Faculty & Staff
Stay tuned for staff profiles from the upcoming season!
Our staff consists of top-tier instructors with backgrounds in game development, character design, game programming and professional gaming. Our staff has also demonstrated technical and instructional excellence. Check back regularly as we add content to these pages for the upcoming season.
Randy
Academy Program Manager
Randy graduated in 1988 from the University of Colorado with a BS in Business Administration and an emphasis in Marketing. While he is now employed full time with iD Gaming Academy and iD Programming Academy, he has been an Art Director and contributing animator for more than ten game titles for publishers as diverse as THQ® and Microsoft®. In addition to being trained in traditional animation, Randy has had Flash® animation cartoons published by ESPN.com and is a freelance sports cartoonist for the Seattle Times. Randy has been working with iD for 6 years and has been at the helm of the Academy since its inception.
iD Gaming Academy, Stanford University
Jeff Pietz
Director
After receiving his BA at the University of Washington in 1995, Jeff immediately dove into the world of education with a passion for enriching the lives of students. Jeff currently teaches high school math and, for the past seven years, has also created summer enrichment curriculum for middle school students in the Archdiocesan schools of inner city Seattle. To further his passion for education, Jeff spends his summer at the iD Gaming Academy. When not teaching, Jeff has also mentored students by coaching football, basketball and track & field.
Jay Vales
Modeling Instructor
A 3D Cinematics Animator with a degree from the Art Institute of California – Orange County, Jay has been working in the game industry for over five years. His professional credits include Korean import games Grand Chase and Trickster Online, The Golden Compass: The Game, Smackdown vs. RAW 2010, Grand Theft Auto 4, Grand Theft Auto 4: The Lost and Damned and the massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. Even with so many games under his belt, Jay enjoys his summers teaching at iD Tech. He has been a camp instructor at UC Irvine, Pepperdine University and Cal Lutheran, and most recently as a Modeling Instructor at the iD Gaming Academy. Jay is currently teaching Maya animation at Riverside Community College and hosts a weekly podcast called Clone Chamber, a show dedicated to news commentary and interviews on the game industry.
Will Howard
Level Design Instructor / Modeling Instructor
Since his youth, Will always wanted to tell a great story with a video game. While earning his degree in Video Game Art and Design at the Art Institute of California – San Francisco, Will worked on three different video game prototypes as a Character Modeler, Level Designer and Art Director. Upon graduation, his portfolio was exhibited at the Game Developer’s Conference in 2008. Will currently works as a freelance 3D Artist on product animations and independent game prototypes using Maya®, Photoshop®, AfterEffects® and the Unreal® Engine 3. He is proud to spend his summers teaching the next generation of game developers at the iDGA Stanford campus.
Matt Kang
Game Programming Instructor
With a BS in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology, Matt has a field of interest in advanced computer graphics and animation programming techniques. He is a former professional gamer under the moniker “Impulse”, achieving league titles in CEVO, the former CALeague and several LAN tournament wins. He is currently developing a proprietary game engine for first-person shooters. He also enjoys running, basketball and game programming in his spare time.
Daniel Hall
Game Programming Instructor
A game design and development student living in New York, Dan is pursuing his degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Dan has been learning about the game design process from pitch to production, as well as other industry techniques such as three dimensional modeling, animation, web design and programming. He spends his free time working on independent game projects with other RIT students and enjoys the creation of virtual worlds. In his spare time, Dan also enjoys comedy, science fiction, fantasy, anime, fencing and, of course, video games.
iD Gaming Academy, Villanova University
Daleth Sendin
Director
When not directing at the iD Gaming Academy, Daleth stays busy teaching Maryland High School students the ins and outs of technology. Not only does he teach courses in Digital Electronics Foundations and Engineering, but he also sponsors the Academic Robotics Club. Previously he has lectured for the state of Florida on the use of internet technology in the classroom, and continues to research and promote future applications of technology within educational institutions. Extensive travel throughout the United States and across four continents has revealed the need for expanding educational outlooks, and thus Daleth has attempted to apply global teaching principles in business and educational settings.
Alex Thibodeau
Game Programming Instructor
Currently a Senior at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Alex is pursuing a degree in Computers Science specializing in the field of artificial intelligence. He has worked at high profile companies such as IBM and Goodrich. Alex also enjoys playing hockey, soccer and computer games. He is also the Assistant Tournament Administrator for the Nor’Easter LAN party, which takes place in Wilmington, Massachusetts and attracts about 400 participants annually.
iD Gaming Academy, Emory University
Neil Bonsteel
Director / Modeling Instructor
A 2D/3D Animator living in Maryland, Neil graduated from the Rochester Institute of Art, where he created the longest hand-drawn animated thesis in the school’s history, clocking in at 14 minutes long. He was also awarded “Most Creative” at SIGGRAPH’s 24-hour video game making competition, Game Jam. Neil currently works as a Facial Animator at Image Metrics, a Santa Monica based studio that does facial animation for video games and movies. His current projects include Rockstar’s western video game, “Red Dead Redemption”. He enjoys spending his spare time mentoring students at the iD Gaming Academy and looks forward to another spectacular summer.
Join Our Team!
Interested in working for a premier summer program specializing in video game development camps for teens? For details on how to apply for the iD Gaming Academy, please refer to our employment page.
