Bruce Blumberg
Senior Scientist

Bruce leads Blue Fang’s Synthetic Animal Team, which is focused on creating the technology, tools and processes that will enable Blue Fang to create expressive, intelligent and engrossing animal characters that will set the bar for the next generation of digital entertainment experiences.

Prior to joining Blue Fang, Bruce was an Associate Professor at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab where he served as the Director of the Synthetic Characters Group. This group performed ground breaking research on behavior, learning and motor control for autonomous animated characters.

As Director of the Synthetic Characters Group, Bruce has led teams that created and developed numerous award-winning interactive installations at such prestigious venues as SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, E3, and AAAI. An impressive list of published papers can be added to the list of awards he and his group have received, including Grand prize for “AlphaWolf” at the 2002 Digital Art Awards.

Prior to joining the MIT Media Lab, Bruce held management positions at Apple Computer and NeXT Computer.

Bruce holds a Master of Science degree in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Laboratory.

Hank Howie
President

Hank Howie is the President of Blue Fang Games where he both manages the day-to-day operations of the company and guides Blue Fang’s business and strategic direction.

Hank began his career in the gaming industry at Spinnaker Software in 1989 where he was a Product Manager. In 1993, Hank managed Interchange GameSpace, the Ziff-Davis/AT&T online multi-player game service. In 1996 he joined Restrac, Inc., as their Internet General Manager, where his team built and launched their Internet recruiting products. Hank joined Blue Fang in 1998 as President.

In addition to his responsibilities at Blue Fang, Hank is an active thought leader within the software industry. He has delivered his presentation entitled “Making Games in 40 hours a week” across the country at numerous conferences, seminars and panels. He has appeared on PBS’ Computer Chronicles and regularly speaks to colleges in and around the Boston area. Hank was a leading contributor to The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) 2004 white paper entitled "Quality of Life in the Game Industry: Challenges and Best Practices".

Hank holds a BA degree in History from Bates College and an MBA degree from Boston College.

Adam Levesque
CEO/Creative Director

Adam Levesque is the Creative Director and CEO of Blue Fang Games. In his role at Blue Fang, Adam leads the development process of the company’s projects. He is integrally involved in all design aspects of the company’s games.

Adam began his career as a game tester and later became the Producer and Designer for top-selling “NASCAR Racing” and “NASCAR Racing 2” from Papyrus Design Group. These two games had combined sales of over 2 million units and generated over $50 million in revenue. Adam left his role of General Manager at Papyrus in 1998 to start Blue Fang.

In 2004, Adam completed work on Zoo Tycoon 2 which advanced the Zoo Tycoon franchise to a new level by allowing players to come face to face with their Zoo creations and the animals in them. Adam is now leading the development of Blue Fang’s new next-generation console project.

Steve Meretzky
Senior Designer

Steve Meretzky is a Senior Designer at Blue Fang, bringing 25 years of game development experience to the company.

Steve started his game career at Infocom, writing many of that company’s now-legendary text adventures. His first game, Planetfall, introduced the beloved character of Floyd the Robot. He also collaborated with author Douglas Adams to turn The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy into the #1-selling game of 1985; in 2005, the 20th anniversary release of Hitchhiker’s Guide won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Online Game. Steve’s other Infocom titles include Zork Zero, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, and A Mind Forever Voyaging.

In the early 90s, Steve created the Spellcasting trilogy for Legend Entertainment, about the bawdy adventures of a student at Sorcerer University (a decade before anyone had ever heard of Hogwarts). Legend also published Steve’s comedy role-playing game, Superhero League of Hoboken

In 1994, Steve co-founded a studio called Boffo Games, and designed the unique Hodj ‘n’ Podj, which combined the gameplay of a classic board game, a fairy tale setting, and 19 embedded casual games.

In 2000, Steve became Creative Content Director at WorldWinner.com, responsible for the development of over 30 games on that site, and taking it from pre-launch to being the number one skill games site on the Web. Steve has also done stints at THQ and at mobile game developer Floodgate Entertainment. He has consulted on game design for many companies including Disney, Hasbro, Blizzard, and Harmonix.

