Roll Call

[helmet275]

Name: Scott Hassler
Company: Lason
Occupation: Systems Administrator
Location: Detroit Area, MI
Hobbies: Reading, Weightlifting, spending countless hours playing video games

Currently, I'm working in a Business Processes Organization in the field of Document Imaging/Data Capture. This will fund my eventual entry into the indy sector.

I'm also planning on competing in the World's Strongest Man Competition in 5 years time.

[Mike Boeh]

Since we are starting the forums fresh again, it's probably a good idea to do roll call like the original dexterity boards did...

Name: Mike Boeh
Company: Retro64, Inc.
URL: http://www.retro64.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer/Publisher
Location: Chicago Suburbs

Background:
I have been a full time indie for about 4 years now (man how time flies!). Originally, the company concept was to make 3d remakes of classic arcade games. But since everyone seems to be doing that now, we are changing slowly but surely. Games we have developed include: Bugatron, Z-Ball, Best Friends, WarHeads SE. We have also published Platypus, Party Bowling, and Marbles Deluxe. I love constantly tweaking the site and experimenting in ways to improve sales.

[Mark Fassett]

Since he started it...

Name: Mark Fassett
Company: Laughing Dragon Games
URL: http://www.laughing-dragon.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer
Location: Near Seattle

I've been full time indie for near 11 months, supplementing my income (well, at the moment, my only source) with contract work. My first for sale game, Derelict (http://www.laughing-dragon.com/derelict.aspx) should be done sometime soon now (within the next month). I do nothing except work, play with my son, and waste time on game dev forums.

[Jim Buck]

Name: Jim Buck
Company: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Occupation: game developer working in a corporate setting but looking at indie as a long-term goal
Location: San Diego, CA

Background:
I've been in the game industry for 8.5 years now working primarily as a senior-level programmer. I was working at Sony Interactive Studios America and 989 Studios (same studio but changed names) from '96 - '00 and shipped four PS1 titles: Rally Cross, CART World Series, Twisted Metal 3, and Twisted Metal 4. I left with a coworker to start an external game company named DepthQ from '00 - '03. We worked on one project with Sony Online that was almost completed. During '02, I took a sabbitcal to live in Warsaw, Poland for almost a year. I came back to close down DepthQ and take a job at RedZone Games(owned by Sony Computer Entertainment America, formerly 989 Studios) and shipped PS2 GameDay 2004. I am now working directly at Sony Computer Entertainment America on the PSP platform.

[Bluecat]

Name: John
Company: None at this stage
Occupation: Software Engineer
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Nationality: Aussie

I've been a software developer since 1984. but have never worked in the game industry. I've worked on a variety of different systems from accounting packages, to remote modem test software, to training systems for defence. I'm currently on secondment to a big US defence contractor where I am working on the integration testing of a radar system.

Most of my work has been in C/C++, but I've dabbled in Java, Ruby, Smalltalk and am currently using Python quite extensively. Oh, and there was that time at the beginning of my career where I coded in COBOL. :rolleyes:

I'm at the point in my life where I would really like to strike out on my own, so I'm working on my first game. Well, not really my first. I wrote a couple of simple games back in high school on an old Apple 2e, and on my old Vic 20, alas, long gone. I've been an avid gamer for many years, and have always loved playing them more than writing them. That's going to change. ;)

I'm here in the US for another year, and then I head back home and start selling my game. Unfortunately I can't make any income aside from my visa-authorised job, so I have to wait until I get back to Oz before I get rolling. Even though I am having a great time here, I'm looking forward to it. :)

[Lerc]

Name: Neil Graham
Company: Screaming Duck Software
URL: http://www.ScreamingDuck.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer / House husband
Location: Christchurch New Zealand.

I have been doing games for a number of years. My first shareware game was for DOS in 1995 and made me about $100. I really got going with the release of Fitznik. Dexterity's first game in a publisher role. Drippy and Fitznik 2 followed. I suffer from depression and arthritis that hampers my productivity from time to time, but I battle on. I play soccer and basketball which improves my depression but plays havok with my arthritis.

