My name is Alexei Shay.
(It used to be Alexei Bochenek, but I changed it when I got married.)
I currently work as the Creative Director for the animation studio Titmouse, where I’m in Head of Development of all new animated series and films, as well as special projects like ads, games, and more.
In my time as Creative Director at Titmouse, and previously at animation studio Psyop, I’ve written, directed, conceived, or overseen a bunch of stuff. Here is some of it.
I Love You, Colonel Sanders!
I Love You, Colonel Sanders! is a game I created for KFC. It’s probably my most infamous achievement. I designed and wrote this yes-it’s-actually-real game as part of a marketing stunt where the big joke was how incredibly serious I took the whole thing. It released exclusively on Steam where it went on to cross over 1,000,000 units and growing, and has gotten over 10,000 positive reviews from actual players who spent hours playing this full-length dating-sim style narrative experience.
Apex Legends
Over the course of three years, I directed or co-directed eight trailers for the game Apex Legends. It was a very popular game and they spent a lot of money on trailers, which meant we got to make some really cool stuff with incredible crews of wildly talented human beings. With every trailer, we tried to stress a different aspect of the production, from the choreography (Emergence) to the combat (Gridiron), the color story (Defiance), to the character performance (Family Business), to the comedy (Escape), to the emotion (Hunted). Sometimes, we just tried to make it epic (Legacy) or wrap a kaiju battle into the mix (Saviors).
Here are some screenshots from the films linked in the text above. It was really hard to choose my favorites. Please feel bad for me — the life of an animation director is very hard.
Mass Effect
When the Mass Effect team decided it was time to officially reveal to the world that they were working on a new game, they hired us to make them a very fancy trailer that would run at that year’s Game Awards, look badass, but not give too much about the story away. So we riffed on the iconic opening to the film Contact, filled with reference to the Mass Effect universe and characters.
Overwatch 2
It has been a pleasure to oversee a trio of Overwatch 2 collaboration trailers, featuring incredible team-ups between Overwatch 2 and fighting game franchise Street Fighter, K-pop megagroup LE SSERAFIM, and beloved animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. In every case, we were able to produce extremely dynamic and rewarding hype films for these collabs, with different tones and styles that best fit each unique crossover.
Drunkards, Druggies, & Delinquents
Drunkards, Druggies, & Delinquents is a game I co-created with Titmouse founder Chris Prynoski. We call it a “fantasy role-drinking game” — a game where you sit around with your friends, take on fantasy personas, battle monsters, and get drunk. It’s a lot like a TTRPG, but instead of your character taking damage when they get attached, you take sips (or puffs, or push-ups if you’re some sort of freak).
Chris called in art contributions from a huge assortment of extremely awesome artists, and designer Taylor Dow did a fucking amazing job pulling it all together. We put it up on Backer Kit and were funded in an hour, going on to raise over $100k.
The game arrives on store shelves later this summer of 2025. Find out more at the official website.