Team

Herwin started programming and gaming the moment the first home computers came out, a fascination that stuck with him his entire life. His interest was both technical and creative, as he loved creating content for RPG’s. He achieved a Master in computer sciences at the Technical University of Twente and went on to become a technical consultant, analyst, programmer, architect, project leader and manager at a range of tech companies, leading technical projects and designing complex systems. Herwin preferred to stay an independent expert and built up a high level of expertise in computer science. His fascination for games never ended. He worked on design jobs for several game studio’s, following the industry closely. In 2019 Herwin met Peter Schreuder Jonkman, became enthusiastic about the design of RotS and agreed to sign on as the CTO for the project. Herwin is responsible for the technical design of the game, including software and hardware architecture, networking, planning and management of the development team.

Peter worked most of his career as a senior manager in the financial industry, leading business units and ICT projects. Writing, history and gaming have always been a passion. He learned to program games in the 1980’s and enjoyed modding games in later years. Peter played many games but always missed something, he felt game design became increasingly generic and specific game fans were not being addressed. In 2016 he started developing Rulers of the Sea in an attempt to combine great game-play elements into something new and original. This started as a hobby project but gradually developed into a detailed and extensive design. In 2019 he presented the finished design to various people in the game industry and the design was met with enthusiasm. He decided to assemble a team of passionate entrepreneurs to bring the Rulers of the Sea project to life.

Jeroen, born in the Netherlands, achieved a Master in Economics and Fiscal Law at the University of Amsterdam and started a career in finance at a global accountancy firm. From there he moved on to work at several businesses such as investment firms and banks. He served as board member and CFO, often involved in complex projects of setting up new businesses, creating legal and financial frameworks and managing risks. He has gained international experience by managing teams from the Benelux to Bangalore and London to Bucharest. At one point in his career Jeroen decided that passion for what you do is more important than going for status and riches. In early 2019 Jeroen learned of the project of Rulers of the Sea and immediately felt this was the creative opportunity he was waiting for. Jeroen loves to play video games, even if he is humiliated by his nephews on occasion. He has a passion for strategic games. But additionally he loves the challenge of setting up new businesses and working with a passionate team.

Mick grew up around his parent's small town pub in the Netherlands. He achieved his bachelor in Commerce at Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Deventer and completed part of his study in Ireland. In Dublin he gained his enthusiasm for online marketing, which became his profession. As a kid, Mick fell in love with worldbuilding and the MMORPG worlds, such as World of Warcraft. This passion continued to grow and Mick set on developing his own game, a tabletop game in collaboration with friends. This started his dream of working in the game industry. In 2021 he applied to the RotS project, aiming to combine his passion for marketing and gaming in one dream job.

Anne-Marie achieved a master in educational sciences at the University of Leiden and subsequently worked as a writer, editor, creator, researcher and developer for nearly 15 years. She's made a specialisation of turning world news and knowledge into educational content for schools and institutes. When she heard of the large body of historical educational content required for Rulers of the Sea, she really wanted to be part of bringing that to life. Anne-Marie is responsible for managing the content creation of the game's education system and coordinating the collaboration with experts, educational institutes and the community.

Patrick is a student of Communications and Multimedia Design with a passion for 2D and 3D art, history and storytelling. He has work experience in serious games - games with an educational purpose - and dabbles in game development. Patrick focusses on graphics as well as the user experience of media products, and from his education has learned how to utilize various media and technology in order to communicate information to an audience. Patrick’s joined Rulers as the Sea for his graduation project, his previous work experiences and passions make Rulers of the Sea a perfect fit where he can put all that he’s learned to the test.

Pedro grew up in Portugal and always loved video games throughout his childhood, on consoles and PC. He enjoyed picking game code apart and finding out how games are constructed. When he had the opportunity to study Games Technology at Coventry University, England, he took the chance. He gained experience in Python, C++ and C# and worked on several projects. After attaining his degree he started looking for a job as developer in the industry he loved. In 2020 he found out about the Rulers of the Sea project and knew immediately he wanted to join the team and put everything he learned into making Rulers of the Sea a reality.

Cedric started making websites at the early age of 10 and he never stopped doing that. Gaming was his other big focus, especially a love for MMO's and business sims. 
After finishing an apprenticeship as IT-Specialist for system integration, he started his bachelor in applied computer science. His passion to create and his love for gaming are what drove him to work for Rulers of the Sea.