[simonh]

Name: Simon Harrison
Company: Si Design
URL: http://www.superhamsterball.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer + Part Time Webmaster
Location: West Midlands, UK

I have been a full-time indie for nearly one year now. In that time (and a year or so before it), I've been working on Super Hamster Ball. It's nearly finished now, with a release pencilled in for September 1st. I'm hoping to continue working as a full-time indie for as long as possible!

[EpicBoy]

Name: Warren Marshall
Company: Respawn Games
URL: http://www.respawngames.com
Occupation: Full Time Game Developer/Part time indie
Location: North Carolina, USA

I've been doing little games for over a year now and just kind of trying things to see where it takes me...

[Nikster]

Name: Paul Tankard
Company: BBC Worldwide (Gamezlab) Until the 29th of this month when it closes.
URL: None
Occupation: Senior programmer
Location: Sheffield, UK

I spent most of my time recently writing game authoring tools, but have worked on PC, PS2, PS1, GB, NGC, NGPC, C64 and Amiga, I have worked on some popular titles commercially, but my aim is to get into shareware where I can do the thing I have wanted to do for the last 14 years, I'm currnelty getting a toolset to help me acheive this. I started out as a musician and have gone back to my roots in my spare time also.

[Aldacron]

Name: Mike Parker
Company: None
Occupation: Freelance English Teacher/Programmer
Location: Seoul, Korea
Nationality: American

I've been living in Korea for 13 years since I first came over as a soldier. Over the past 10 I've held a multitude of part-time and full-time jobs both for Korean businesses and U.S. government/contractors. Through it all I've taught different levels of English both as a private tutor and at different educational facilities (language institutes, grammar/middle/high schools and universities). For the past few years I've been supplementing my teaching income with contract software work (mostly in the J2EE arena). I'm now liniting my teaching schedule and trying to find my niche in Indie Games (while debating if I should start my company here in Korea or back home in the USA).

[DarkUni]

Name: Shane R. Monroe
Company: Dark Unicorn Productions
URL: http://www.darkuni.com
Occupation: Client/Server Programmer
Location: Phoenix, AZ

In 1980 began programming in BASIC on a TRS-80 Model III computer, then proceeded through the ranks of Commodore computers including the VIC-20, C64, and Amiga. Released freeware and shareware programs on the C64 and Amiga - in 1993 formed the Amiga shareware group Dark Unicorn Productions - producing some of the most well-known Amiga games in history. In 1995, entered the PC platform and began work coding for the Web (Shockwave, Flash, ASP, DHTML, JAVASCRIPT, etc). Created numerous popular websites for classic video gaming and emulation. In 2000, formed the DUP PC division. Released vs.Ball and Kablooey Redux for the PC in 2001.

For the Apple II - Inquisitor (study and test generator for students, ported from the C64); For the C64 - Canyon Bomber (a flying bombing game), Scrambler (BBS message encryptor - long before PGP came around), numerous demos and coding samples; For the Amiga - Psycho Squares, Psycho Squares Deluxe, GIF Processor Plus, Your Privacy Assured CD, Power-Cat (unreleased), Fleet Commander (unfinished), Scorched Tanks CD (unfinished). For the PC - Fuel, Oil, and Water Report (a Navy application for submarines, still around today), Psycho Squares 2000 (in development), Kablooey! (a KABOOM! knock off with internet score posting and cool graphics), Kablooey Redux (cool new remix), and vs.Ball, action strategy game.

Ramble ramble ...

[GameStudioD]

Name: Daniel Anderson
Company: Game Studio D
URL: http://www.gamestudiod.com
Occupation: Part-Time Indie / Full-Time Student
Location: San Francisco, CA

I am a Senior at San Francisco State University, majoring in Computer Science. Videogames are my passion and I don't see myself doing anything else with my life. The games that are being churned out from the retail game industry (and to some extent the indie scene) bore me. I feel that I can do better, so I started Game Studio D. Next step is to release a game ... :D

[Escotia]

Name: Scott Campbell
Company: BigFizz Games Ltd.
URL: http://www.bigfizz.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Dev
Location: Birmingham, England

Background:
Been in the games industry since graduating from Glasgow Uni in 1998. Left the mainstream industry a couple of years ago and started contracting along with my housemate, using our spare time to work on our own ideas. Our indie games so far released are Puzzle Word, Snowball Frenzy and Party Bowling.

