Ray Tylak: Portfolio & Experience
Production Director | Producer | Department Manager | Trainer & Consultant | PMP | PMI-ACP
I have been in the video game & software industry for over 25 years, across multiple studios and 3 countries, and involved with the production of over 60 titles. The majority of my career has been in a leadership position as a Producer/ Production Director (building teams, defining production processes, and hands-on shipping of projects) or as a strategic planner (building departments, project roadmaps, talent strategies and budgets). I also worked in HR for several years (building learning & development programs, career development frameworks, staffing processes and policies) as well as a studio Art Director for 10million MAU mobile and browser titles.
I enjoy building and collaborating with teams on dynamic and ever-changing challenges together to achieve success. The video game industry is an incredible merging of technology, art, and creativity that continually provides new adventures, learnings, opportunities, and experiences that push me and my teams to grow each and every day. Navigating that dynamic environment while building amazing products with amazing people is incredibly rewarding and fulfilling.
Below is a brief recap of my experience and the projects I contributed to as either a direct contributor/developer, Art Director, Producer, Production Director, or HR manager across console, PC, mobile, browser, and handheld platforms. I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the best people and teams in the industry.
Owner | Production Director, Trainer & Consultant
May, 2024 - Present
Phase Forward Solutions is a project management consulting & service provider specialized in games and interactive entertainment media & edutainment.
We work with clients to understand their vision, objectives, pain points and business aspirations in order to assess, revise and implement production methodologies to help them meet their objectives, including strategic high-level production frameworks, tactical low-level production processes, and hands-on project management support.
Accomplishments:
Supporting a broad range of clients and customers, from AAA public companies to indies & startups, as well as colleges and training institutions.
Collaborated with other industry experts to design & build Vancouver Community College’s very first Project Management for Games curriculum.
Appointed Chair of Humber College’s Interactive Media Management - Creative Technologies’ Program Advisory Board, providing insights and feedback while supporting project management curriculums in development.
Production Director
Jan 2023 - Apr 2024
Relic Entertainment is an award-winning developer of genre-defining strategy game franchises such as Homeworld, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, and Age of Empires.
Reporting to the Executive Producer and VP of Production, I worked with multiple projects of 50+ team members to establish their project management foundations and processes for successful product delivery.
Accomplishments:
Worked with the studio PMO to formulate Relic’s new overall software development framework, its production phases, milestone stage-gates and accompanying deliverables from game conception to pre-production to launch to live operations.
Worked with stakeholders & experts to build and implement multiple projects' production roadmaps & development phase schedules, milestone gates & acceptance criteria, hands-on production methodologies, tracking & reporting methods, and team structure & organization (projects unannounced / un-released).
HR | Strategic Planning Manager
Oct 2019 - Dec 2022
Ubisoft Toronto is one of the largest Canadian video game development studios, leading production on some of Ubisoft's most well-known brands including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Far Cry Primal, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Far Cry 6, and Watch Dogs Legion.
Reporting to the HR Director and Studio Executive Producer, I managed the Strategic Talent Planning team, Recruitment & Campus teams, and the Learning & Development team to oversee the assessment, planning and implementation of studio and company initiatives in the support of current and future products.
Accomplishments:
Collaborated cross-studio internationally with company leadership, studio & project leadership, HR teams and support teams to align on strategic initiatives, build project roadmaps and implementation plans, and manage their execution and integration.
Devised and oversaw multi-year 1000-person staffing plans aligned with our business strategy, game production roadmaps, and skills & competency targets.
Strengthened and grew our talent sourcing & acquisition pipelines, our internship & new grad initiatives, and designed & launched tailored employee onboarding programs per job-family.
Analyzed, developed and implemented hard & soft skill training programs aligned with the studio’s business objectives, project roadmaps, evolving technologies, and career evolution intentions.
Senior Producer
Sep 2017 - Sep 2019
Reporting to the Production Director, I managed 50+ team members across tech, feature and content teams for Watch Dogs Legion, with a heavy focus on its revolutionary “Play As Anyone” open world systems and character generation.
Accomplishments:
Collaborated with cross-studio Directors, Producers and stakeholders to establish feature and content scope & targets, build their production roadmaps, and provide hands-on project management to ensure their successful product delivery.
Oversaw the development of our "Living City" systems, procedural character generation systems, animation systems, open world AI and all associated content.Defined realistic, challenging and achievable feature & content mandates for our co-dev partners.
Implemented our teams’ structure & organization and its evolution according to project needs.
Production Director
Ubisoft Chengdu
Ubisoft Chengdu is Ubisoft’s second studio in China and has grown to be a recognized co-developer on Ubisoft’s biggest AAA brands such as Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, For Honor, The Crew, Might & Magic, and many others. In addition, Ubisoft Chengdu has lead production on multiple titles across PC, console and mobile platforms such as Immortals Fenyx Rising, Monkey King Escape, Scrabble, UNO, and The Smurfs & Co.