Rudolf was born in Hungary. He played his first video game at the age of 5 and it captivated him ever since. He views video games as the most complex and beautiful forms of art and gets quite lyrical talking about them. Rudolf achieved a Master in Economic and Criminal Law at the University of Szeged and moved to the Netherlands in 2018. When Rudolf heard of the project of Rulers of the Sea he was set to be a part of it. He signed on in 2019 and is responsible for legal affairs, as well as taking an active role in community management.

Celiné was born in Toulouse, France. As a child she was rather turned in books and history and dreamed to become a journalist. But she always loved games and her passion for drawing caught up with her and she chose the profession of concept artist, dreaming of participating in the development of a video game. She  trained at the New3dge school in their international concept art program where she participated in the development of films and video games, then afterwards in board games. She joined Deadeye Games because it's an opportunity to combine different passions and to continue to learn while being useful to a project that she likes the spirit of.

Giorgia was born in Modena, Italy, with a passion for drawing and the arts since childhood, and she started an artistic career in the fashion industry as a tailorist in Florence. Because comics and videogames fascinated her since throughout childhood her dream was to become a character artist. She attended the International school of comics and concept art courses at CGMA academy. When she found an opportunity at Deadeye games, the combination of costume and fashion history with character designs of Rulers of the Sea made her love the project, wishing to be part of it.

Peter was born in Tooting, London in the UK and was raised on a diet of military history, Greek mythology and comic books. His earliest drawings were strange re-imaginings of the battle of Hastings with the Normans fighting the Avengers and Spiderman. He studied visual art and printmaking in Wales, learning the traditional techniques of etching and mezzotint as well as meeting his future wife. He has now replaced the printing press with photoshop and has been a digital artist for over 10 years, designing steampunk, sci-fi and fantasy armours and dress for books and games, as well as many historical illustrations.

Joshna was born in Hong Kong and lives in the UK. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. While in university he found out that he enjoyed studying different topics and could quickly combine all elements to create a new artwork. That’s why he wanted to become a concept artist. He started his career at an animation studio as matte painter and concept artist and learnt a lot about the production process of making movie and animation. During recent years he's been taking courses from Schoolism, Cubebrush and Artstation to upgrade his design, painting skill and creative process. He's a big fan of role play game and board game, particularly with war and historical topics. He feels it an honour to participate in the Rulers of the Sea project. It’s like combining a passion and a dream.

Anson is a passionate artist from Canada. He was making art, both digital art, sculptures, models and even miniature interiors, long before he enrolled into College to complete an advanced degree in video art design. He has an endless fascination for tinkering and learning how things work and has a meticulous attention to detail. Anson acquired a love for all things naval while working at the Museum of Naval History at St. Thomas. He has worked as a Graphic Designer for fifteen years on a great number of digital design projects, ranging form 3D modelling and animation to digital restoration. When Anson discovered the Rulers of the Sea project he was dead-set on being a part of it, because it combined his love for games and historical and naval design.

Martijn was born in the Netherlands and always loved gaming and technology. He finished a MBA in Technology & Innovation at Erasmus University and went on to hold several management positions in the telecom industry. He was able to turn his career into his childhood passion in 2008 when he became the marketing director of Electronic Arts for the European Market before becoming managing director Benelux. Martijn worked at EA for 8 years. Currently he is the Director of the VGFN, the Video Game Federation Netherlands, representing most triple A publishers in the country. Martijn has been involved with the early development of the Rulers of the Sea project since 2018 and and is an active consultant on the project.

The forbearers of Iván were mariners and fishermen from Bermeo (Basque Country, Spain), but Iván chose to sail through the papers & pixels of books, comics and video games like classic Sid Meier's Pirates instead. Completing a degree in History and Master in Media Journalism & Filmmaking, his professional career also sailed between the writing (as cultural & video games journalist but also as screenwriter for film / tv and museums) and the Marketing / Business consultancy for both Start-up & large companies. When he noticed the Ruler of The Seas project he acquired a Letter of Marque to gain his fortune in the Spanish Main.

Paulo was born in Brazil. Gaming has been a passion in his life, from board RPG’s to PC games. He knew early on that he wanted to make his career in the gaming world. He graduated from University in Business Administration, and ran his own specialized gaming store next to his studies for 10 years, after which he became a Professor of Marketing and Digital Marketing. In 2015 he founded his own Digital Gaming Marketing Agency and additionally became the Brazil Coordinator for BlueStacks (a large worldwide PC gaming platform). In 2019 Paulo heard about the Rulers of the Sea project and became intrigued by the design and its potential. He will help with the marketing and community building of Rulers of the Sea in Brazil.