[Air]

Name: Jake Stine
Company: unaffiliated [formerly of Hour 13 Studios]
Occupation: Oddjob Programmer / t-shirt salesman
Location: Meshoppen, PA

Background:
Barring a long history of cheezy BASIC coding on various archaic hardwares, I started out as a demo coder back in 1993 doing starfields and scrollers. From there: On-and-off-again developer for the Mikmod Sound System for several years from 1995 through to 2001. Created with Mikamp module plugin for winamp. Continuously did reading and research into game development techniques during that time. Started Chicken Little in late 2000. Formed Hour 13 Studios in early 2002. Life completely fell apart in 2003.

My life has been anything but consistent. I have long suffered from a depressive sleep disorder that has wreaked havoc on my ability to function as a member of society. I lack any real formal education as I was quite unable to stay coherently awake for much of high school. For as long as I can remember my years have been riddled with runs of striking brilliance paired with extended periods of time (sometimes as long as 3-4 months) when I, quite literally and honestly, forget how to code. I have been labeled as lazy, disorganized, and undisiplined for much of my life. I've had issues.

After years of trying to resolve the issue myself through a combination of sheer determination coupled with stark changes in diet, exercise, and work habits, I was hit with a new kind of hurt: Chronic fatigue [an adrenal disfunction disorder, specifically], that did not go away after almost a year of suffering. That was the last straw. I sought medical treatment. Just four weeks later (two months ago now) I was basically cured of all mentioned ailments. ... maybe I should have done that sooner!

Now I'm just working on trying to restore my confidence in myself. I have a littany of unfinished projects and broken promises behind me that I would like to, in one way or another, resolve. Anything beyond that I have yet to ponder. Stay tuned!

[Plowsoft]

Name: Adam Payne
Company: Plowsoft
URL: http://www.Plowsoft.com
Occupation: Part Share trader, Part indie
Location: Perth, Australia

I've been working on Plowsoft off and on since i finished university in late 2002. Finished my first ever game Astrosiege in September 2003 and hope to make a lot more as i get better (and quicker!) at game development. I doubt I would have gotten close to finishing my first game if it wasn't for the dexterity forums.

[luggage]

Name: Scott Newby
Company: BigFizz Games Ltd.
URL: http://www.bigfizz.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Dev
Location: Birmingham, England

Background:
Was in the games industry for 8 years or so starting as a tester, then onto designer, tools coding and finally game coder. Left and set up with the other Scott (see above somewhere).

[Siebharinn]

Name: Bill Keller
Company: Creative Logic Software
URL: coming soon
Occupation: IT Director of a small non-profit company
Location: Bradenton, FL

Background:
I've been a corporate programmer for a long time, but I've always had games on my mind. Like many people here, I learned to program in order to make games, but database front-ends pay a lot better, so I've been doing that.

I'm working on my first game, off and on, and progress is very slow. It's more of a hobby than an "indie lifestyle" at this point.

[Phantom1029]

Name: Sean
URL: Goodlinuxgames.com (http://www.goodlinuxgames.com)
Occupation: Student
Location: Virginia

Background:
Just recently decided to create my own games. At first it was for fun, but making money off of it compelled me, so I am trying my hand at that. My first title, IronWill will be completed in the next 2 months - barring some catastrophe. Only known of dexterity for a couple of months and it has been an invaluable resource. Hopefully this forum will grow and even surpass the legacy of it as a resource for independent developers.

[Ratboy]

Name: Charles Oines
Company: Irrational Designs
URL: http://irrationaldesigns.com
Occupation: Freelance Artist
Location: Near Seattle, WA.

Background: I've done a twelve year stint as a 2d & 3d production artist, doing games on everything from the TurboGrafx CD to the XBox. These days, I'm filling my time with freelance game art jobs, and taking the occasional stab at programming.

[Reactor]

Name: Joel Blackwell
Company: To be announced
URL: Coming soon
Occupation: Full time artist, writer, designer.
Location: Another one of the many Perth Australia indies! :)

Background:
I'm currently in development of my first game (with my programmer of a brother), after being approved by the Aust government for a years funding to 'start a small business'. I'm also someone that doesn't have any formal training, but I didn't think I should let that get in the way ;) I love playing games, and have been doing so since gaming first began. And, with a first game almost out the door, I'm confident this is what I should have been doing all along.