Reporting to the Studio’s Managing Director, I directly managed our AAA department and co-development teams of 70+ team members for international collaborations on Ubisoft’s biggest brands, providing hands-on project management on our Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Skull & Bones projects.
Accomplishments:
Recruited, assembled, trained and managed our development teams for international collaborations.
Defined and oversaw the successful delivery of our feature and content mandates with our global partners across scope, budget and quality KPI targets.
Owned and drove the studio’s ongoing multi-year strategic roadmap covering projects, competencies, and people development and its overall business plan.
Supported studio growth and scalability by building and maintaining the studio’s production framework and project management toolkit, running weekly project management sharing & mentoring sessions.
Outsourcing Director
May 2012 - Mar 2015
Reporting to the Studio’s Managing Director, I directly managed our outsourcing department and co-development teams as we grew to 100+ team members, functioning as an in-house content provider across nearly all of Ubisoft’s brands at the time, delivering thousands of people-months of content.
Accomplishments:
Formed, grew and directly managed the co-development department to support profitability of large-scale content production for Ubisoft studios worldwide.
Established partnerships with local universities to implemented multi-year sessions of “Ubisoft Classroom,” an in-house training program to streamline new-talent recruitment pipelines.
Scaled delivery capacity by vetting and partnering with local external outsourcing companies.
Successfully managed and executed content-heavy, international co-development collaborations across a variety of brands, platforms, and game types.
Wore multiple hats; was also Art Director on our Facebook & mobile titles of 10million monthly-active-users, including The Smurfs & Co Spellbound, one of Facebook’s ‘Games of the Year.’
Art Production Manager
Ubisoft Chengdu
Reporting to the Studio’s Managing Director, I relocated to Chengdu, China, to support the lead-up & launch of the new Ubisoft Chengdu studio. I was responsible for the recruitment, training, building and growing of our art & animation department and its associated projects, as well as the framework & implementation of our project management processes.
Accomplishments:
Obtained & defined initial projects and mandates, and implemented our foundational project management and business methodologies to create what would become an internationally recognized content provider for AAA collaborations with other studios worldwide.
Designed & delivered game development training programs, and oversaw our successful delivery of content across PC, console, mobile, and handheld platforms for our various proprietary engines.
Worked with the Managing Director to formulate our studio strategy & culture as the studio grew to hundreds of team members.
Worked closely with HR to grow and evolve our new studio via recruitment, career development programs, performance management processes, and our departmental organizational structure.
Art and Level Design Lead
Ubisoft Red Storm
Lead Artist | Animator | Designer | Programmer
2001 Prior
Additional
Certifications, Speaking, Volunteering
Red Storm Entertainment is an award-winning video game studio known for launching influential, landmark, ‘Game of the Year’ franchises such as Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, which I was fortunate to be heavily involved with.
Reporting to the Art Department Director and Lead Producer, I designed, built and shipped gameplay levels across multiple titles, including as an Art & Level-Design Lead directly managing teams of 20+ developers.
Accomplishments:
As part of the core level design team, responsible for designing, reviewing, and approving all level layouts throughout production.
For specific titles, was responsible for the overall art direction across our gameplay levels in addition to hands-on art & design production.
Personally built multiple gameplay maps that were selected and pre-released to the press and public for our marketing campaigns and promotional events, including packaged on-disc with game magazine publications.
Prior to joining Red Storm Entertainment, I had separate stints at game development studios Random Games and Perpetual Motion Enterprises as a multi-disciplined game developer and Lead. Titles varied from tactical turn-based-strategy games to board game conversions to niche game pack compilations to browser-based Flash titles.
Accomplishments:
Personally contributed design, programming, art, and animation across a variety of game engines and game styles while leading various cross-functional teams.
Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Practical Application of Generative AI for Project Managers Certification
Data Landscape of GenAI for Project Managers Certification
Talking to AI: Prompt Engineering for Project Managers Certification
Generative AI Overview for Project Managers Certification
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AI Skills Challenge Badge: Create Agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio
AI Skills Challenge Badge: Accelerate Developer Productivity
with GitHub and Azure for Developers
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Launchpad for Entrepreneurs Certification
Digital Media Zone Masterclass Trailblazer: Gold
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Certified Scrum Master
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Speaker, GDC China: AAA Content Production on Assassin's Creed
Speaker, LaGou Branding Show: Let Your Dream Shape Your Career
Speaker, GDC China: Reducing Risk in Your Art Outsourcing Pipeline
Speaker, GDC China: Workflow Methods for the Environment Artist
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Volunteer Staff Member, Toronto Public School System
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