Greg Killion (’06 Photography and New Media)
Senior Managing Marketing Creative Director at Riot Games, Greg Killion (’06 Photography and New Media) has a gamer’s dream job. He’s responsible for the overall creative presentation for League of Legends: Wild Rift, Riot’s mobile strategy and action game that brings one of the world’s most popular MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) titles, League of Legends, to mobile devices. The company he works for, Riot Games, has a fun, collaborative environment, plenty of perks, and is filled with people who share his passion for creating incredible gaming experiences.
His path to success started at KCAI. “You spend your first year at KCAI losing your bad habits, then you get into your major, and your education doesn’t end until you’re deep into your career. You’re always learning new things about yourself and how to use your abilities. You come out with a good foundation and the ability to do almost anything. That’s what is so magical about KCAI,” said Greg.
He learned a lot of things at KCAI that he uses every day, like writing and art history, but he credits one experience as being pivotal to his career — critiques. “Learning how to get up in front of a room full of people, share your work and take feedback is invaluable. Once you get out of school everything you do is a group project, and the collaborative environment at KCAI gave me a good foundation for the workplace,” he said. Greg’s day-to-day duties include leading his team in developing concepts, setting the creative tone and coming up with marketing ideas — anything from designing a social media campaign to writing and directing CG (computer generated imagery).
His favorite project is always the one he’s currently working on, but one stand-out is a short film called Thresh Unbound: A Night at the Inn. He had the original concept, pulled together all the creative elements - story, lighting, sound, animation, music - and directed them toward his vision.
“It was intended to be a short CG, and we realized that there’s a cool story to tell, so we turned it into a short gothic horror film. We’re known for the cinematic pipeline at Riot Games, and it was a treat to work on it from beginning to end,” said Greg.
Greg knows that many students want to get into gaming, and it’s very competitive. He believes that KCAI graduates have a distinct advantage over other applicants for two reasons…craft skills and creative potential. “Are you a good illustrator or animator? You need to have the core raw talent required for the job. But one unique characteristic of KCAI grads is the way they think, the way they take a creative opportunity and run with it. If you want a role in gaming, you need both.”