Hidden Path Entertainment is an independent video game company established to develop and produce interactive entertainment software for current and future generations of video game consoles and other computing platforms.
Our management team includes industry veterans who have over 40 combined years of gaming experience. We have contributed to best-in-class titles in multiple genres and on multiple platforms including top game titles at Access Software, Ensemble Studios, FASA, IBM, Microsoft Game Studios, Sierra Online, and Virtual World Entertainment. Members of our management team have also worked as part of the Xbox, Xbox Live and Xbox 360 launch teams.
This experience in game design, production, technology and art, along with our strong subcontracting partners, allows Hidden Path to manage all aspects of game development from starting concept to final gold master. We focus on original concept development to bring innovative experiences to video gaming.
Hidden Path is currently working on both independently-funded and console publisher-funded projects, developing fun and innovative titles for some of the most popular companies in gaming.
One unique game studio. Many unique games.
About Our Management Team
--Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Jeff has been heavily involved in the gaming industry for over eleven years holding such roles as game programmer, producer, and chief operating officer. Most recently, before breaking off to found HPE, Jeff was a group leader at Microsoft for the Xbox and Xbox 360 platforms.
Jeff has shipped over 20 different game titles on four different platforms. He's also had the privilege of bringing games in the Half-Life, Homeworld, and Lord of the Rings franchises to market.
Jeff acted as Sierra Studio's first external producer in 1988, granting him atypical involvement in all elements of the publishing business including developer acquisition, contract negotiation, profit and loss planning, forecasting, production oversight, manufacturing, documentation, interaction with quality assurance, marketing, and public relations.
Later, when Jeff was a part of WXP, an independent game development house, he worked on the other side of the negotiation table, dealing with several publishers on actual and potential contracts, as well as overseeing budgets and executing business strategy.
Jeff joined Microsoft in 2002 to head up a group of developer liaisons working closely with game developers on the Xbox and Xbox 360 platforms to help improve the potential of their titles. Jeff was the primary spokesperson for Microsoft when talking with game developers about Xbox 360 plans. He also represented the Advanced Technology Group on the third-party portfolio management team for the platform.
Before Jeff entered game development, he earned a doctorate in Aerospace Engineering. At various times, he was a film student, a researcher, a systems engineer, and a project manager.
--Founder and Design Director
Mark was a lead designer, designer, and programmer on titles in the Age of Empires franchise and held the lead designer position on the best-selling strategy game of all-time: Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings. The titles Mark contributed to have sold over 17 million copies worldwide. Mark has lent his expertise towards aiding other game developers working on Xbox through his role as a Technical Game Manager for the Xbox organization and supporting game developers around the world.
Mark's expertise and passion have not only made him a remarkable asset to HPE, they have also allowed him to share his knowledge worldwide. Mark has written papers on multiplayer networking, game design, and usability. He has given dozens of insightful and critically acclaimed presentations at universities, conferences and events on five continents (he says he is just waiting for South America and Antarctica to call). Mark has been a panel leader for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Academy Awards Nomination group, has served on the Austin Games Conference advisory board, and worked with International Game Developer Association special interest groups.
Before his career as a game designer, Mark has been associated with both large and small companies. He started and sold five profitable entrepreneurial companies and worked as a programmer/analyst on some of the largest critical transactions systems in the world for Mobil Oil Pipeline, The Toronto Stock Exchange, A.G. Edwards, GTE, and others.
--Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Michael is one of the very few experts in the world on the Xbox 360 CPU architecture. In addition, he has nine years of games and platform development experience, during which he's had the opportunity of working on nearly every major subsystem from graphics to animation to collision. He has chosen to focus on architecture and low-level optimization.
As part of Xbox's Advanced Technology Group, Michael has worked with dozens of game studios across ten different countries and consulted on numerous top selling games. Michael has worked on several successful console titles including Amped: Snowboarding. He has also been involved with several Xbox titles including Prince of Persia, Counterstrike, and Spiderman 2.
Michael was an instrumental part of the 360 launch team, helping release titles including Call of Duty 2, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and Project Gotham Racing.
Michael has a strong technical innovation background: he has invented many new algorithms and approaches for content generation, computer vision, audio processing, and text analysis.
--Founder and Art Director
Dave was the Creative Director of Virtual World Entertainment and FASA Interactive, contributing both design and art direction to the Mechwarrior franchise, among others.
In addition to heading all aspects of FASAs art department, Dave also headed the computer graphics production for television enterprise. That effort helped promote the company's computer games as well as a new line of toys.
Dave also art directed and oversaw design of the widely hailed Virtual World Entertainment system and designed and produced a Disney theme park attraction developed under contract for Imagineering.
As a Creative Director at Microsoft Games Studios, Dave co-created the critically acclaimed Crimson Skies franchise, and as art director for the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, Dave provided artistic guidance on more than 80 other titles including numerous hits from multiple publishers.
--Founder and Chief Operations and Financial Officer
Jim has been a part of the interactive entertainment industry since 1996 when he was hired as CFO of Virtual World Entertainment Group (VWEG) in Chicago. Like HPE, at VWEG, Jim was responsible for all aspects of finance, legal, risk management, human resources and information technology of this multi-company organization. Jim was instrumental to the negotiation and consummation of the $30 million cash-for-stock sale of this entity in 1999, which included FASA Interactive. Simultaneously, Jim organized and led the buyout of the location-based entertainment subsidiary of VWEG, Virtual World Entertainment LLC (VWE). Jim was President of VWE from 1999 until its sale in 2005. While at VWE, Jim returned distributions to members of more than forty times their original investment through successful implementation of a harvesting strategy to maximize return from assets purchased. Jim began his career in Chicago at Arthur Andersen LLP where he spent seven years and specialized in acquisition diligence for financial and strategic buyers in purchase transactions ranging from $5 to $500 million.
