Meet the Team

Core Team

Developers listed on this page have accepted the commitment to hold a leadership position, or have demonstrated their commitment to the team through 6 months or more persistent work on game development and are still active.  Other developers who hold shorter terms are not listed here. Our development team is staffed entirely by volunteers who have a strong professional work ethic, and are invested in seeing the project to completion.

Laurene Wells

Owner and CEO of Heaven’s Blessings Tiny Zoo

Laurene resides in Oregon with her husband Ron Wells and homeschools their 4 children. Laurene has carried leadership roles in an online game environment in three MMORPG titles, and worked as a volunteer for Sony Online Entertainment for more than 2.5 years. Laurene first registered Heaven’s Blessings Tiny Zoo in the state of Oregon in 2003, enlisted her first volunteer in 2004 and has continued to grow the company through her team of volunteers. She has a natural talent with pencil drawings, especially animals, and has taught herself 3D art for game development.  VISIONS is her company’s flagship project, a Christian MMORPG set in the 2nd century holy land, currently in development. The Visions public beta is anticipated to be released the end of 2009.  A secondary project which spawned out of the VISIONS development cycle is CHARIOTS, a Christian racing game set loosely in ancient history which was released in July 2008.  In July 2009 Laurene released her card game, MESSIAH through online distributor TGC.  She anticipates releasing her other card game later in 2009 as well.

Ron Wells

IT Director

Ron enjoys a quiet life in Oregon with his wife and 4 children.  His primary role on the project involves managing the test servers for the game project, and keeping the local computers functional and online. He brings to the team a lifetime of experience repairing, maintaining, and networking computer technology. Ron has earned a B.S. degree in Automated Manufacturing Engineering, an A.A.S. degree in Electronics Engineering Technology, and certified as an MCP through Microsoft. He worked for 9 years in the high tech silicon industry and has worked for more than 4 years in as a Network Administrator for an esteemed wood products company.

Mark Dynna

Programming Director

Mark leads the programming efforts for both the Chariots and Visions projects. He joined us from Canada in April of 2006 and quickly proved his worth as a core member of the team. He brings to the table a degree in Electronic Systems Engineering, and several years programming experience in a professional software development studio. One week after accepting the Lead Programmer position on our team, his paying job also promoted him to Programming Team Lead.  In September 2009 Mark accepted the promotion to Programming Director and continues to help strengthen our development team with his gifts and talents in both programming and leadership.  The Lord has blessed his faithfulness to this ministry even through difficult times, and he continues to seek the Lord’s will for his life.   Mark has also served as an instructor with Torqueschool.com  where he teaches students how to create games in TGEA. He has worked as a programmer on the Fantasci project as well, and has plans for developing some of his own game ideas with his wife in the future.

Tim Wright

Marketing Director

Tim lives in Virginia with his wife and three children. He is a strong advocate for christian and family friendly gaming, stretching his time and talents between several Christian game development organizations. Tim joined the Heaven’s Blessings Tiny Zoo in December of 2007 to help with the forums, and having proven his dedication to the team and the project now manages the entire marketing operations of the company.

Brian McCoy

Art Director

Brian hails from the state of New York.  He is a self-taught artist who has learned to use multiple 3D art software programs, and then taken that knowledge to the next level by creating tutorial videos to share his skill with other artists seeking to follow the same path.  Brian has worked in a variety of fields demonstrating his versatility and diligence to do whatever it takes to get the job done.  The benefit of his creative ideas extend beyond the art team to enhance the experience of the entire development team as a whole.

Erin Floyd

Quest Team Director

Erin makes her home in the South with her husband. She has many years experience as a leader, particularly in online environments, including several years experience in a leadership with Sony Online Entertainment.  Erin has been cultivating her writing skills in an online role playing game environment where she creates, implements and conducts live quests for a player audience.  She also has a passion for using her skills and talents for Jesus and was enthusiastic about joining the Visions game development team at a time in her life when she was seeking the path God wanted her to follow.  Between her extensive quest and writing experience, and her devoted faith in Christ, Erin’s contribution to the Visions Quest Team is priceless.

Alicia Oliver

Executive Assistant

Alicia first joined the team in August of 2007 to help Laurene with the overload of administrative tasks.  Following a temporary medical leave of absence she rejoined the team in May 2009.  She performs all manner of administrative and managerial tasks, serves as an advisor, and promotes a positive team morale.  Alicia lives in Texas with her husband and two children, participates in the parent groups at her children’s school, cares for her aging mother nearby, and remains active in the Lions as her health allows.  She is excited about the coming launch of Visions and hopes it will spark a new wave of spiritual revival around the world.

Ross Leland

Programming Team Leader

Ross is a self-taught C++ Programmer, Torque Scripter and 3D artist from Oregon.  His work on the team has varied from troubleshooting, to scripting, to level design, to 3D model creation, to wiki editing.  Ross joined the Visions team in 2005, and attended the Christian Game Developer’s Conference with the Visions team in 2006 in Portland Oregon. After a Leave of Absence he has returned to the development team in March 2008 and continues to advance his game development career as a programmer.

Branden Snowberger

Game Developer

Branden is a self-taught 3D artist and level designer. Branden works on his own game development project during the day, helps his mother with her home business in the evenings, and volunteers his free time to HBTZ on weekends and during the in-between times. He brings to the company experience in 3D art, level design in the world editor, and scripting. Branden enjoys the experience of working with the volunteer team here and looks forward to celebrating our success when the games launch.