Self Employed? Small Business? We Have Health Insurance For You! Dave Cunix at ETON ~ Chagrin Blvd. Say it with LOVE – perfect for Mother's Day, Birthdays, Bar Mitzvahs, Anniversaries and Graduation! Priced from $77 to $110 with other styles available . . . 216.292.8700 Bogart Cunix & Browning, LLC INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT & INSURANCE SERVICES 5900 Landerbrook Drive #201 • Mayfield Heights thecunix@bogartcunix.com • www.bcandb.com 28699 Chagrin Blvd. • 216-831-4444 Mon. ~ Sat. 10 to 6:30 • Sun ~ noon to 5 www.mulhollandsachs.com ’08 BHS Graduate Leads Game Development of Words with Friends Successor By June Scharf ot an idea for a gaming app? Daniel Sternfeld did, and it essentially launched his career. In a remarkably rapid rise, the BHS Class of 2008 graduate now works as a lead engineer at Zynga, the San Fransisco-based developer of social gaming products, including the highly successful Farmville and Words With Friends. Its latest release is Words On Tour, a word puzzle game whose development Sternfeld oversaw through a top secret, high pressure, 10-month process. The game is available through the Apple App store, Google Play and Facebook. The 24-year-old’s path began with games he played as a child, most notably Legends of Zelda, a role-playing puzzle and action adventure. He said the game that pushed him over the edge and made him want to become professionally involved with game creation was Deus Ex, an immersive role-playing experience. “Deus Ex explored the role of storytelling in games,” he explains, adding that he also learned “how simple systems could interact to create something greater than the sum of their parts.” Ultimately, he drew on these factors for inspiration. While attending the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he majored in game design and development, Sternfeld was active in events sponsored by the International Game Developers Association and the annual Global Game Jam. The latter sponsored a 48-hour event where teams created a prototype for an assigned genre. Sternfeld’s strategy and sleuthing game, Fade: Case of the Stolen Diamonds, earned several awards that propelled his interest in building the game out and releasing it through the Apple App store. It earned widespread praise in the gaming industry and essentially became his ticket into the professional world. Fade caught the attention of Zynga and merited Sternfeld with an internship at the company the year before he graduated college. His stint there involved coding and collaborating with designers on the game Café World, in which you are in charge of your own restaurant. He began working full time at Zynga following graduation. G Sternfeld’s advice to those If he had to offer a theory interested in the gaming field is as to why gaming is so to create their own game. “Companies want to see passionate, popular, Sternfeld notes driven people who have a vision that it must be the mental and can make it a reality.” This is possible using many resources challenges. “People need available on line, without neca break from daily life, essarily needing to take a class, Sternfeld says. while still engaging their If he had to offer a theory as to brain.” He believes Words why gaming is so popular, Sternon Tour delivers on this feld notes that it must be the mental challenges. “People need requirement. a break from daily life, while still engaging their brain.” He believes Words on Tour delivers on this requirement. Looking to the industry’s future, Sternfeld believes games, which are evolving quickly, will become increasingly pervasive in society on general purpose devices to which a growing portion of the world has access. He anticipates that education and lifestyle niches will be the focus of future apps and will incorporate more game systems, like leaderboards and achievements as vehicles for greater motivation. Some of the enjoyment he derives from his work stems from the way it’s “a fusion of art and technology,” two areas of great interest to him. He also gets a big thrill out of watching people play the games he helps create. Sternfeld’s family includes his parents, Beachwood residents Fred and Randi Sternfeld, and older brother, Adam, who works in Cleveland as a software engineer for the Regional Income Tax Agency. 18 Beachwood Buzz n April 2015