Our Team
Our team has collectively developed and launched over a dozen hit console and online games, including several that have redefined their respective genres: Lemmings, Grand Theft Auto, Diablo II, and Lineage II.
- SAN FRANCISCO, CA
- SEOUL, KOREA
- INVESTORS & ADVISORS
Serial entrepreneur in the high-tech, online gaming sector. Co-founded Pixelberry and Nurien Software raising $25M from top tier Silicon Valley venture capital firms to build the most life-like 3D social platform for multiplayer online games. Founding team member of Samsung’s smartphone and mobile gaming businesses.
Favorite 90s game: Tekken
TAEHOON KIM
CEO/Alchemist (Co-Founder)
Experienced in building brands with pop-culture relevance in interactive entertainment. Launched and managed Star Wars, DC Comics, and LEGO games in mobile and console. Held leadership positions at Warner Bros, YouTube and LucasArts. Former economic consultant at Arthur Andersen with an MBA from MIT.
Favorite 90s game: Super Mario Kart
GAVIN LEUNG
Bring the Sizzle (VP of Marketing)
Animator turned designer with 12+ years in game development working on a wide range of projects including Jet Li’s Rise to Honor, Conan, Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2, and Sly Cooper Thieves in Time.
Favorite 90s game: Mortal Kombat II
STEVE KUROKI
Foodie Ranger (VP of Creative)
Studied Computer Science at Ajou University. Previously worked as a software engineer at Mgame, Electronic Arts and Pixelberry. Spends free time playing League of Legends and practicing StarCraft.
Favorite 90s game: Strikers 1945
ERIC HONGSIN SUNWOO
Matrix Operator (Sr. Director of Engineering)
Investment banker for total of 9 years, including last 5 years at Deutsche Bank. Previously an attorney and is a member of NY Bar. BA from Stanford University, JD from Boston College Law School.
Favorite 90s game: Madden 95
JOON PARK
The 1% (CFO)
BS in media arts and animation from the Art Institute of San Francisco. 6 Years in the gaming industry doing tech art, animation and rigging. Previously worked at Kixeye and EA on titles such as The Sims Medieval, The Sims Medieval Pirates and Nobles, The Sims 3 Pets and Tome: Immortal Arena.
Favorite 90s game: Pokemon Red/Blue
ARNOLD MORAN
Puppet Master (Sr. Character TD)
Graduated from UPenn and have been working on game servers ever since. Co-founded a company and launched the street basketball RPG Dunk Dreams in 2013.
Favorite 90s game: Chrono Trigger
DAMON ROCCO
Nerf Herder (Lead Server Engineer)
Growing up in the 80s, feeding countless quarters into arcade machines, I remember thinking “one day these games will look as cool as the illustrations on the sides of these game cabinets”. This fascination, with my obsession with control panels probably had something to do with me finding a home doing video game UI.
Favorite 90s game: MDK
DANIEL CHEVALIER
Coffee Surgeon (Sr. UI/UX Artist)
Competitive fighting game player turned combat designer. Previous works include Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition (designer) and PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale (community).
Favorite 90s game: Marvel Vs. Capcom
DANIEL MANIAGO
Fighting Game Sensei (Combat Designer)
Previously worked as a Programmer at EA, Namco, SmartBombInteractive, and KIXEYE. Previous titles include Godfather, Dead To Rights, Snoopy Vs RedBaron.
Favorite 90s game: ICO (almost 90s!)
DARYL TUNG
Professional Fixer (Lead Software Engineer)
Graduated from UC Berkeley and landed in the world of PvP mobile games. Claims to play games for fun, but is that really true?
Favorite 90s game: Final Fantasy Tactics
DON ARBOLEDA
Supererogatory Sesquipedalia Connoisseur (Software Engineer)
Previously titles include Jet Li’s ‘Rise To Honor’ (Sony), Star Wars ‘The Force Unleashed’ (Lucas Arts), Tomb Raider ‘Underworld’ (Crystal Dynamics), Sly Cooper ‘Thieves in Time’
Favorite 90s game: The 7th Guest
ELIODORO ROBLES
Vertex Whisperer (Lead Environment Artist)
MFA in Game Design from The Academy of Art Univeristy. BFA in Fine Art from UCSC. Loves documents, maps, and walkthrough guides way too much.
Favorite 90s game: Ocarina of Time
ELLEN OTSUKA
Document Gremlin (Associate Game Designer)
Author, painter, swordswoman, and veteran game designer. Connoisseur of cheese, dice, fighting games, and media tropes.
Favorite 90s game: Guardian Heroes
HEATHER G.
Lore Elemental (Sr. Systems Designer)
Majored in Computer Engineering from Ajou University, Korea. Previously worked at Wonder and Neople, where he worked on Dungeon and Fighter. Loves music, photography, and travelling.
Favorite 90s game: Command and Conquer
HYOJIN KIM
Diver (Senior Software Engineer)
Majored in English at UCLA and studied Literature Translation at KLTI.
