Game Resume: Doing Time

I started professionally in the game industry in 1998. The sad part is I didn't get to work on a game that actually shipped till 2003. Yup, five years of telling everyone "Yes, I really do work on games!" but having no proof.

I got my first industry job programming at Running With Scissors. This was back during the heady days when places like Panasonic were throwing money at any game with a snazzy character. RWS had just finished POSTAL and I came on during a time when martini hot tub parties in Vegas and leisurely, 3 hour lunches were part of the work week.
It was like a dream--this is how everyone thought the game industry acted--and it was really going on! Until... we had to make a new game.

We went through several iterations for the next game and even secured funding for a little while. At one point RWS artists were hand-painting intricate sculptures, photographing them, and scanning them into the computer to be used in a new adventure game. It was pretty cool in theory and totally insane from a development standpoint when you saw it in action. It would literally have taken years to see that vision through. RWS never got any versions of that game finished, but we did make a pretty sweet game a few years later.

After RWS slowly closed down in 1999, I moved to Orlando to work at n-Space just before the world was going to end. There, I worked on a Duke Nukem game for the PS2 and helped with an Austin Powers game to coincide with the new movie. Neither made it to Gold, but it was a pleasant, mediocre ride along the way. As the PS2 Duke game floundered and Take Two slowly distanced itself from n-Space, I decided to jump ship and head back toRWS for POSTAL 2. It seemed ridiculous to me that the game would go from top-down isometric to a first-person shooter, but I knew it would be more fun than what I was doing at the time.

Next update--a game that ships!

But before that, let's look at a picture from Weapon of Choice's past. Here's a very early version of Xerxe's Jet Engine gun in a old test level with a simple background.

The flames aren't quite as big now, but I promise it's even more fun to use in the current version!

Game Resume: The Team

I'd like to talk about what games I've worked on in the past but also who's working on this game. There should be several posts, and to keep it from getting too dry, I'm going to end each of these Game Resume posts with a screenshot of how Weapon of Choice looked in the early stages.

I'm doing most of the development on Weapon of Choice. What does that mean? Well I'm doing the 1. game design, 2. programming, 3. artwork, 4. animation, and 5. sound effects.

That leaves the story and the music. AJ Johnson is writing the story and dialog. He's a great writer and also has the largest collection of games of anyone I know personally. (Yes, this really bothers me. I own a lot of games and systems, but his collection still tops mine.) Hamdija Ajanovic is composing the original, hard-rocking music score. He's worked on movies and original albums and his beard can probably go a round or two with Chuck Norris's.

And for the business side of things, my wife Amy Gandell Fouts helps deal with people since I'm sort of a tactless monster. She's written grant proposals for non-profits like SAAF, Child and Family Resources, and Jewish Family Services LA.

For dessert, here is a very OLD screenshot of the game (mild laughter is permitted):


This was back when I first got the level editor running and was testing out IK for Xerxes and the first monster, the SpikeSack. And I was apparently making my player characters as large as Last Battle instead of something playable like the original NES Batman.