Marc DeForest

CEO, Co-Founder and Executive Producer

As CEO and executive producer, Marc guides strategy and development at S2 games. His passion and vision drives from concept to development.

A serial entrepreneur, Marc has invested in a wide array of business ventures throughout his career. He has built, from the ground up, several self-funded multi-million dollar companies that excelled in efficiency and profit. From 2000 to 2006 Marc's company portfolio included multiple restaurants, a classic car manufacturing plant, a plastic injection molding firm, as well as S2 Games. In 2007, Marc sold off his brick-and-mortar based businesses to focus on his biggest passion: the development of S2 Games and their third title, Heroes of Newerth.

Marc discovered his passion for software development, and thus online games, in 1997 when he established an online software design firm that by 1999 had grown to over 100 employees with multiple locations. Marc has a twelve-year experience with overseeing and developing online software systems.

HoN Hero: "Maliken. Because he's named after me!"

Jesse Hayes

Co-Founder, Art Director

Jesse runs the California branch of S2 Games, handling the creation and management of all art related content for the company. He led all art direction for Heroes of Newerth and personally created a vast majority of the game's special effects.

When co-founding S2 Games, Jesse took the reins in the development and was Lead Designer of Savage: The Battle for Newerth, a very ambitious FPS / RTS mix which won the Independent Game of the Year at the Independent Games Festival, and many other editors choice awards.

Jesse started his career at Autodesk, where he quickly worked up to lead artist, handling visuals for commercials, corporate videos and large venue events. After Audodesk, Jesse formed his own company which contributed artwork, models and cinematic work for a number of AAA tittles, film, and commercials.

HoN Hero: "Definitely Engineer. In my spare time I'm constantly tinkering. My hobbies include robotics, electrical engineering, astronomy, photography, guns, mechanical engineering. You name it - if it's a hobby I've done it."

Shawn Tooley

Chief Business Officer

Shawn oversees S2's financial, legal and technical departments, including requisition and planning for all infrastructure needs to support games the size and scope of Heroes of Newerth.

Shawn formerly served as President of DMA Holdings, where he led the management and operation of restaurants, ice arenas, fitness clubs, and Internet marketing ventures. He has been a guest speaker at numerous seminars in Internet marketing, and an invited guest at local Michigan colleges looking to expand their game development curriculum.

HoN Hero: "Hammerstorm, because he's got a giant hammer he slams down to meter out his justice. Now if they would just bring me a bigger hammer."

Jason Gripp

Lead Programmer, Designer

Jason has been working at S2 Games since 2004, providing development of S2 Games' proprietary K2 Engine, a highly customizable engine written almost entirely by Jason and colleague Jason Morales for use in S2 Games properties. The K2 engine is the premise for two completed S2 titles, Savage 2 and Heroes of Newerth. Jason is most proud of the highly efficient netcode used in Heroes of Newerth that allows an RTS style game to be played using robust client-server architecture instead of peer-to-peer architecture that would normally be used.

Before S2 Games, Jason spent a lot of time in the modding communities of Half-Life, Quake, and various other games doing both game and engine mods.

James Fielding

Director of Design and Development

James is responsible for day-to-day activities such as development practices and internal operations coordination. He is also the lead voice in general design philosophy and game play direction at S2 Games. More than anything else, he focuses on producing an environment that is conducive to good ideas.

As the Lead Designer on Heroes of Newerth, James was a key factor in the game's nomination for technical excellence at the Independent Games Festival Awards at GDC 2010.

Previously, James worked with EALA on Battle for Middle Earth II, Command & Conquer III, and Red Alert 3.

Education: James studied Computer Science at Graceland University, and after interning at S2 Games one summer, landed his dream job.

HoN Hero: "Chipper - my play style with him is very "all-in," using all my rockets and skills in one huge volley in an attempt to annihilate targets. This reflects my "go big or go home" attitude in regards to work, too - I like to put in 110% in an effort to make things the best they can be. There's no point in only half-trying on something!"

"Dedicated employees serving dedicated gamers. Continuous development. Never-ending improvement"

At S2 Games, we compel each of our employees to constantly fulfill this mission. We believe that passion, vision, and commitment are the driving forces behind making successful, entertaining games that our community wants to play . we strive to build a hard-working and creative team that shares this view.