Steve holds a bachelor’s degree from MIT, is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and is a co-organizer of the annual Game Designers Workshop. Steve is a charter member of the International Game Developers Association and spent two years on that organization’s Board of Directors. Steve is one of the founders of Post Mortem, the monthly gathering of Boston area game developers. He is a frequent speaker at industry events, and for the last five years has helped organize and moderate the Casual Games Summit at the Game Developers Conference.

Bill Schofield
Director of Software Engineering

As Director of Software Engineering, Bill is responsible for creating and driving the vision of the engineering department, and aligning it to deliver on Blue Fang’s mission and goals. He also coordinates and prioritizes departmental work, fosters use of best development practices and applies his extensive knowledge and experience with Agile development to game development projects at Blue Fang.

Prior to joining Blue Fang Games, Schofield was a Senior Software Architect at Ternary Software, an award-winning agile consultancy and outsourced development company. In this position, he led development teams through design, implementation, testing, and deployment cycles of software development efforts including both games and web/database products.

Bill also held positions as Senior Software Engineer at Electronic Arts where he was responsible for engineering on the PC game Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault. He also was a Senior Programmer at Ritual Entertainment, working on the games Elite Force II (PC), Counterstrike (Xbox), Counterstrike: Condition Zero (PC); Schofield also held the position of Senior Software Engineer at Retro Studios, working on Metroid Prime (Gamecube), where he co-architected the MVC-based game framework.

Bill holds a B.S. Degree in Mathematics, Minor in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina . He has also completed extensive graduate course work in Numerical and Real Analysis.

JR Surprenant
Executive Producer

As Executive Producer, J.R. manages the Production department and is responsible for ensuring that all Blue Fang projects are delivered on-time, on-budget and at a level of quality that meets or exceeds goals.

J.R. began his career in gaming at Sierra Online where he was a Project Director for Papyrus Design Group. In this role, J.R. successfully managed his development teams through the software development process and shipped several state-of-the-art and critically acclaimed games across multiple platforms including Sony Playstation, Windows and the Internet.

In 1998, J.R. joined Hasbro Games where he worked as a Project Manager and successfully shipped products ranging from electronic hand held games, to popular board games, to card games. In 2000, J.R. joined Hasbro Interactive as a Senior Producer. In this role, J.R. worked on the publishing side and managed external studios through the development of several video games across multiple platforms including Sony Playstation, Sony Playstation 2 and Windows. He also oversaw the activities of Producers and Associate Producers.

J.R. joined Blue Fang in 2001 and served as Producer for each of Blue Fang’s Zoo Tycoon projects released since his arrival.  He was promoted to Executive producer in 2005.  J.R. holds a BS in Business Administration from Merrimack College.

Scott Triola
Chief Operating Officer

As COO, Scott is responsible for supporting Blue Fang Games in the areas of business strategy, finance, marketing and public relations. In addition, Scott acts as the primary liaison with the publisher’s marketing and PR team.

Prior to joining Blue Fang Games, Scott worked as a Brand Manager at Atari where he launched and managed products on PC and console gaming platforms. His portfolio included key franchises including Transformers, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Deer Hunter and Axis & Allies. In his role, Scott also managed relationships with leading entertainment companies including DreamWorks, Hasbro, Six Flags and Intel.

Prior to joining Atari, Scott worked as a Consultant for The Boston Consulting Group, a leading international strategy and general management consulting firm.  As a Consultant, Scott worked on a variety of strategic planning projects for companies across multiple industries.

Scott holds a MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Business Economics and Psychology from Brown University.

John Wheeler
Vice President – Advanced Technology

John is the Co-founder and Vice President - Advanced Technology of Blue Fang Games. In this role, John is responsible for driving the work of the Synthetic Animal Team and integrating the team’s work into Blue Fang’s products. John also researches technological advances in game development and assesses new technologies for internal use.

John's 15 year game development career took off at Papyrus Design Group, where he began as an engineer on “IndyCar Racing” and became Technical Lead on Papyrus’ ground-breaking “NASCAR Racing”, “NASCAR Racing 2” and “Grand Prix Legends”. John left Papyrus in 1998 to form Blue Fang Games with Adam Levesque.