Favorite 90s game: Streets of Rage 2
IVY LEE
A Little Bit of Everything (Biz Ops Manager)
Has 9 years of 3D graphic and lead concept artist experience. Formerly worked at GameHi and Doobic Entertainment (both acquired by Nexon) in South Korea.
Favorite 90s game: Dungeon Keeper
JACOB HYUNSEOK KIM
The Illusionist (Lead Character Artist)
MFA in Visual Development at Academy of Art and BA in Graphic Art and Animation at SF State University. Worked as freelance concept artist in animation at Helpful Bear Production Inc. and Carlos Baena LLC.
Favorite 90s game: NBA Jam
JAMES PASCUAL
Figment Projector (Lead 2D Artist)
Industry veteran with years of experience working with and leading teams from the trenches for titles such as Call of Duty: MW3, Tomb Raider, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and Call of Duty: WWII. Video game nerd, musician, certified crazy cat man.
Favorite 90s game: Spyro the Dragon
JASON GAVAZZA
Wrecking Crew Foreman (QA Lead)
Passionate gaming veteran with 15 years experience who brings order to the chaos with a focus on quality, stability and Team success. I march to the a beat of a different drum.
Favorite 90s game: Diddy Kong Racing
Jeff Diaz
Summoner of Order (Project Manager)
Just a kid from the 90’s who loves making things move. Enjoying 10+ years of animating in the game industry with a BS in Game Art & Design from the Art Institute of Portland.
Favorite 90s game: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
JEREMY MOE
Motion Ninja (Sr. Animator)
Developer Liaison, SME extraordinaire turned QA nerd. I don’t like to break things; I like to dispel the illusion that things work.
Favorite 90s game: Doom
JERRY DICKERSON
Sunshine (QA Analyst)
Graduated from THE Ohio State University with a BA in English, working in Customer Support for games for the past 8 years previously at Blizzard and Trion Worlds. I enjoy cats and long walks on the beach with my cat.
Favorite 90s game: Diablo
JOANNA PALDINO
The Destroyer (Player Support Manager)
We break it, you buy it! Born and raised in San Francisco. 5+ years doing what I love to do. previously worked for Tribaloid, Kabam, and Kixeye on a variety of titles. On my spare time I enjoy playing Disc Golf and being a Father.
Favorite 90s game: Resident Evil II
KELVIN PRECIADO
Bug Hunter (QA Analyst)
BFA in Animation at the Academy of Art University. He has spent the last 10 years creating fun and interactive VFX for video games with styles ranging from cartoony, to realistic. Some previous titles include Heroes of Newerth, Strife, and Savage Resurrection.
Favorite 90s game: Mario Kart 64
KRIS ZIMIN
The Pixel Pusher (Lead VFX Artist)
10+ years of experience in the game industry. Previously worked at Nexon and Neople. Previous titles include Dungeon and Fighter and Mabinogi. Likes to spend time with his cat named Momo.
Favorite 90s game: Lunar Silver Star Story
KYUNGHUN CHO
Calm Guy (Sr. Software Engineer)
Competitive gamer for most of the aughts, specializing in 2D fighting games and achieving multiple top 8 finishes in the Evo Championship Series for Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Street Fighter IV. Worked in the industry as an author for several years before ending up as a combat designer. Big fan of stand-up comedy and Quentin Tarantino films.
Favorite 90s game: Quest for Glory Anthology
LONG TRAN
The X-Factor (Combat Designer)
Graduated from Carnegie Mellon University. Previously worked on various types of projects from interactive shows to casino games, and even a hacking competition. Loves to play League of Legends.
Favorite 90s game: Age of Empires
RYAN SHEN
The Hunter (Sr. Software Engineer)
Studied Business Marketing at Hongik University. MFA in Animation & VFX at Academy of Art. Likes to play games, especially League of Legends.
Favorite 90s game: The King of Fighters ’98
SANGMIN LEE
Puppeteer (animator)
8+ years exp. as a server engineer in CDNetworks and startup. I like meat, python, mongodb, linux and golang. I am member of PyCon Korea Organizer. Do everything just for fun.
Favorite 90s game: The War of Genesis 3
YEAJI SHIN
Codingmon (Sr. Server Engineer)
15+ years online game industry veteran. Previously worked as a Chief Architect at Innospark and as a platform director at Nurien Software. Interested in backend open source projects and new technologies which can make fun game.
Favorite 90s game: Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
SANGJIN HYUN
Fire Fighter (Director of Server Engineering)
MS in Media from Ajou University.11+ years of experience as software engineer. Previously worked as development director at Innospark. Previous titles include Rule the Sky, Dragon Friends, and Hero Sky. Enjoy board games and golf.
Favorite 90s game: Dune2 and Command and Conquer series.
JINHYUN KIM
Eli (Lead Client Engineer)
Server engineer with 5 years of experience. Previously worked at InnoSpark and released HeroSky, a mobile strategy game. An enthusiastic gamer and a huge NBA fan.
Favorite 90s game: One Must Fall 2097
JUNHEE LEE
Mr.Fanboy (Sr. Server Engineer)
Animator with SW engineering background. Have both Master of engineering and Master of fine arts degree. Have experience in cinematic, VFX film, Feature
film, TV series and in-game animation. Love movies, games, basketball, skiing, acting.
