Game Tools as a Service
Asset management systems, content pipelines, developer productivity tools, iteration speed optimization
Adam Hafez
Project Technical Director - Tools & Pipelines
Technical Director with 8+ years experience in AAA gaming, leading tool and pipeline initiatives for live service MMO development. Expert in building scalable content pipelines, asset management systems, and fostering cross-functional collaboration in remote development environments.
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About Adam Hafez
Professional background and expertise of Adam Hafez, Technical Director at ZeniMax Online Studios with 8+ years of AAA gaming experience.
I'm a Technical Director with over 8 years of experience in AAA gaming, currently leading a remote 20+ person team of engineers at ZeniMax Online Studios. My journey started as a Software Engineer in healthcare IT and evolved into specializing in production pipelines and tooling for Live Service MMO game development.
I focus on building game tools as a service - creating systems that empower diverse teams including animators, designers, artists, and engineers to efficiently develop content for live service games. My expertise spans asset management systems, cross-team collaboration, and solving the unique challenges of 24-hour development cycles across global time zones.
Core Development Philosophy
"How smoothly a single developer can push content through your pipelines has a direct correlation with how much content you will be able to release"
"Developing live service games is a marathon - maintaining human connections within and across studios is essential"
Key Principles:
- Focus on iteration speed and developer productivity
- Balance stability and velocity in live service environments
- Future-proof development processes without premature optimization
- Content release cycles as a measure of project health
Skills & Expertise
Core competencies and technical expertise areas including game tools development, team leadership, and live service architecture.
Remote Team Leadership
Managing 20+ distributed engineers, cross-timezone collaboration, autonomous team enablement
Live Service Development
MMO pipelines, continuous content delivery, release management, micro-release cycle optimization
Technical Vision & Strategy
Technical roadmapping, stakeholder collaboration, future-proofing development processes
Professional Experience
Project Technical Director - Tools & Pipelines
ZeniMax Online Studios (Feb 2021 - Present)
Leading technical foundation with focus on developer tools, pipelines, and release management. Growing and managing a remote 20+ person team across multiple time zones. Balancing long-term project requirements with immediate developer needs while establishing cross-functional communication processes.
Lead Technical Artist
ZeniMax Online Studios (Jul 2020 - Feb 2021)
Collaborated with art and engineering teams to improve production pipelines. Mentored technical artists and architected asset management systems for unannounced project prototyping phase, including world-building workflows in Houdini.
Principal Technical Artist
ZeniMax Online Studios (Jan 2020 - Jul 2020)
Maintained comprehensive understanding of art production pipelines for Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor. Focused on improving ESO release management systems to support rapid iteration cycles.
Content Management Engineer
ZeniMax Online Studios (Feb 2017 - Jan 2020)
Designed and implemented asset management system with graph database (ArangoDB) and Angular frontend. Developed tools for 3dsMax, Maya, and custom Python/C# solutions to streamline production processes.
Industry Presentations
"Game Tools as a Service"
Live Service Gaming North America Summit 2025
Supporting the Continuous Development of Live Service Products
Live Service Pipelines
Asset Management
Remote Collaboration
Stakeholder Alignment
Deep dive into building scalable content pipelines, tooling strategies, and managing distributed development teams across global time zones for live service MMO development.
Key Topics Covered:
- How content release cycles measure overall project health
- Asset lifecycle management for live service games
- Cross-functional team collaboration strategies
- Adapting development processes for remote work environments
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