Our founders and core leadership team individually have 20+ years wisdom in creating fun-filled experiences on PC, Consoles and mobile platforms as well as building robust back-end gaming infrastructure and services.
Driven by our CEO Serena Robar, AuthorDigital is dedicated to the following core principles:
Serena Robar
CEO / Co-Founder
Serena Robar is a game industry veteran and accomplished author with a focus on production, narrative design, and community management of online games for major licensed brands including Marvel, Star Wars, Pokémon, and Minecraft. Not only is she one of the few women leaders in the games industry but she’s also a published author of five books with Simon & Schuster and Penguin. Some of which have been optioned for television and film.
AuthorDigital creates games of different genres that connect together via ActiveStory so everyone can play together, even if they’re not playing the same game. They also create games that interconnect and interact with streaming media. As CEO, Serena, leads the company's strategy, team building, fundraising, and more.
Serena started her career focused on community management and community marketing for game developers at Gazillion Entertainment and The Pokémon International company. In those roles, she managed everything from CX for first-time gamers to strategy for online communities.
Building on top of that experience, Serena went to Area 52 Games in 2012, where she began producing several game titles including “Star War: Attack Squadron.” There, she managed production workflow and relationships with several external agencies as well as with external partners like LucasArts. She efficiently led teams that crafted strategy, built in-game assets, and represented the voice of the customer.
In 2015, Serena was hired as a Senior Producer for a AAA (high production value) game by Good Games. One of only a few women at that senior position, she transformed an underperforming team of 70 people into a high-performance operation based on the Agile methodology and was quickly promoted to Director of Production. From there, she and her team of production managers and producers introduced a redesign of the entire production process.
At her next role as Senior Producer/Program Manager of Network Platform for Wargaming Seattle, she donned multiple hats. Not only was she Scrum master for platform services as well as the Creative Art and Video team but she was also responsible for all aspects of third-party game integration. This included partner management, grooming developer deliverables, and technical integration documentation.
And in 2019, Serena leveraged all of her experience to co-found and lead AuthorDigital as CEO. AuthorDigital is dedicated to creating narrative-driven games and studios via their proprietary ActiveStory technology. As CEO, she is drawing on her vast leadership experience to bring to market never-before-seen experiences. Both between games, as well as integrating the worlds of games and streaming entertainment.
Jason Robar
CPO / Co-Founder
Jason Robar is a game industry veteran who has created online casual, MMOG titles for PC and Xbox360, built multiple international independent studios, and created games for major licensed brands - including Star Wars and Marvel.
AuthorDigital creates games of different genres that connect together via ActiveStory so everyone can play together, even if they’re not playing the same game. They also create games that interconnect and interact with streaming media. As CPO, Jason ensures that people are empower to do great work as well as guiding the development of all products.
Jason’s career started in Intelligence Operations for the United States Air Force where he served as a pilot trainer, military systems and intelligence analyst, Russian language interpreter - and more.
After leaving the military, Jason took on the role of Lead Program Manager and Game Technology Evangelist at Microsoft. He was responsible for establishing relationships between Microsoft and game publishers and developers worldwide.
After a brief time at Go2Net as Games Group Manager prior to them being merged with InfoSpace, Jason then founded the AisA Group and was recruited by DARPA as a consulting Program Manager. His focus was bringing commercial games and game technology to bear on the problem of continuous training and learning.
From there, Jason went on to found and lead Secret Lair Studios in Seattle and Studio Ch’in in Shanghai (acquired by Vivendi Games) and lead all aspects of internal development for Sierra Online spanning offices in Seattle and Shanghai. Drawing on his leadership experience, Jason then co-founded and led several international games studios including AristoDigital, The Amazing Society, Area 52 Games, and built a mobile game RPG studio for Good Games Studios in Hamburg, Germany. Ultimately Jason co-founded AuthorDigital in 2019.
A lifelong learner and mentor, Jason has also worked with non-profit organizations to spur entrepreneurship as well as curated conference content for the technology news outlet, VentureBeat. He has been a featured speaker at a wide variety of conferences for over 20 years including the Game Developer Conference and been a special guest speaker internationally in South Korea, China, and throughout Europe.
Bill Roper
Advisor/ Co-Founder
Bill Roper has been a well-known figure in the global gaming industry for 27 years. He has built a solid reputation on his strong relationships with developers, publishers, press, and gamers.
Bill started at Blizzard Entertainment in 1994 with sound, music, and voice-over. He was promoted to Director of 3rd Party Development & Developer Relations and was liaison between Blizzard's studios in Irvine and San Mateo. In 2001, he became Vice President of Blizzard North. As part of the Blizzard executive team his contributions were instrumental in the launch and success of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises.
In 2003, Bill co-founded Flagship Studios with other executives from Blizzard North. By October 2007 he built two companies that launched and operated their first online game, Hellgate: London. The company's second title, Mythos, was in development when the company closed in July of 2008. In November 2008, Roper joined Cryptic studios as Director of Design and served as EP on Champions Online. He was promoted to CCO in January 2010, overseeing the design of all Cryptic games. In August 2010, Bill left Cryptic to become an industry consultant.
In June 2011, Bill joined Disney Interactive as VP, Marvel Games. He was promoted to VP/GM of the Core Games business in January 2012 where he oversaw the launch of Disney Infinity. In January 2014, Roper assumed the role of VP, Head of DI Central Creative where he oversaw creative content, services, audio, outreach, and product reviews across Disney Interactive. In May 2015, Bill moved to DCPI Innovation Labs to find new ways to tell Disney stories with emerging technologies. He served on several steering committees, was a featured speaker, and worked closely with creative leads across DCPI and The Walt Disney company.
In June of 2017, Bill took on the role of CCO at Improbable Worlds in London, England. He led design and personally oversaw the internal AAA demo team which built impossible products on the company’s SpatialOS platform.
Bill has been a featured speaker at a wide variety of conferences for over 25 years including the Game Developer Conference and DICE in the United States and the EU. He has also been a featured speaker in South Korea, China, Japan, and throughout Europe.
Mitch Gilbert
Vice President of Business Development
Vice President of Business Development at AuthorDigital and Great Outdoor Games, Mitch Gilbert is a former founder, business development veteran, and advisor. Mitch began his career as Global Business Development Manager at Vanstar where identified and developed emerging markets as well as opened new distribution channels with national OTC clients such as Safeway, QFC, Costco, and Drug Emporium.
Mitch then took his business development skills to GE Capital ITS and UnionStreet.com before becoming Senior Director of Business Development at InfoSpace. There, he identified and developed emerging markets for the distribution of the InfoSpace platform, conducted extensive product planning and business modeling for direct and channel distribution, and negotiated strategic relationships and joint marketing agreements.
After InfoSpace, Mitch applied his deep knowledge in business development to create a fast-casual dining restaurant, Grinders Hot Sands. There he developed and implemented a sound business plan through extensive market research specific to the fast-casual restaurant segment, negotiated commercial leases, and project managed all tenant improvements. He also created original recipes and signature menu items. Mitch sold Grinders Hot Sands to a Seattle restaurant group that planned on expanding the concept.
Mitch joined AuthorDigital and Outdoor Games in late 2020 to head up business development including sponsorships, product placement, and advertising.
In addition to his professional career, Mitch is also an advisor to the WSU Tri-Cities Advisory Board. He also founded and is active in EatyGourment Hospitality Group.
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