[BantamCityGames]

(formerly BrewKnowC)
Name: Bruno Campolo
Company: Bantam City Games
URL: (see Signature)
Occupation: IT Manager of a small manufacturing company
Location: NY

Background:
I've been into computers since age 5 and even programmed a few things (copied out of a book) as a kid. Started making hobby games in high school. Then started game development for real about 5 years later. Started Bantam City Games almost a year ago with the release of Trials of Werlin and I'm now currently working on my second game which should be available at the end of Aug.

I don't know about anyone else, but I almost had a heart attack when I ready Steve P. was shutting down the Dexterity forums. Good job Retro64, Svero, and Dan for such a smooth transition.

[ggambett]

Name: Gabriel Gambetta
Company: Mystery Studio
URL: http://www.MysteryStudio.com
Occupation: Part-time indie, Part-time Computer Graphics teacher, Full-time developer for a local software company
Location: Uruguay

Background: Have been doing stuff with computers since age 5, with a ZX Spectrum 48+. Started Mystery Studio with an university classmate around october 2002. Got an engineering degree (our equivalent to Computer Science) in december 2003, days before turning 23 years old. Published games so far are Betty's Beer Bar (http://www.MysteryStudio.com/info.php?id=bbb), FaceIt (http://www.MysteryStudio.com/info.php?id=fit) and PegSweeper (http://www.MysteryStudio.com/info.php?id=ps). Still trying to make a hit :)

[Anthony Flack]

Name: Anthony Flack
Company Squashy Software
URL: www.squashysoftware.com
Occupation: Full-time parent, part time employee at tedious job, indie developer in the leftover time
Location: Currently Tokyo, but often back home in New Zealand

Background: Fine Arts degree in film, followed by a stint as a commercial animator. Been involved with making indie games since 1999, and currently working towards my big break...

Projects: Bert the Barbarian (abandoned), Platypus, Cletus Clay (in development)

[Dan MacDonald]

Name: Dan J. MacDonald
Company: Rainfall Studios
URL: http://www.rainfallstudios.com
Occupation: Programmer
Location: Bothell, WA

I'm an odd job type of programmer, I was hired by Microsoft during my 2nd year of University to be a Software Developer in Test. My big plan was to transition into the games industry inside Microsoft by getting into the games group. I interviewed for a few test positions, but with the amount of developers at Microsoft wanting to get into games, I really wasn't the most qualified of applicants.

It was during my time there that I first ran across SteveP as he was starting his publishing business. I had no idea you could make money from games online, and after a long series of emails with Steve I decided I wasn't going to wait for the industry to give me the job I wanted, I was just going to have to do it myself.

I left Microsoft to go work for Boeing as a contractor, tempted by a 6 figure income. After doing that for a year (all the time working on my game) and paying off a good portion of my debts. I went to work for a small company doing enterprise solutions for various clients, it was a big pay cut but I got to work with some college friends, so far it's been a lot of fun.

In that time, I've managed to spend almost three years on my project (http://www.rainfallstudios.com/katsu) . I've had some problems getting all the art done, so in the interim I released the EasyPPC Installer (http://www.phelios.net/pocketpcinstaller.html) in conjunction with www.phelios.com . This month (or maybe the beginning of next) I will release another game "Little Soldiers" in conjunction with squarecircleco.

[GBGames]

Name: Gianfranco Berardi
Company: GBGames
URL: http://www.gbgames.com
Occupation: intern, Unix/distributed computing division
Location: Melrose Park, IL (near Chicago)

I only realized relatively recently that starting my own business was something I could actually do. I graduated from DePaul University with a degree in Computer Science, and I am continuing with grad school, also in CS.

I hope to release games for the Gnu/Linux and Windows platforms, and I would also like to do development for other platforms such as the Mac.

[lakibuk]

Name: Karl Hofer
Company: Blueskied.com
Occupation: Part-time application programmer, part-time indie
Location: Austria

I've been interested in making computer games since i was a kid. Grew up with arcade games in my parents' pub. I wanted to learn C++/directx and made a freeware game called Frozen Fruits. People seemed to like it so i decided to develop a shareware version of it. I am selling it since last year, it's doing ok so far and keeps me motivated. I want to start writing my second shareware game soon.

