallout 76 and Starfield.
Everett Bledsoe
IT Manager
Everett has been working in Information Tech for over 12 years and really enjoys solving complex problems and supporting the business. In his down time, you can find him in his Tesla Model Y Performance cruising, driving his electric go kart with his son, or gardening.
Ludovic Brière
Senior Game Programmer
Ludovic’s first experience with gaming was on an Apple IIc in the early 80s, and since this founding moment, his life began to revolve around video games. Playing them quickly turned to dreaming of working in this industry. As a result, computers have been part of his life from a young age; he wrote his first BASIC program at the age of 8. As a software engineer, he moved to Montreal, where he has worked for Gameloft, Bethesda, and People Can Fly. Bringing over a decade of experience making games, Ludovic is absolutely thrilled to join SWG to help bring Wyrdsong to life. When not coding, he loves outside activities, where you can find him running, snowboarding, working out, or riding his longboard.
Eric Webb
Senior Animator
Eric began his career in games in 1999 at id Software where he had an opportunity work with some of the most talented developers in the world on games on like Quake 3, DOOM 3, RAGE, and DOOM (2016), among others. After 15 years at id, he moved to Bethesda Game Studios where he spent nearly a decade contributing Fallout 4, Fallout 4: Far Harbor, and Starfield. He’s proud to part of the team at Something Wicked Games and considers the team and culture uniquely special and among the best in the industry.
Michael Portillo
Sr Combat Designer
Michael grew up with video games. He discovered the fighting game scene in his local arcade and spent many years competing in fighting game tournaments in games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. His first game was Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Amazingly, everything came full circle when he later got to work on the Mortal Kombat/Injustice franchises in Chicago. Outside of games, Michael’s hobbies include drawing, miniature painting, tabletop gaming, cooking, Magic: The Gathering, and FPV drones.
Eric Fenstermaker
Senior Narrative Designer
Eric is a narrative designer who first worked for the video game industry in 2002. His narrative credits include Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Pillars of Eternity.
Carina Steidle
Technical Artist
Carina is both – an artist and an engineer. In the past years she worked as a freelance artist, who – among other things – created illustrations for children’s books and merchandise designs for content creators. After recently graduating from university, she’s now looking forward to combining her two passions at Something Wicked Games.
Brad Staley
Environment Artist
From traditional acrylic paintings to creating 3D creatures and worlds in the digital realm, Brad has always had a natural proclivity for the creative process and endeavors. Brad is thrilled to join SWG and create and share new worlds of beauty and mystery!
Lauren Simpson
VFX Artist
Lauren has been an FX artist for the past 15 years, working on animated features and several large AAA titles, including Uncharted 4 and God of War. As an Elemental Magician of sorts, she uses Earth Fire Air Water (Heart!) to bring life to film and games. Like many others in the industry, Lauren grew up playing video games in the 80s and 90s, but she is forever a child of the outdoors. She’s been known to marvel at the foliage on a hike “Just look at all those polygons!”. When she’s not working in games, or outdoors finding cool rocks with her son, she can be found in Cubase working on music compositions.
Sofía Sanz Olmos
Concept Artist
Sofía is a multitalented artist whose creativity has taken her down many paths. Having worked for many years in book publishing, she has explored artistic and storytelling techniques through illustration and narrative writing. She’s now excited to put her skills towards her greatest passion: videogames.
Mat Weathers
Concept Artist
Mat picked up a crayon at an early age and never really put it down. He came from a family that was half artists and half mechanics, so it’s no surprise that he likes to draw things that work. He’s most proud of his MMO work on Dark Age of Camelot and Elder Scrolls Online. When not drawing or watching questionable movies, he can be found driving very slowly in old cars.
Parker Miltsch
Environment Artist
Parker is an environment artist who is bringing a lot of new energy to the studio. He has worked on games such as working on Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone. Outside of game art, he enjoys hikes with his dog and playing golf.
Matt Stokes
Producer
When Matt Stokes first entered the game industry his primary goal was to enjoy every moment and make the most of what could be a very short journey. Twelve years later the adventure continues and it’s still hard for him to believe that he has been so fortunate. His first six years in the industry were lived in QA where he was able to work on world class games like Skyrim, Fallout 4, Wolfenstein the New Order, The Evil Within and more. After that he moved into production where he worked on Fallout 76 and was able to support multiple different teams throughout its development. Stokes is thrilled that his adventure in the game industry has long outlived his initial 3-month contract as a tester and will continue to follow the advice of his childhood hero Ms. Frizzle, who famously encourages us all to: “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy.”.
Mark Morris
Non-Exec Director
Mark Morris is a video games executive having previously worked at Electronic Arts and Microsoft. He also served as President and Chief Revenue Officer at Splash Damage, overseeing work on Gears 4, Gears 5 and Gears Tactics. Most recently he co-founded Supernova Capital, an investment firm specializing in interactive arts.
