Gaming, Virtual Worlds, Entertainment & Tech
Rafael Brown
CEO Symbol Zero, Creative Technologist, & Game Guru
Rafael is a game designer, interactive software developer, studio head, game director, game historian, and creative technologist. He and his companies build across PC, Console, Mobile, XR, and Cloud and provide thought leadership around technology and creativity, entertainment and education.
A veteran game developer since the ‘90s, Rafael traces his roots to emergent system and AI-driven games at Looking Glass. Meanwhile a decade later he found himself at id Software learning first accessibility in play, engine construction, and the power of Cloud computing. He saw this generation of Virtual Reality start on John Carmack’s desk while at id Software. And he’s been trying to put 3D, AI, XR, and Cloud together ever since. Rafael loves building games and virtual worlds. He has been dreaming of the Metaverse since watching Tron as a kid, and then reading Neuromancer, a decade before Snow Crash.
Other pioneering game developer studios he has worked with include BioWare, Black Box, Neversoft, and Luxoflux, as well as game publishers Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Midway, Take Two Interactive and ZeniMax/Bethesda. He has built across just about every PC, Console, Mobile, and VR device of the last 20+ years. Game titles and franchises Rafael has worked on include Tony Hawk, Need for Speed, True Crime, Mafia, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Doom, Wolfenstein, Rage, Thief, System Shock, and The Hobbit. Virtual concerts include working with Lil Nas X, Tate McRae, Twenty One Pilots, Royal Blood, and David Guetta.
As a game and technology historian, Rafael regularly speaks at game & tech conferences, consults to companies, and teaches at colleges and universities covering topics like game design & development, virtual reality & virtual worlds, virtual concerts & performance capture, artificial intelligence, the metaverse & the rise of 3D internet, as well as the technology history of computers, consoles, mobile, semiconductors, and networks. He is actively engaged with people across the Games and XR space from game developers & publishers, to game platforms, cloud platforms, XR & AI companies, to semiconductor companies and hardware device manufacturers.
During the pandemic, Rafael founded Symbol Zero, a company that builds games, virtual worlds, virtual concerts, educational games, enterprise concepts, and cloud platforms. Symbol Zero is Roblox’s virtual concert partner having built the Lil Nas X virtual concert experience, the second largest virtual concert in history (33 million players in one weekend). Symbol Zero builds virtual worlds, beyond the metaverse ‘boom & bust, on cloud for both games and simulation. He also runs a stealth Cloud startup.
Rafael is an expert advisor and evangelist as part of Microsoft’s RD network where he covers Games, 3D, AI, XR, Cloud, Sims, Digital Twins, AEC, & BIM. He evangelizes for XR Cloud, while lecturing on the history and explaining the path towards the Metaverse. He also debunks ‘web3’, while building bridges between Cloud and Blockchain.
Rafael is an advocate and ally for diversity of Women, People of Color, and LGBT communities who are historically underrepresented, in Games, XR, and Tech.
More Advisory Board
Rafael is a game designer, interactive software developer, studio head, game director, game historian, and creative technologist. He and his companies build across PC, Console, Mobile, XR, and Cloud and provide thought leadership around technology and creativity, entertainment and education.
A veteran game developer since the ‘90s, Rafael traces his roots to emergent system and AI-driven games at Looking Glass. Meanwhile a decade later he found himself at id Software learning first accessibility in play, engine construction, and the power of Cloud computing. He saw this generation of Virtual Reality start on John Carmack’s desk while at id Software. And he’s been trying to put 3D, AI, XR, and Cloud together ever since. Rafael loves building games and virtual worlds. He has been dreaming of the Metaverse since watching Tron as a kid, and then reading Neuromancer, a decade before Snow Crash.
Other pioneering game developer studios he has worked with include BioWare, Black Box, Neversoft, and Luxoflux, as well as game publishers Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Midway, Take Two Interactive and ZeniMax/Bethesda. He has built across just about every PC, Console, Mobile, and VR device of the last 20+ years. Game titles and franchises Rafael has worked on include Tony Hawk, Need for Speed, True Crime, Mafia, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Doom, Wolfenstein, Rage, Thief, System Shock, and The Hobbit. Virtual concerts include working with Lil Nas X, Tate McRae, Twenty One Pilots, Royal Blood, and David Guetta.
As a game and technology historian, Rafael regularly speaks at game & tech conferences, consults to companies, and teaches at colleges and universities covering topics like game design & development, virtual reality & virtual worlds, virtual concerts & performance capture, artificial intelligence, the metaverse & the rise of 3D internet, as well as the technology history of computers, consoles, mobile, semiconductors, and networks. He is actively engaged with people across the Games and XR space from game developers & publishers, to game platforms, cloud platforms, XR & AI companies, to semiconductor companies and hardware device manufacturers.
During the pandemic, Rafael founded Symbol Zero, a company that builds games, virtual worlds, virtual concerts, educational games, enterprise concepts, and cloud platforms. Symbol Zero is Roblox’s virtual concert partner having built the Lil Nas X virtual concert experience, the second largest virtual concert in history (33 million players in one weekend). Symbol Zero builds virtual worlds, beyond the metaverse ‘boom & bust, on cloud for both games and simulation. He also runs a stealth Cloud startup.
Rafael is an expert advisor and evangelist as part of Microsoft’s RD network where he covers Games, 3D, AI, XR, Cloud, Sims, Digital Twins, AEC, & BIM. He evangelizes for XR Cloud, while lecturing on the history and explaining the path towards the Metaverse. He also debunks ‘web3’, while building bridges between Cloud and Blockchain.
Rafael is an advocate and ally for diversity of Women, People of Color, and LGBT communities who are historically underrepresented, in Games, XR, and Tech.
