Breaking into Mobile Gaming

Joined PlayGen in 2022 as Head of Creative, pioneering the studio's transformation into AI-powered game art production and securing partnerships that would redefine how casual games get made. I spearheaded PlayGen's entry into the mobile gaming market, creating the studio's brand identity and designing Pilot Master within a brutal two-week deadline. The pivot worked—we secured a landmark partnership with Unity's Supersonic division, proving that speed and quality aren't mutually exclusive when you're willing to innovate. My AI-driven approach to game art generation led to PlayGen's first revenue streams through our collaboration with Playtika, demonstrating that generative technology could deliver commercial-grade assets at unprecedented speed and scale. I developed production-ready AI pipelines for casual and hybrid-casual game assets, focusing on meta-layer room decoration mechanics and Match-3 game items. The challenge wasn't just generating assets—it was maintaining consistent style, appropriate item hierarchies, and cohesive visual language across thousands of variations. Working with Leonardo AI, Automatic1111, and ComfyUI, I pioneered techniques for reliable character generation, consistent styling across poses and outfits, and scalable asset creation that maintained artistic coherence. The results spoke clearly: we reduced game art costs by 86% while maintaining quality standards that satisfied major publishers like Playtika and Supersonic.

As both Creative Director and Generative AI Specialist, I bridged the gap between traditional game art pipelines and AI-augmented workflows. I led teams through the uncertainty of emerging technology, conducting research into new techniques, developing repeatable processes, and proving that AI could enhance rather than replace creative vision. The work required equal parts technical experimentation, creative direction, and strategic thinking—understanding not just what AI could generate, but what the mobile gaming market actually needed.