Heatwave Interactive, Inc., the pioneer studio in innovative cross-media entertainment development for games, film and television, announces today the completion of the staffing of its Austin-based Central Studio. With that, Heatwave's co-Founder Anthony Castoro is pleased to make the following appointments:
Dave Prout, co-Founder of Spark Unlimited, joins the Heatwave team as Director of Development. Prior to joining Heatwave, Prout rose through the ranks at Dreamworks Interactive, Electronic Arts Los Angeles and Midway Games, becoming well-respected for his attention to improving the process of game development. Titles Prout has contributed to include Medal of Honor, Medal of Honor: Underground, Medal of Honor: Frontline, Call of Duty: Finest Hour, and Legendary, in addition to several unannounced next-gen titles. Prout's dedication to focused leadership, clear goals, organizational transparency, and relentless pursuit of better process to create better content, for less money in less time, will be one of the corner stone's of Heatwave's development process.
Craig Rundels has been named Art Director for Heatwave Interactive, Inc. With more than 15 years of experience in the game industry and more than 30 titles shipped, Rundels has focused on art direction, management and content creation for game and publishing companies worldwide, including Lucas Arts, Midway and Foundation 9. In addition to his work on such notable franchises as Star Wars, Gauntlet and Mortal Kombat, Rundels has more than 6 years of external development experience with a focus on finding, vetting, and managing outsource studios and development teams worldwide.
After nearly 25 years in the comic book and toy design industries, Bart Sears brings his highly acclaimed drawing skills to Heatwave Interactive, Inc. as Senior Concept Artist. Sears has worked for every major comic book publisher, including DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Marvel Entertainment, and Wizard Magazine, as well as contributing design and concept art for such successful toy lines as WWF Wrestling, Marvel Superheroes, and GIJOE. His most recent work includes various project pieces for Dark Horse Comics on Helm and Indiana Smith.
Rounding out the additions to the Heatwave production team are Jason Beardsley (Senior Server Programmer), Randy Culley (Senior Graphics Engineer), Dean Elzey (Senior Web Programmer), Kenzie Lamar (Senior Character Artist) and Kelly Goodine (Senior Artist).
"The stellar talent assembled in our Central Studio is a testament to the strength of our vision," says Anthony Castoro, President of Heatwave Interactive, Inc. "Any experienced industry professional can look at our business model and recognize how we are addressing the flaws in the current system of game creation. As a result, we've been able to recruit a team of industry luminaries to develop groundbreaking original IPs. Heatwave is on target to revolutionize game design and ultimately the entertainment industry."
Through the creation of compelling intellectual property for a variety of cross-media applications, Heatwave's unique philosophy is blazing a trail to bridge the gap between game development and the rest of the entertainment industries.
Heatwave Interactive currently has several unannounced projects in production, and has fully-funded it's Central Studio with a recent series-A investment from Syncom Venture Partners.