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Resume of Noah Falstein

Noah Falstein (Contact for Address)

Experience:


The Inspiracy  Marin County, California                                              July 1996-April 2013, April 2017-Present

Freelance Designer/Producer

Designed or produced many dozens of game titles (listed on last page) across 6 continents.  Lectures and workshops around the world, advisory boards of several companies, conferences.  Design and production lead on many titles, design consultation on AAA titles like Empire at War, Alan Wake, also design on Facebook and IOS social games. 2nd longest-serving freelance game designer in the world.
Since 2017 primary focus has been Games for Healthcare, consulting/advising Akili Interactive, Level Ex, Abbott Labs, Healium, TrainPain, Freestyle+, Arcade Therapeutics and many more.


Google, Inc.  Mountain View, California                                                                             April 2013-April 2017

Chief Game Designer

Designer or design contributor to internal game and gamification projects. Developer Advocate for games, primarily explaining the Tango AR system and the Daydream VR system to game developers around the world, and to executives meeting at Google offices - over 50 events.

Suddenly Social  Los Altos, California                                                                                July 2011-July 2012

Co-Founder, Chief Creative Officer

Ran the studio side of a platform/studio startup, with cloud-based multiuser tech.  Had $1.25M seed round.  Lead design/producer on two published, innovative Realtime Multiplayer IOS games.

DreamWorks Interactive  Los Angeles, California                                                            May 1995-July 1996

Executive Producer, Head of Story/Design Group

Started as third employee, producing large-scale interactive titles for children and adults, hired initial teams, led group integrating game design and screenwriting talent.

NF Interactive  San Mateo, California                                                                                November 1993-April 1995

Freelance Designer/Producer

Provided services to a number of clients, including Sega, Rocket Science Games, PF. Magic, and Digital Pictures, on CD-ROM, Live-action video, location based, and online projects.

The 3DO Company  San Mateo, California                                                                       March 1992 - November 1993

Producer/Director/Designer

Built initial internal production department, designing and managing entertainment and educational titles.  Began as employee number 9, helped company grow to over 270 people in 20 months.

LucasArts Entertainment Company/                                                                              February 1984 - February 1992

Lucasfilm Games  San Rafael, California

Project Leader/Game Designer/Producer/Assistant Creative Director

Served in various capacities in the division’s growth from an unknown offshoot of Lucasfilm with 7 employees to a world class entertainment software developer group with 120 employees.  Designed or produced many award-winning, best-selling games, including PC games, Online projects, educational titles, and high-end location-based simulator rides.  Co-designed their first million-unit seller.

Williams Electronics  Chicago,  Illinois.                                                                           May 1982-December 1983

Project Leader/Programmer/Concept Development Leader

Led the project group for the coin-op video game Sinistar, contributed to programming and design.

Milton Bradley Company  E. Longmeadow, Massachusetts                                         February 1980-May 1982

Project Engineer/Programmer

Designed and programmed games for the Atari VCS and the unreleased Milton Bradley Home Computer, helped research speech synthesis toys, developed robot control software.

Noah Falstein

Additional Information

Education:

Hampshire College  Amherst, Massachusetts                                                                            January 1980

Bachelor of Arts degree.  Senior project was Koronis Strike:  A Computer Simulation Game of Mining and Combat in the Asteroid Belt.

Professional:

Chairman of the Board of the Computer Game Developers Association January 1997 – January 1998.  Largest professional association for developers of interactive entertainment, now the IGDA

Contributing editor on the topic of Design for the Computer Game Developers Association Report.

Journalist, writing for trade magazines including Interactivity, Game Developer, and Games Business.  Contributing editor for 6 years, design column of Game Developer magazine based on The 400 Project.

Author, writing chapters for books such as Game Developers Market Guide, Introduction to Game Development, Developing Interactive Narrative Content, Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism, and several upcoming titles.

Guest Lecturer at numerous Multimedia classes, including classes at Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (Paris), EMMA Masterclasses (Amsterdam, Hamburg, Toronto), Nordmedia conference (Hannover) Sagasnet (Stuttgart), Filmakademie Baden-Wurtemburg (Stuttgart), Media Design School (Auckland), Harvard, San Francisco State University, Loyola-Marymount University, and UCLA.

Speaker at professional conferences in the US, Europe, Australia  and Asia including GDC (every conference since 1991), SPA, AGDC, E3, CES, Intermedia, XMediaLab, Digital Hollywood, Milia, Imagina,  ITAA (keynote speaker), SEIGE (keynote) TED and many others. 

Judge for Independent Games Festival at GDC and for EMMA Foundation (Electronic Multimedia Awards) in Europe, IGDA Spotlight Awards advisory board member, AIAS Design Awards board, VRDC Advisory board member.

Awards and Reviews:

Here are some awards granted to four of Mr. Falstein's titles (all games he designed or co-designed)

BATTLEHAWKS 1942

"Action Game of the Year" (1989)                                           Computer Gaming World

"Program of the Year" (1988)                                                  Computer Entertainer

"The action was fantastic, and the graphics beautiful"      Air & Space

"Fascinating, challenging and very exciting"                       San Francisco Examiner

"The most amazing combat simulation I have seen"           PC Magazine

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

"Adventure of the Year" (1990)                                                  Joystick (France)

"PC Award of Excellence" (1989)                                              Game Player's PC Strategy Guide

"Adventure Game of the Year" (1989)                                      Power Play (Germany)

"European Adventure of the Year" (1990)                               European Computer Leisure Awards

"Best FRP/Adventure Program" Finalist                                 Software Publishers Association

"Best Adventure Game of 1991" Runner Up                           MacWorld

"The Holy Grail of computer games."                                       People Magazine

"This is one game every adventure fan should get."            Video Games & Computer Entertainment

"Indy is a must for the software library of any self-respecting adventure gamer."

