A loving husband and father of 2 (a son and a pug), Michael is truly grateful for his wonderful family and cherishes their time together. To help combat the strain and stresses of a busy lifestyle Michael employs meditation on a daily basis in lieu of the daily drink. As an avid reader Michael loves learning about the buying and social interaction patters of people (The Tipping Point is one of his favorite books) and enjoys a great game of Modern Warfare (any iteration) to relax.

Wee World Games commissioned the production of 5 mini games to be featured on their site, which serves as a gaming network for young and adolescent children. Michael managed all aspects of the project which included the concurrent development of several games at once while also managing a design team which was based overseas. These games are also produced to be used on Facebook.

Michael created custom WordPress themes for both Almer/Blank.com and Almer/Blank Labs. Both sites use WordPress themes that were built custom from the ground up. The design of these sites was outsourced so Michael had to manage design transfer and design reviews from a remote team.

Michael Dela Cruz
11834 Avon Way # 202 | Los Angeles, CA 90066
Cell: 310.775.3827
Email: dlc@dlcinteractive.com
Website: http://dlcinteractive.com

Objective :
To list experience and skills in order to obtain a position that will provide challenges for professional growth.

Education: 
The Art Institute of California | Interactive Media Design

Skills:

Experience: 

July 2009 – Present
Project Manager, Almer/Blank (Interactive Agency)

• Responsible for managing all aspects of projects (some million dollar budgets)
• Client facing interaction (leading meetings, review sessions, and presentations)
• Preparation of all meeting collateral (slides, packets, displays, etc.)
• Production of sales materials and participation in sales pitches
• Responsible for creating and maintaining company standards and practices

July 2009 – Present
Interactive Designer, Almer/Blank (interactive Agency)

• Create user experience documentation for large scale web and mobile applications
• Design user interface elements
• Implement approved designs in code from engineers
• Organize and maintain design asset repositories

October 2008-July 2009
Interactive Designer, Red Interactive Agency

• Design and implement interactivity in online games, websites and ads
• Participate in planning meeting and make recommendations to clients

October 2005-October 2008
Training Manager, Rich Media Institute 

• Manage all aspects of training and student experience
• Manage website
• Manage all needs of instructors (technical, lodging, booking, etc.)

July 2004 to September 2006
Junior Varsity Soccer Coach, Notre Dame Academy

• Manage all aspects of soccer operations for junior varsity team
• Serve as a role model and mentor to student athletes

July 2004 to September 2005
Customer Support Supervisor, School Loans Corporation

• Provide customer support to students and parents regarding their school loans
• Take hostile callers from agents when needed
• Maintain strict expectations of quality assurance across entire customer support department
• Work with cross department management to resolve all issues
• Obtain and train new customer support representatives
• Create and maintain quality assurance plans

References:
Available upon request.

Michael created a unique game for the launch of the Disney XD website. The goal of this game is simply keep the ball from dropping from the bottom of the screen. The paddles is controlled by the arrow keys and powers up are earned by keeping the ball in the sweet spot. Use power ups by hitting the spacebar.

Michael helped create the Eagle Eye web ad campaign. The ads used video, rich content and had to be produced in various sizes for various applications. Michael served multiple roles on this project including designer, production designer and Flash developer.

Adobe featured Michael and the Almer/Blank team for their innovative workflows with Adobe’s Flash platform. Almer/Blank created an extremely efficient workflow using Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder and Flash Professional. Michael was one of two team members interviewed about his use of Flash Catalyst.

Dogtown Pieces is a mobile game created for the Adobe AIR App Challenge, Sponsored by Sony. The challenge was to create a mobile application that works on both standard tablets and the new Sony P (a foldable tablet reminiscent of a Nintendo DS). The goal of the game was to run around Venice, find spray cans and return them to your friend. Dogtown Pieces was selected as a finalist.

Dogtown Pieces is actually a port of another game Michael produced called Veniceplorer. Veniceplorer was created to demonstrate the ability for Adobe AIR to deploy across all platforms with one codebase.

Livworld is an accompanying website to the Liv line of dolls by Spinmaster inc. This project had a million dollar production budget and has consistently been updated since 2009. Production teams have ranged from 5-50 people (some teams located offisite), throughout the life of Livworld, all of which Michael has had various responsibilities managing.

In addition to Management, Michael had a hand in designing user experience and user interaction throughout the life of Livworld.

The Toyota Dealership Network was created to give the largest group of Toyota Dealerships in the US (Gulf States Toyota) a way to provide video content to its customers and employees. Running on multiple  screens TDN was Michael’s first foray into the world of mobile devices. Not only did TDN include a front end application that ran on all devices, a full featured content management system was built to make the application fully maintainable by any member of Gulf States Toyota’s staff.