About The Company
Playful Fox Games is an independent game studio based out of Vancouver, BC, Canada. Our focus is building strong narrative experiences that create emotional connection. We believe that strong systems and ideas can help facilitate connection and emotional experiences.
Playful Fox Games was founded as a sole proprietorship and incorporated on October 22, 2018, as production began on our game currently in development, Animal Bar. Playful Fox Games also has been consulting and supporting other local indie developers.
Who We Are
Ryan Dunnison - Founder / Designer
Ryan is a Game Designer and the Founder of Playful Fox Games. He's currently also managing production and doing some scripting, design and writing on Animal Bar as well as organizing the business side of the company. His expertise goes beyond game development, as he has done extensive research on game history and is a collector as well as instructor, even having exhibited at the Vancouver Museum and Space Center.
His industry experience includes a range of roles from design, production, analytics, QA and consulting. During his time at BANDAI NAMCO Studios Vancouver and East Side Games he worked on more than 10 games, including: Tekken (iOS /Android), My Tamagotchi Forever, Tap My Katamari, Munchie Farm/Pot Farm: Grass Roots, and Dragon UP. Ryan graduated from the Game Art and Design program at The Art Institute of Vancouver (now LaSalle College) with a Best of Show award at his grad show, where he has also taught game history and various other game design courses.
Dylan Fraser - Engineer
Dylan is a systems engineer on Animal Bar and has been building the core data systems that power the game as well as integration with third-party tools.
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Dylan previously worked with Ryan at BANDAI NAMCO on Tekken (iOS / Android) and Tap My Katamari. His expertise is in system architecture, and includes a vast knowledge of game mechanics, which he, no doubt, gained from his experience as a tournament-playing fighting game competitor. On Tekken, he was responsible for technical design and implementation of several major features including messaging systems, guilds, and the skill tree. Dylan’s other experience includes work on Tap Cats: Idle Warfare at Kemojo Studios.
Steven Billette - 3D Artist
Steven is a is the team's primary Rigger and Animator as well as a 3D modeler. His background stems from time in the animation and film industries.
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Steven's discipline in 3D art ranges from work in modeling, rigging, animation, and FX. A former classmate of Ryan’s, he has worked more than 5 years, primarily as a rigger in the animation and VFX industries on game cinematics, tv, and films such as: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Logan, Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV, Independence Day: Resurgence, Rue, Game of Thrones, Assassin’s Creed and several Disney shows. Steven also works as an instructor at LaSalle teaching Rigging.
Anna Bradley - 2D Artist
Anna is working as the Character Concept Artist for Animal Bar. She also does the turnarounds for use by Steven for modeling. Her experience comes from a background of freelancing.
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​Anna has been developing concept art, 2D game assets and communication sketches for Silverstring Media and their client studios for 3 years, including work on Before the End of the World, ConQuest, and Progeny VR. Anna began doing art professionally early on outside of games, doing comic strips in a local magazine and a self-published graphic novel. She is currently also a student working towards a Bachelors of Communications at Simon Fraser University's Interactive Art and Technology program.
Shari McConochie - 2D Artist
Shari is also a 2D Artist on the team, primarily in charge of Marketing Material and UI. She is also dabbling in some of the 3D areas of the game. Her experience comes from a variety of freelancing and 3D Modeling in the game industry.
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Shari made her start as a freelance artist working on everything from board games, to concept art and logos for local companies; additionally, she is an experienced 3D modeler and texture artist. While at Rainmaker Animation she worked on multiple films including Barbie Thumbelina, Barbie and the Diamond Castle and The Nutty Professor: Facing the Fear. Shari has also worked on several videogame projects, most notably Sleeping Dogs published by Square Enix. She is excited to return to her roots as a 2D artist but still enjoys modeling whenever the opportunity arises.
Sarah Roland - 3D Artist
Sarah is an environment modeler and helping to set up the art pipeline for Animal Bar.
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Sarah’s career path at budding game companies in the Vancouver area such as Skunkwerks and Archiact have given her a range of experience in Mobile and PC platforms development for both VR and non-VR titles. She has worked the full art pipeline; Modeling, Rigging, Animating, Concept and doing Shader work on games like Waddle Home (Gear VR, HTC Vive, PSVR), MEG: RVO, and Hidden Fortune (Gear VR, Google Daydream).
Michael Widmer - Engineer
Michael is an engineer and is working to develop some of the core gameplay systems in Animal Bar.
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Michael has been working as a software engineer for most of his career in tech. He moved from working in software, at companies like IBM Canada and Schneider Electric, to games in 2014 after acquiring a Masters in Digital Media from the Center for Digital Media. His experience with Unity development in the AR/VR space at companies like H+ Technology and Archiact are crucial to our team, as he is no newcomer to optimization for multiple platforms. Michael has also worked on projects such as Dream Room which is a virtual space using a mix of Holographic and Projector technology to view and display furniture before purchase in a room scale 3D environment.