Since Chris Kuijten came into contact with the Commodore 64 he has become attached to the world of video games. In the past decades, besides pure passion, it has inspired him on a personal and professional level. It brought him emotion, social connection, creative inspiration, escape, and wonder! Chris has many years of experience as a music composer & sound designer for games, media, films and events. When he heard of the Rulers of the Sea project he knew that his love of historical and cultural music made him the perfect fit for the role of the music & sound director. The combination of the passion of the team, vision, originality, and time frame makes this a unique game that deserves the right accurate & emotional impact through music and sound!

Claudiu was born in Romania. His passion for video games led to a career in gaming journalism as producer, content creator and writer for several mainstream gaming TV shows and magazines. In 2009 Claudiu made the step into the video game production industry. As project- and product manager he worked for the major Romanian game studio’s FunLabs and eRepublik Labs. He produced big title games for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, finalizing projects for production house Activision. Claudiu led large production teams, produced on-line games and managed to acquire investments for several big game projects. In 2016 Claudiu moved to the Netherlands for a career opportunity. Claudiu met Peter Schreuder Jonkman in 2018, was enthusiastic about Rulers of the Sea and signed on as a project manager. Due to time constraints Claudiu had to step back as project manager in 2019 but still serves as project adviser.

Born in Florence, Italy, Nello started drawing since early childhood and got interested in ships and model making. He attended art high school, turned his attention to digital art and 3D graphics and also became an avid fan of video games, in particularly when historically themed. In 2009 he graduated in industrial and communication design. Since then Nello has grown into a senior artist and modeller, working on projects for museums, exhibitions, tradeshows and VR/AR projects, always with a fascination for history and ships, both for work and privately. When Nello discovered about Rulers of the Sea it was immediately clear he wanted to join the project as it combines all the things he loves. Nello is the leading ship modeller on the project and also has a love for historic fencing!

Around the age of 10 Lionel was already taking apart computers and (self)learning how to program games. In his teenage years working on game projects was his passion. He enlisted in the United States Army as an IT Specialist and learned about networking, IT Security and backend development. In his spare time he worked on a number of projects for BYOND and eventually became head developer for a Fallout server there which led to its major success and rise in popularity. He discovered the Rulers of the Sea project in 2020, joined the community and quickly fell enamoured with it and offered his expertise. His dream is to make sure the game succeed and be on board for that ride.

Sander had been an artist and web developer for nearly twenty years. He currently works as a freelance concept artist, illustrator and traditional artist. He discovered the Rulers of the Sea project in 2020. He is interested in nature, guitar music, sci-fi movies, art and music made by other artists and astronomy. 

Florien was born in the Netherlands. In her childhood she discovered a passion for art and became a young award-winning cartoonist. At Art Academy (HKU in Utrecht) she discovered game arts and it fascinated her. She finished her bachelor in 3D sculpting, concept art, character design and graphic design. She worked on different projects involving games, among which an own indie game design, and she also continued as cartoonist. In 2019 she heard about Rulers of the Sea and signed on as its first artist.

Jo comes from Virginia, USA, and was drawn to the artistic from early childhood. As she grew older she became captivated by games and moving art, and decided this was what she wanted to do. She finished a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University in Kinetic Imaging (video, sound and animation) and spent a year working with Professor Semi Ryu on the virtual reality project Voicing Han. Jo worked on several projects and has a passion for research and design. When she heard about the Rulers of the Sea project, she knew immediately she wanted to be a part of it, as 18th century art, design and culture are a particular fascination. Jo works on the project as a remote artist, and is particularly involved in the design of 3D architecture, interiors and objects and animations.  

Karen was born in the Netherlands but spent most of her childhood in England. Her childhood passion for languages, writing and literature led her to study English Language and Literature at the University of Leiden. Since then she worked in publishing, education, and the past years she works as a writer, writing her own books, articles and translations. It turned out it was Karen's voice that got her on the project of Rulers of the Sea, as she does the narration on most videos regarding the game. She also helps in the writing of texts that are needed for the game content and loves doing historical research. 

Pieter has been obsessed with ships his entire life. He started drawing them as a young child and he never stopped. In addition he's always been a huge history fan. After finishing college Pieter started his own business in restoration of antique objects, especially in paintwork, ranging from old palaces and monuments to military collectibles, with clients across the world. But ships and maritime history have always remained a passion. Pieter worked on several historic ship reconstruction projects and he can be found working on the Bataviawerf, a Dutch archaeology project, museum and shipyard dedicated to the recreation of historic shipbuilding and all its trades, where the Batavia (a recreated Dutch East Indiaman) can be found and many other projects are being worked on. When Pieter heard of Rulers of the Sea he was determined to be involved in the design of its ships, as games and ships are where his passions converge!