The delivery context
Across New Future Holdings and Vanguard, I led creative and product direction for 60+ titles released into market over three years. The first year focused on prototyping different games. In year two, the team released 40+ ALIZE titles, including ALIZE LITE; in year three, 23 Superbull titles were released before my departure. These are combined team-delivery figures. My work connected creative execution, product priorities, hiring and cross-functional coordination.
Teach the judgement alongside the tools
Some artists were initially reluctant to use AI. I coached them through regular discussion, hands-on guidance and review of their own concept variations. The goal was to develop their ability to curate, compare and defend a direction, with increasing ownership of the work.
Explore, review and secure approval
I created many starting concepts and invited artists to propose directions on delegated projects. We explored mockups, reviewed what worked and refined the chosen direction. I then presented the selected concept to stakeholders and incorporated feedback before the team developed production assets.
Run art and development in parallel
Small teams developed assets from the approved concept, followed by the required animation work. Developers worked alongside that process, making direct communication with Vietnam-based counterparts essential. Reusable UI/UX and engine foundations supported multiple titles while each game retained its own visual identity.
Remove the communication bottleneck
I organised small project pods and gave emerging leads direct responsibility for coordination with artists and developers. This spread delivery responsibility and gave people practical opportunities to develop leadership, while I retained creative review and direction.
Build leadership capacity
Through one-to-one coaching, shadowing and opportunities to lead presentations and team discussions, I helped develop broader leadership capability within the creative team and prepared a successor to take over creative direction. This complemented the project pods: people gained responsibility alongside practical support to lead.
Evaluate the work that matters
AI output still had to survive concept review, stakeholder feedback, asset production, animation and integration. My approach connects the creative idea, the player experience and the production system. In games and iGaming, presentation must remain faithful to the actual rules and outcome model.
Production and mentoring practices described by Jim Ling · Concept exploration and prototypes are labelled separately from launched titles