The Team
We bring decades of XR experience across product and platform from best in class design teams including Oculus, Magic Leap, and WeVR. We also love our pets.
Bernard Yee
@ CEO / Executive Producer
{ Co-Founder } I started playing and writing games on a TRS-80, and despite a detour into other professions, made it back into game development. I've helped launch genres like MMOs and rhythm games, saw two radically different approaches to high quality at Bungie and PopCap, which I brought to shipping a new medium at Oculus. Windup Minds is the place where I want to make games, with people I want to make games with.
Stefani Swiatkowski
@ CDO / UX Designer
{ Co-Founder } I spent my childhood drawing, writing stories, and playing games. Little did younger me realize she could turn those things into an amazing career. In the past ten years, I've worked on many projects across different platforms and genres, but none were quite so rewarding (and challenging) as Bogo and First Steps. I love making games that take risks and defy expectations– with smart and creative people.
Ben Vance
@ CTO / Game Director
{ Co-Founder } I started patrolling the moon at around 4 years old, shortly after picking up a pencil, and haven’t looked back. My lifelong interest in art and computing led me through DOOM mods, into early VR labs, and into the professional world with Electronic Arts. I’ve always loved games, yet felt they were just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve explored the medium in many ways, as programmer, designer, artist, and director, and in many kinds of productions, including independent game studios, AR & VR startups, museums, and pop-up shows. I love the dance of excitement, expectations, and constraints while innovating in interactive experiences and creating unexpected joy.
Jay Faulkner
@ Gameplay Engineer
Since discovering the debug menu in Sonic the Hedgehog, I've wanted to build experiences that surprise and delight players. I've built mods, indie games, and tools in various game engines and been a professional engineer for over a decade. I fell in love with VR the day I got my hands on a Vive and somehow found myself at my dream job with incredible people building something special - I intend to make the most of it!
Austin Grossman
@ Lead Game Designer
Author, game designer, narrative designer, teacher. I started designing games in 1992 at the very beginning of real-time 3D, went on to work on classic immersives like System Shock, Deus Ex, and Dishonored. I moved into XR design as Director of Design at Magic Leap, finding the new paradigms mixed reality offers in game design and storytelling. I’m always looking for the next big new technology - and how to make it sing. In my other life I’m a novelist. My published books include Soon I Will Be Invincible, YOU, and Crooked, with more forthcoming. I like to put my own spin on different styles of genre fiction, to tell new sides of old stories.
Ah Young Joo
@ Game Designer
As far as I can remember, I've been obsessed with crafting, designing, and making things. I earned my Bachelor's at the University of Southern California's Games program, where I led and designed several small-to-large-scale projects. Upon graduation, I spent a year working with game designers and shipping Niantic's first AR pet simulation game Peridot. I am passionate about designing games that are not only systemically rich and fun but also positively enrich players' lives. In my free time, you might find me practicing archery, sewing plushies, or doting on my pet bunny.
Dren McDonald
@ Audio Design & Composer
I’ve composed music and designed sounds for film, tv, theme parks, escape rooms, VR/AR experiences, phone devices and, of course, games…many many games! Tom Petty famously said “Music is probably the one real magic I have encountered in my life” and I might add that interactive music (and sounds) bring that magic to another level. In addition to the music and audio that I’ve created for these projects I’ve also taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and U.C. Santa Cruz (Games and Playable Media graduate dept.) I have also released many records under my name as well as my fundraising collaboration project called polyeheDren, where I’ve collaborated with musicians such as Iva Bittová, The Residents, Nels Cline (Wilco) & Josh Freese (Foo Fighters.)
Tyler Schatz
@ Art Director
Hungry to work with great people on great projects! Trained across multiple disciplines and mediums. Over a decade of studio experience and education, fostering and collaborating with teams to not only have fun but be diligent in creating art and crafting groundbreaking stories and experiences. Credits and clients include Imaginary Friends, Chipotle, Dolby, Gatorade, Magic Leap, WB Animation, DreamWorks, NFL.
Alejandro Cannizzo
@ Gameplay Engineer
I've always been fascinated by the inner workings of video games in all of their stages, which led me to learn how to program, since it was the closest thing to video games I could think of. Even before graduating and getting my Bachelor's I was already participating in game jams and always curious about how games were made, which eventually helped me build enough knowledge on the subject to land my first job in the industry when I joined Funomena. Since then, whether it's through professional or personal work, I haven't stopped learning about new and interesting aspects of video games, and hope I never do.
Jonny Shoda
@ QA
Growing up, I was the kid drawing Mario levels instead of taking notes. That early love of games grew into a career spanning over a decade in QA across gaming, fintech, and cleantech. I’m driven by curiosity, quality, and the belief that great experiences are built through thoughtful testing.
WinterZ
@ Community Manager
Despite being over 6 feet tall and a native Canadian, WinterZ traded in his hockey skates for a game controller at a young age. After Best Buy failed to deliver his piano, he bought his first VR headset instead. This brought about the great shift, where WinterZ evolved from a regular video game nerd to who he is today. As he delved into VRChat, he found his passion in 3D modeling, building worlds and avatars for VRChat and Synth Riders and running the Community for Zenith:The Last City
Join the Community
Have a feature idea? Submit it on our Discord Server– your input, along with community voting, helps shape the future of the game.