Favorite 90s game: All versions of Street Fighters 2
JUNHYOUNG PARK
JJun (Animator)
HR career at Neowiz and Webzen in the game industry since 2011. Love listening to the music of Hip-Hop, EDM, Ballad.
Favorite 90s game: Prince of Persia
KYUNGTAE KIM
Kay (HR Manager)
Client engineer of 10 years of experience, Previously I mainly created TPS, SNG and Strategy game types and liked fighting games and movies.
Favorite 90s game: Samurai Shodown 4
SEONUNG KIM
Guardian(Sr. Client Engineer)
Long-time gamer who has played games since Nov 1980. Enjoy collecting retro games and writing articles and reviews on various games in different genres.
Favorite 90s game: Tactics ogre – Let us cling together. (SNES)
YEONJIN CHOE
AlcoholGamer (Sr. Game Designer)
BS in Computer Science from the SoongSil University, Korea. Previously worked on my own mobile service based on web-server and android environment with several team members. Loves to listen, rather than to talk.
Favorite 90s game: Pocket Monsters
YOUNTAE KANG
Archer (Sr. Server Engineer)
14 years of game development experience, working at NCsoft. Art director, lead artist, and senior character modeler.
Favorite 90s game: WarCraft3
JAESUNG KIM
Super minion (Lead Artist)
Previously worked as Project Director of Seven Knights Japan at Netmarble nexus. Previous titles include Keroro Fighters and Gunbound. I like action RPG and strategy simulation genre.
Favorite 90s game: Xak3, The Legend of Heroes Ⅳ, Devil Force3, Diablo, Starcraft
KYEJOO JEON
Relay (Sr. Game Designer)
MIN SONG
theoBurp (Client Engineer)
WONJIN CHO
Jin (VFX Artist)
Pat Kenealy is a Founder and Managing Director at Ridge Ventures, an earlystage venture capital fund focused on enterprise software. Pat’s 20 years of VC experience and his 20-year operating career at IDG helps him guide portfolio companies throughout their development. Pat was previously CEO at IDG, Publisher and CEO of PCWorld, and Founder and CEO of IDG’s Digital News Publishing subsidiary. Pat holds a BA from Harvard University and is Board Director or Observer at FreshPlanet, nWay, and Yesware.
Pat Kenealy
Gregory Milken is a co-founder of March Capital Partners, and has 15-years of entrepreneurial and operational experience. He was the founder and Chief Operating Officer of AltEgo, a cloud-based technology and gaming company. Prior to AltEgo, Gregory was a senior executive at Knowledge Universe, a privately held education company, and worked in business development at Fox and Warner Bros. Gregory received his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a M.A. in international policy studies from Stanford University. Gregory is also a board member at nWay Inc.
Gregory Milken
A Seattle native, Steve Anderson is a seed investor and was ranked #8 in the 2014 Forbes Midas List. Steve founded Baseline Ventures, a privately held early stage seed investor in 2006. Bringing his diverse experience from eBay, Microsoft, Kleiner Perkins, Starbucks and Digital Equipment Corporation, Steve founded Baseline to in order to help entrepreneurs build and grow their ideas into companies. Since its inception, Baseline has invested in more than 75 companies including Instagram, Twitter, OMGPop, and Heroku, and helped more than 25 companies exit profitably for founders and investors alike.
Steve Anderson
Jay Eum is a co-founder and Managing Director of TransLink Capital. Jay is responsible for TransLink’s investments in Carbonite (NASDAQ: CARB), Chartboost, Enterprise DB, Livescribe, Peel, Quixey, SoundHound, and YuMe. He is also responsible for supporting TransLink’s portfolio companies with their customers and partners primarily in Korea. Most recently, Jay was the head of Samsung Ventures America. He was responsible for starting up the U.S. operations for Samsung Venture Investment Corp., the venture investment arm of Samsung, and leading their U.S.-based investments and portfolio management. Jay is also a board member at nWay Inc.
Jay Eum
As President of Interactive Ventures & Games at Lionsgate, Peter Levin’s responsibilities include expanding Lionsgate’s content into video games and other interactive ventures, incubation of new properties, and investment in existing games and digital media vehicles. He also works to extend Lionsgate’s portfolio of brands and franchises into the gaming and virtual reality space, and helps manage the Company’s OTT ventures. Peter previously served as CEO and Co-Founder of Nerdist Industries. Prior to that, he was an executive advisor to Japanese Yoshimoto Kogyo, MAG Interactive, comiXology and Rovio Entertainment. Peter is also a board member at nWay Inc.
Peter Levin
Derrick Hsiang is a VP at WI Harper Group with over 10 years of experience focused on the consumer internet, SaaS and mobile application space. While atWI harper, Derrick focuses on sourcing, and portfolio company management. In addition to investments, Derrick started WIH Innovations, a seed carve out,focused on investing in early stage tech startups in Silicon Valley. Prior to Derrick serves on the venture capital group of the Asia AMerica MultiTechnology Association and is a co-chair and advisor to the AAMA Connect Conference.