[kevryan]

Name: Kevin Ryan
Company: Top Meadow
URL: http://www.topm.com
Occupation: Full Time game making guy
Location: Shaver Lake, CA (high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains)

Background:
Started up at Dynamix in 1984 with three other guys. Did a bunch of games. Sold Dynamix to Sierra. Did a bunch of games. Moved to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Did some games long distance. Infant son was very sick. (http://www.topm.com/aidan) Lived in San Francisco for almost a year (most of it at the hospital) - didn't do games - left Dynamix. Son got better :). Completed a couple of indie games sold through Garage Games. Plan on doing a bunch of indie games.

[serg3d]

Serg3d

Company: not yet
Occupation: daytime 3d programmer, indie in training

Background : Doing Direct3D/OpenGL for living for several yeras (not games, mostly simulations), before that was doing boring staff (databases, communications etc) had several game projects but finished no one. Now I'm really indending finish last one. Have some expirience in genetic algorithms and cellular automata, hope to put it in use in some later projects. In the process of finishing (hopefully) my first game - puzzle game for Symbian cellular phones. May be will rewrite it in Java and put online late.

[Linusson]

(formerly freeman)
Name: Mikael Linusson
Company: Nordic Software for Entertainment
URL: http://www.nordicsoftware.se
Occupation: CNC Operator
Location: Sweden

Me and my wife both wanted to make games, so here we are.
Currently working on updates for our 2 games (BrickBuster and Fluffy).

[svero]

Name: Steve Verreault
Company: Twilight Games
URL: http://www.twilightgames.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer
Location: A beach in southeast asia - from Montreal, Can though

Background:
Full time for about 3 years now. 1st game was Aargon, followed by Aargon Deluxe, A Snake's Life, Twilight Mahjongg, Frozzic's Revenge, Mahjongg Variations, Space Taxi 2. Have published a few games too. RatMaster, Pocket Aargon, and Aargon Blackbox were all developed by 3rd parties. We also team up with Redmarblegames to do some Mac ports of our games. Before writing games I was working as a developer and consultant for a number of big companies writing all kinds of stuff like software for robotics, finance, medical, etc..

[Rod Hyde]

Name: Rod Hyde (formerly "rodhyde" on www.dexterity.com)
Company: N/A
URL: N/A
Occupation: UNIX system administrator
Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

The first part of this post is a cut & paste from my entry from 2 June on www.dexterity.com

I'm Rod Hyde, a nascent Indie games developer. (nascent is a polite way of saying wannabe)

In my day job I am a UNIX sysadmin. I've been doing that almost exclusively for the last 8 or 9 years despite starting my career as a C programmer, first working on oil terminal automation software, then writing software to connect ATMs to networks such as Visa and Mastercard. ATMs and oil terminals are surprisingly similar, although tanker drivers are scarier than bank managers. Some of the guys in the ATM company had been games programmers (ex Palace and Titus) which made for some interesting conversations.

I started programming at the tender age of 12 back in 1980. My dad bought a TRS-80 just after I'd discovered Galaxian, so that was the first game I cloned. Later, I wrote a number of Hunchback style games for the BBC Model B. My only customers were some kids that I used to babysit for.

Around 6 years ago I got the urge to play an old TRS-80 game called Galactic Firebird (or something similar), but I couldn't find it anywhere so I wrote my own version which I named Corvids. This was programmed using Delphi-2 and something called the Delphi Games Creator which, if I recall correctly, was essentially some handy components for accessing DirectX 3. Corvids looked very retro, even at the time, but I had a laugh writing it and I was pleasantly surprised when people would request a copy when they saw me playing it on my laptop.

Earlier this year I started a rewrite of Corvids using Java and LWJGL after being impressed / inspired by Alien Flux. However, in March, I had a fairly original idea for a game and so Parking Panic was born. My goal, which I'm stating in public for the first time, is to have Parking Panic in a publishable state by the end of August. So far so good.