                                                                                                        PC Magazine

"This game comes remarkably close to being a better Indiana Jones movie than 'The Last Crusade' was."                                                                                                              Computer Gaming World

"A level of interactivity that almost no other games have achieved before."

                                                                                                        Compute!

INDIANA JONES AND THE FATE OF ATLANTIS

"Adventure Game of the Year" (1992)                                    Computer Game Review

"Best Adventure Game of 1992"                                             Game Informer

"Best Graphic Adventure" (1993)                                           Game  Players PC Entertainment

"Favorite Game of the Year" (1993)                                       Game Players PC Entertainment

"Best Adventure Game of 1992"                                             Game  Players PC Strategy Guide

"Top 100 Games" (1992)                                                           Games Magazine

"Best Adventure Game" (1993)                                               CD-ROM Reporter

"Best Fantasy Role Playing/Adventure" 1993 Finalist          Software Publishers Association

"Adventure Game of the Year"                                                Game Bytes Magazine

"Best Interactive Adventure of 1992"                                     PCM

"Best Pick of 1992"                                                                    PC Home Journal

"Best Adventure Computer Game 1993" Finalist                  Electronic Games

"Best Game of the Year"                                                          Micro Mania (Spain)

"Best Adventure of the Year"                                                  PC Games (Germany)

"Best Computer Game of the Year" 1993                               European Computer Trade Show

"Best Adventure of 1992" Honorable Mention                      Video Games & Computer Entertainment


HUNGRY RED PLANET

"Top Choice Software Award" (2003)                                      Boston Museum of Science

"Award of Excellence" (2003)                                                   Discovery Channel School

"Five Star Rating" (2003)                                                          Choosing Children’s Software Magazine

"Best Pick Award" (2003)                                                          Computing with Kids.com

"Public Health Materials Contest Winner" (2003)                 American Public Health Association


Detailed Project List - Select Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts Projects 

Project Name

Koronis Rift
Labyrinth
PHM Pegasus
Strike Fleet
Battlehawks 1942
Their Finest Hour
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
SWotL Expansion disks
Indiana Jones/Last Crusade
Indiana Jones/Fate of Atlantis
Pipe Dream
The DIg (Original Version Only)
Secret of Monkey Island
Day of the Tentacle
Habitat (First Virtual World)
Commander (Simulator ride)
Mirage (Simulator ride)

Design Role

Designer
Contributor
Designer
Co-designer
Co-designer
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Co-designer
Co-designer
Contributor
Co-designer
Contributor (Insult swordfights)
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor

Coding Role

Primary

Primary





Contributor
Contributor

Contributor

Management

Project Leader

Project Leader
Project Leader
Producer


Producer (2 disks)
Co-Project Leader


Project Leader

Initial Producer

Select NF Interactive/The Inspiracy Projects

Title
Interactive Comic Book
Dark Ride CD game
Borderline (Location Based Game)
Kids on Site Mac CD
Lost World: Chaos Island PC RTS
Small Soldiers PC RTS
STEPS training simulation 
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms PC Game
The Iron Plague (Expansion set)
TechGen PC RTS
Big World MMORPG
Solar Knights MMORPG
Anti-smoking TV Commercial
Location Based Simulator Game
Chase - Xbox racing game
Hungry Red Planet
Attention Trainer (for ADD kids)
Pusher, Neighbors from Hell (PC Games)
Cryo Acquisition by Dreamcatcher
Space Station Sim (PC Serious Game)
Legend of Kay (PS game)
Freedom Fighter 56 (PC Serious Game)
Empire at War (Star Wars RTS for PC)
Cisco Mindshare Interactive Trainer
Mata Hari Adventure Game (PC)
Alan Wake (Xbox, PC)
Role
Designer
Initial Designer
Co-designer
Co-designer
Designer
Sr. Designer
Co-designer
Writer
Writer
Exec Producer
Design Consultation
Production Review
Writer
Designer
Design Consultation
Designer
Designer
Design Consultation
Producer Consultation
Designer
Design Consultation, Writer
Designer
Design Consultation, Writer
Designer
Co-Designer
Design Consult
Client (Country if not USA)
Sega
Rocket Science Games
Simultainment Corporation
Digital Pictures
Dreamworks Interactive
Dreamworks Interactive
Shell Oil (Netherlands)
Cavedog Entertainment
Cavedog Entertainment
Hydrogen Games
Microforte (Australia)
Poptronik (Canada)
Windmill Lane Productions
Skunk Works (Canada)
I-Imagine (South Africa)
Health Media Labs
East3
JoWooD (Austria)
DreamCatcher Europe (France)
Gentle Revolution Software
Neon (Germany)
Lauer Learning
LucasArts Entertainment
Cisco Systems
DTP (Germany)
Remedy (Finland)