Keep warm, stay fearless, play around

JOSH HOLMES

PRODUCTION & DESIGN

Josh is driven by a lifelong obsession with player narrative, expressed through complex game systems. Before co-founding Midwinter, Josh was Studio Head, Executive Producer and Creative Director for the Halo franchise. Earlier in his career, Josh was the co-founder of Propaganda Games in Vancouver and co-creator of the NBA Street and Def Jam franchises for EA.

In his former life, Josh was a washed-up child actor.

FREDRIK PERSSON

ENGINEERING

Fidde doesn't know how to use any social media apps, and his wife posts for him on his Facebook page. Loves bourbon, snowboarding and programming problems. He fancies himself as kind of a cool guy, but he really is quite nerdy.

In his spare time Fidde gorges himself on Kalles Kaviar while playing a mediocre brand of poker.

PETER BURZYNSKI

ENGINEERING

Peter is driven by a desire to make games that keep players coming back for more – games where players create and share their own stories with friends. Before co-founding Midwinter, Peter was the Principal Engineer leading Multiplayer, Networking and UI on the Halo franchise. Prior to that he was a Senior Engineer for FASA Studio.

Peter grew up in the warmth and sun of the Bahamas, which makes his decision to settle down in the wet cold of the Pacific Northwest puzzling.

DARYL ANSELMO

ART & UX

Daryl is a curious tinkerer, whose love of art and animation is inspired by the demo scene and classic games of the 80's and 90's. Before co-founding Midwinter, Daryl was the Art & Creative Director for Farmville 2, a Narrative Director at Visceral, the co-founder of Propaganda Games and co-creator of the NBA Street and Def Jam franchises.

An avid cyclist and obstacle racer, he also has an unhealthy relationship with Pop Tarts.

RISA TANEDA

ART

Risa has always held a deep love for characters, animals and the human form. She has been building characters in games for over 15 years including the Battlefield franchise at DICE in Sweden, the Mercenaries franchise at Pandemic Studios in LA and most recently, as the Lead Character Artist and Art Manager for Valkyrie Entertainment here in Seattle.

Risa’s family originally hails from Japan, where her great grandfather was a Samurai working for Hosokawa, Lord of Kumamoto.

JIMMY NILSSON

ENGINEERING

A dedicated and passionate gamer, Jimmy is obsessed with building game mechanics that feel great and create fun for players. Before joining Midwinter, Jimmy was a Senior Gameplay and Physics Engineer on the Battlefield and Battlefront franchises. While at DICE, he was also a part of the team working on the Frostbite engine. Earlier in his career, he spent many years making open world and racing games at a variety of different studios.

His proudest moment was at Pandemic Studios, where his last name was given to one of the characters in Mercenaries.

JOSHUA COLINDRES

TECHNICAL ART

One part artist, one part tinkerer, Joshua is driven by his passion for the art of animation and expression. Prior to joining Midwinter, Joshua began his career as a lead technical artist for the visual effects studio Hive-Fx, creating realistic creature rigs, and developing/maintaining pipeline tools. Joshua has also been working as a freelance/contract artist for various gaming studios including Liquid Development and Oculus.

In his leisure time "Other Josh" enjoys plein air painting and eating cheese.

ANGEL VILLEDA

FINANCE & OPERATIONS

Angel has a passion for figuring out what makes a business tick and a life-long love for gaming. Before Midwinter, he led the Business team at 343 industries, where he oversaw the financial and business operations, delved into the mystical arts of strategic planning, and partnered on the design of monetization systems. Before 343, he held several finance roles at Microsoft.

As a Mexico City native, he’s in a never-ending quest for a great taco in Seattle (no luck so far…) but has found a passion for great coffee (French Press FTW!)

JUSTIN LIPPERT

DESIGN

A lifelong gamer, Justin is passionate about creating fun and driving user engagement. Before Midwinter Justin was briefly a Designer at Respawn Entertainment after a long tenure at 343 Industries working on Halo.

When Justin isn't working he can be most often found chasing after his toddler and golden retriever as they cause all sorts of mischief. Otherwise he is usually in front of some sort of screen playing games.

CLINTON CRUMPLER

ART

Most recently, Clinton was a Senior Look Development Artist at the Coalition working on the Gears of War Franchise. Previously, he worked with Bethesda, Kixeye, and various other studios as an environment artist, and also teaches classes on CGMA on modularity for games.

Vices that always get him excited include Visual Storytelling, Pomeranians, Time Travel and Post Apocalyptic Settings. He hides a picture of Abraham Lincoln is almost everything he makes, see if you can find them :P

DANIEL ALEXANDER

ANIMATION

Since having been introduced to his father’s old Intellivision & Commodore 64 as a small child, Daniel has been a life-long gamer. Later, in his teens, after discovering a passion for animation, he set off to pursue the path of incorporating the two together. He is driven to go beyond his passion for creating and developing games, by infusing life into them through his love and fascination for movement, body mechanics and strong, interesting character performances. Before Midwinter Daniel had the pleasure to be a part of many freelance, indie projects, and most recently, WBgames and Lead Animator for HardsuitLabs.

