Game design · Product design · Creative direction
Ron Millar
I build worlds, creative tools, and things people can play with.
Core Strengths
Creative leadership · Product strategy · Team building · Game & systems design · Creator platforms · Applied AI & AI-Assisted Development
AI is central to how I work. Through more than three years of daily professional and personal use, I’ve developed deep, practical fluency in applying it across design, development, research, and creative production. It has expanded what I can build independently and strengthened the skills I bring to a team.
Experience Highlights
Nilo
Jan 2025 – Oct 2026Product Designer
Helped Nilo build momentum through a16z speedrun in Q1 2025 and secure $4M in seed funding. Shaped product strategy and helped hire for key roles while working hands-on every day to design and prototype an AI-assisted 3D creation platform. My work spanned creator workflows, product and systems design, 3D editor interactions, AI creation and agent UX, gameplay tools, asset pipelines, playtesting, visual debugging, and collaboration. I helped bring agentic game creation to the browser, and I’m excited to see Nilo pursue a Series A in 2027 and discover what the team builds next.
Bigscreen
June 2024 – July 2024Product Designer / Consultant
Worked with the team on the Software Side to review and map their product from funnel to launch. Created a comprehensive roadmap and detailed user journey map for the product. Helped design, code and prototype ideas to potentially add to the software platform for users. May do some more advisory work in the future.
VRChat
Mar 2016 – Jul 2023Chief Creative Officer
Helped grow VRChat from an early community of around 40 users to millions, and from a small founding team into a globally recognized social platform. Helped launch VRChat on Steam in February 2017 and secure Series A–D funding. Played a foundational role in its community and creator ecosystem, shaping creative direction, creator tools, hiring, company strategy, and business development. Helped expand beyond PC and PC VR to Quest and lay the groundwork for mobile.
Fun Bits Interactive
May 2012 – Mar 2016Game Development Consultant / VR / Audio
Combined game design, scripting, dialogue, voice direction, spatial sound, and music on HALP!, an Oculus-funded Touch demo for Oculus Connect 2. Built and maintained the team’s daily task tracker. On Apophis 2029, worked on player flow, progression planning, and mobile audio review. This period also included spatial audio for Oculus Story Studio’s Lost and collaboration with Camouflaj on République.
Float Hybrid
May 2010 – May 2012Product Designer / Consultant
Collaborated with John Gaeta, Peter Oberdorfer, and a multidisciplinary team on research, design, and development for Kinect, AR, and VR projects. Worked alongside specialists in visual effects and game development to create prototypes and interactive experiences that gave people new ways to engage with brands.
Blizzard Entertainment
Jan 1991 – Jan 1998Lead Designer
I started in 1991 as an Artist and Animator back when the company was called Silicon & Synapse. Back when it was just Allen Adham, Mike Morhaime, Frank Pearce, Patt Wyatt and Joey Ray Hall. Mostly worked on helping port game assets from early game systems to other platforms. Later on I continued to work on art and animation but also started working on the design of the games. I came up with the original idea for The Lost Vikings and worked on other titles such as Rock n Roll Racing and Blackthorne where I was the lead designer. As the years progressed I became the Head Designer for Blizzard and all game design for the company. I ended up working with the team on WarCraft 1, WarCraft 2 plus it's expansion packs. I also helped shape Diablo including shifting it from a turn based game to a real time game. Before leaving Blizzard I was the Lead Designer of StarCraft. I designed all of the original mechanics, the isometric layout, each of the races and how they all had original styles of play. Something I had wanted to originally do in Warcraft 2. I learned a great deal from my experience at Blizzard and consider them my formative years in the game industry.
Independent work & making
I’m always learning, experimenting with new tools, and finding out what an idea can become by building it. For more than three years, AI has been a central part of my hands-on work across games, apps, audio, music, tools, and creative experiments. I also combine 3D printing and electronics to make practical physical builds, and I’m writing a science-fiction novel.
- Games & apps: PlunderPit, BattleCrew, and Pararogue game prototypes, plus AICookd, a discovery site for AI-created projects.
- Audio & music: BEMUFO modular synthesis and Drone Garden, a generative ambient instrument combining music and visuals.
- Tools & workflows: ProcLvL procedural level design, Boother parametric booth design, and Blender add-ons, using Codex, Cursor, and Claude Code to explore and implement ideas.
- Physical builds: Bambu P1S printing, Steam Deck cyberdeck printing and assembly using sourced enclosure designs, and a Raspberry Pi retro Mac build integrating printed parts and electronics.
- Writing & storytelling: An original science-fiction novel in progress, extending my interest in imagining worlds and the people who inhabit them.
Technical & Creative Skills
Executive Level Management & Strategy · Product Design & Direction · User Generated Content · Creator Communities · Growth, Retention & Monetization · Data Science / Analysis / Metrics · Game Development · Game Design / System Design · User Interface Design · User Experience Design · Environment Design · Avatar Design · Project Management · Team Building · Quality Assurance · Live Feature Development · Marketing · Social Media · Influencers and Streamers · Diagramming · Ideation to Execution · Prototyping · 3D Modeling · Sound Design · Music Composition · Music Technology · Coding · Tool Creation · Virtual Reality · Augmented Reality · Mixed Reality · Spatial Computing · C# · C++ · React · Node.js · Python · AI-assisted Development · Codex, Cursor & Claude Code · AI Creation & Agent UX · 3D Editor Interaction Design · Procedural Geometry & Technical Art · GLB / FBX / Roblox Asset Pipelines · Visual Debugging & Playtesting · Blender Python Add-ons · TypeScript / Three.js / WebRTC · Audio Software & JUCE · 3D Printing · Stripe Integration · macOS & iOS App Development · Classic Mac Restoration · Modular Synthesizers · Physical Computing & Hardware Assembly