Name: Sean
Title: Software Engineer
Education: BS in Game Design and Development

Why did you decide to come to Large Animal?
I got out of school at the very beginning of the social games wave and Large Animal was doing some really nifty things. At the time, Bumper Stars was one of the only rich, graphical games on Facebook when everyone else was messing with text. It was clear to me that the company was going to continue to make high-quality games and I wanted to be a part of that.

Why do you like working at Large Animal?
Mostly because of the people. Everyone here is awesome! It's so rare to work in a place where I enjoy interacting with every single person throughout the day. I also like the fact that I'm always learning something new. Every project brings a different range of interesting problems to solve and it's gratifying to work through them and learn, whether it's gaining more understanding about something I thought I knew already or branching out into previously unexplored territory.

What is unique about your role?
My role is unique in that it's really a combination of lots of roles. I could be using one set of skills this week and a completely different set next week. I've worked on AI, physics, game mechanics, UI, networking - and that's just the programming. I try to help out where I can with design, and the art team often asks everyone for feedback on their latest work. Also, I've got the vocals in Rock Band totally covered.

What cool projects have you worked on at Large Animal?
I've worked on a lot of projects, but the two that stand out are Bananagrams and What to Wear. Working on Bananagrams was cool because I got to work with real-time multiplayer and make it work for casual players, which was a really fun challenge. Working on What to Wear was cool because it forced me to step outside of my comfort zone and appreciate things that I never thought I would.

What has been the most amazing experience or day you've had at Large Animal thus far?
This is an unfair question because I'm being forced to pick just one. Well, one day that stands out to me was a hot summer day. Wade went out and found a street vendor and convinced the guy to bring his cart up in the elevator and serve us sorbet right in the office. It was such a fun break and really lifted my spirit for the rest of the day.

Name: Daisy
Title: Producer
Education: B.A. in Art and Art History, Colgate University

Why did you decide to come to Large Animal?
I'd never worked in the game industry before but I knew I wanted to work for a small company and I'd met some of the Large Animals through IGDA events. They seemed like good people and the timing was right so here I am!

Why do you like working at Large Animal?
Mostly because it has a great team of fun folks who value innovation!

What is unique about your role?
I'm a producer so I get a unique perspective on the project. I not only deal with the day to day production issues that come up, but I also have to have a good grasp of the long term vision for the project, the finances, marketing, and community service issues.

What cool projects have you worked on at Large Animal?

• How to Be Like a Gecko - A short but fun project we did for National Geographic,
• Fashion Planet: What to Wear - A labor of love on Facebook. It never quite took off in the way we hoped but I still love it and think its a wonderfully innovative and very social game.

What has been the most amazing experience or day you've had at Large Animal thus far?
Hmm, that's tough because there are several. Definitely the shipping of the first game I worked on, Fashion Solitaire - that ranks pretty high on the list. Also the day that What to Wear hit 100,000 monthly active users on Facebook. We were all really proud of the game that day.

Name: Mark
Title: Artist
Education: BFA, Syracuse University

Why did you decide to come to Large Animal?
...how can you resist a name like Large Animal??

Name aside, it's a bit of a fairytale story. I have been playing video games, drawing and exploring the creative world for as long as I can remember. All of these interests gelled when I was in college and taking classes in the Computer Art program at Syracuse University. Once graduated, I dabbled in some freelance work but eventually wanted to focus my career into the game industry. I found Large Animal Games on Craigslist, did a bit of research about them, and was hooked--it seemed like the perfect atmosphere where I could have lots of creative input and work on a bunch of different kinds of games. After talking to them and getting a feel for the culture, it definitely seemed like the best place to call home.

Why do you like working at Large Animal?
I love the fact that I've been able to work on a wide variety of games, each with it's own style and concept. Being a casual/social games studio, our core production schedules tend to be shorter than AAA places, which means that I'm able to work on more games and stretch my "creative wings", so to speak. I think this is really important in order for projects to always feel fresh and exciting.

That said, I could probably write pages about other reasons I like working here. To mention a few more: I'm around hyper-talented people all the time, I'm deeply involved with my projects, the company culture is supportive and fun, my games get to be played by people all around the world...

...and when I give my business card out I love it when people say, "Is that a flying gorilla? Awesome!"

What is unique about your role?
As an artist at Large Animal I get to "wear a lot of hats", which challenges me daily and definitely has helped me grow professionally. Our artists don't have singular, isolated roles, but instead are involved with almost every facet of production from start to finish. In a single project I may work on everything from game design, concept art and developing a game's aesthetic, then shift to 3D modeling, animation, asset production and interface design. Additionally, as a Lead Artist here I've been able to develop my project management skills, something that I think is really invaluable no matter what discipline you're in.

What cool projects have you worked on at Large Animal?
I've had either a small or large hand in the following:

• A bunch of game concepts
• A number of small Flash projects
• The Flying Trapeezees
• The Flying Trapeezees Online
• BumperStars
• Bananagrams
• Bananagrams iPhone
• Musical Mingles
• Lucky Strike Lanes
• CBT: Network Defense
• OfficeWorld

What has been the most amazing experience or day you've had at Large Animal thus far?
Whoa, that's a tough one. There are really countless amazing things that happen on a day to day basis, both on a professional level and also on a wacky, Large-Animal-employee-antics level (case in point: silly string fight on the roof).

Professionally, I would have to say that my work on "OfficeWorld" is up there. It was a super challenging project that we worked very hard on, and I think was of a depth and complexity that we hadn't done yet with our other social games. I'm really proud of the team and the work that came out of that project, and I definitely learned a lot from that experience.