Daniel’s blood is 3/4 coffee and enjoys spending his free time hitting the city in search for new favorite restaurants and breweries.

REECE MILLS

ANIMATION

Reece is a 3D artist and technical animator, joining Midwinter after fourteen years in the Canadian games industry, where he had the privilege of leading gameplay animation on titles like Punch-Out!!, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, and Super Mario Strikers. He is really passionate about making interactions feel just right through animation and gameplay.

In his spare time, you can find Reece reluctantly renovating his house, but he would rather be pvping or drinking a really strong coffee.

DAVID TUFT

ENGINEERING

David loves channeling his enthusiasm and excitement into solving problems. Before joining Midwinter, David worked on the halo franchise doing AI, gameplay, and leading the UI Core team. Before Halo, David worked in 3rd party outreach and also 3rd party publishing helping developers with graphics and kinect. David’s pre-gaming background is in general purpose GPU programming. Prior to being a grown-up, he was the 4th grade running long jump champion of Burley, Idaho.

David’s great passion is in teaching his kids to appreciate the roots of the great games and mold them into talented engineers!

DANIEL WIKSTEN

DESIGN

Wix grew up in the north part of Sweden where his passion for games was sparked by board games and pen and paper RPGs at an early age. Career paths considered growing up: Scientist, Rockstar or Game developer. Turns out he was more talented at game development than the other things combined. He has worked in Sweden and the US where he did gameplay design on Halo, Battlefield, Medal of Honor and Star Wars games.

Wix often gets told he looks like a mix between a Viking and Jesus, and footage of his eye was used in an E3 video to promote the “highest quality pixels.” Dreamy.

KYLE LARSON

ENGINEERING

When he's not perfecting his stand-up routine, Kyle is hard at work learning new technology. As a recent Game Design & Development graduate from RIT, Kyle has worked at various companies, including an internship at 343 Industries, before finding his home at Midwinter. From New York City to Seattle, Kyle is the resident expert at knowing which coast is the best.

You may catch Kyle at the local Improv scene, where he is sure to be in a heated discussion about the latest episode of The Bachelor.

AUDREY MLADINA

PRODUCTION

Audrey loves learning what makes a person tick and how their life experiences and culture shape their world. Before Midwinter, she was in college studying production and game design with a focus on level design and UI/UX. She grew up playing games with her older brother and found her interest in game design in the Halo Forge.

In her spare time, Audrey likes to read, garden, and collect things with flowers/fruit/plants on them. She also lived in a castle keep for a short period in her life, though she was more of a maid than a princess while there.

DANIEL MOONEY

ENGINEERING

Daniel enjoys the visual side of computing, namely real-time and non real-time computer graphics. Prior to joining Midwinter, he was on the D3D driver team at ATI, Lead Rendering Engineer at Pandemic Studios, and most recently founder of semantic data company Moomat.

Daniel lives in Tulsa and is involved with a number of non-profits. He uses his free time to further his STEM initiative "Coding Club", which teaches elementary-aged children in the Tulsa area how to make video games. When he's not working on Coding Club, he spends as much time as possible in Venice, California.

JESSICA HELGESSON

ART

Jessica’s love for games was cemented after finishing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo 64 back in 1998. This made things very easy when it came to choose a profession later in life and that eventually led to a job at DICE in Stockholm. During her years at DICE she has spent quite some time with titles such as Mirrors Edge, Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront.

Apart from everything related to the game gig she sees punching and kicking as an excellent form of exercise and spent over 10 years running a Kung Fu club in Sweden.

DAVID FELSTEAD

ENGINEERING

David is an avid learner and is driven by an (occasionally unhealthy) need to understand how, and more importantly, why things work. Before Midwinter he spent time bouncing through various iterations of consulting, engineering and management before eventually finding his passion in game development as the analytics and data engineering lead at 343 Industries.

In his spare time you'll find him obsessing over where to find Seattle's best sandwiches and ramen, and trying to balance that with how many extra Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes to take to burn off those extra calories.

MARK LININGTON

ART

Originally from Montreal, Canada, Mark is inspired by games that provoke emotion, deep storytelling and unique visual style. He has been in games for 20 years, working at Ubisoft on the Far Cry and Prince of Persia series and serving as Lead Environment Artist on the Mass Effect Franchise. Recently, Mark has been Lead Map Artist on Halo 5 and Lead Environment Artist at Amazon Game Studios.

In his spare time, Mark produces Electronic Dance Music, DJ's at night clubs and performing at events as NEON PUMA.

TJ PERILLO

DESIGN

TJ has nearly 20 years of experience as a video game designer. His focus is on the subtle forces that shape human behavior, an obsession that also fuels his interests in politics, policy, history, the mysteries of the human story, and hosting parties. Most recently TJ spent 7 years on the Halo franchise and is overjoyed to work alongside so many of his favorite people once again at Midwinter.

TJ enjoys travelling with his wife and their 2 boys, cooking meat, scribbling notes, and making people laugh.