Since writing that in early June, I found that I was having difficulty finding the time to write Parking Panic, which I was developing in C++. I subsequently discovered Python and found that it was great for prototyping, particularly when combined with a simple (SWIG generated) wrapper to PTK (http://www.phelios.com/ptk) . I'm currently re-doing Corvids in Python to prove to myself that Python is actually a suitable language for game programming. It has certainly speeded up development, even if my time is still limited.

Once that's done then it is back to Parking Panic.

--- Rod

[robleong]

Name: Robert Leong
Company: GamerBlitz
URL: http://www.gamerblitz.com
Occupation: Working in biotechnology
Hobby: Indie games programming
Location: San Francisco bay area, California

Background:
Old-time hobbyist games programmer in the days of the BBC micro and Atari ST when living in Ireland - formerly in Budgie UK Licenceware group. Back then, it was all assembler stuff for me. Now, after settling down with marriage and (non-programming) career, have found time again to indulge in games programming hobby.

[Carrot]

Name: Ciaran Davies
Company: Purplenose Games
URL: http://www.purplenose.com
Occupation: Vision Engineer, Software Engineer, Part-Time Indie Game Developer
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Background:
Making games for years. Started first on Apple II and then C64 and spectrums. Jointly set up Purplenose Games in 2004 to write games for the online market, mostly because I always enjoyed the creativity involved in game design.
Last game was Plummit, available from www.purplenose.com has been well received by reviewers and customers alike. Currently have two titles in the pipline with expected release dates about Dec 2004.

[princec]

Name: Caspian Rychlik-Prince
Company: Puppygames
URL: http://www.puppygames.net
Occupation: Software developer, part-time indie game developer
Location: in the Quantock Hills, Somerset, UK

Background: Programmer since knee high to a grasshopper.
Aims: escape business software development forever and survive off of nascent indie games business. 1.5 years into 5 year plan of escape. One game done, next one ready soon-ish. The reason I'm in this forum is to learn about selling games over the internet.
Quirks: uses Java to write games.

Cas :)

[Ray_M]

Name: Ray Mitchell
Company: Purplenose Games
URL: http://www.purplenose.com
Occupation: Software Engineer, Indie Game Developer
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Hi All, I'm a Software Engineer living and working in Dublin. I enjoy writing games in my spare time and co-founded Purplenose with Ciaran. Am currently working on a new title along with marketing Plummit (our first release).

[Nutter2000]

Name: Iain Key
Indie Dev Company: Hail of Bullets Software
URL: http://www.hailofbullets.co.uk
Main Company: Pi Computer Solutions Ltd
URL: http://www.picomputersolutions.co.uk
Occupation: Techinical Director, Contract Software Engineer, Indie Game Developer, PC Builder, Courier, Phone answerer, Tea maker.....
Location: Sandiacre, Nottingham, England, UK

Background: Ex-Smoking Gun Productions programmer and yet another refugee from the rapidly demising UK games industry.
Formed Pi Computer Solutions in 2003 with 2 others.
5 year mission to try and support ourselves selling PC's and stuff so that we can develop our own entertainment software for download and retail.

[SmartMelon]

Name: Graeme Sweet
Company: SmartMelon Games
URL: http://www.smartmelon.com
Occupation: Full Time Graphics Programmer/ Part Time Indie
Location: Fredericton, NB, Canada

I currently work as an OpenGL graphics programmer for a visualization company, specializing in 3D GIS-type applications. In my part time, I'm starting up a company called SmartMelon Games to publish family-oriented puzzle games. We're almost ready to release our first game Peepers. I've also got a small business called SweetScape that specializes in business applications. Our main software, 010 Editor, has been pretty successful so far. In my free time, I like playing guitar and spending time with my great wife. Cheers!

Graeme

[Quest Engine]

Name: Quest Engine (formerly APE from the dexterity boards)
Company: Quest Engine Incorporated
URL: http://www.questengine.com
Occupation: Full Time Programmer/ Part Time Indie
Location: North Carolina, USA

Greetings, I'm Brandon and my game "Once Twice Thrice" was published by Dexterity Software for a while before I created my own site and started selling it myself. OTT is my first game ever and questengine.com is my first web site ever so it been a tremendous learning experience over the past couple years.

I've got a couple more games in progress and I'm working hard at improving and marketing OTT and the web site. The Dexterity boards were a very valuable resource for me and I hope these forums are just as good.

Brandon

[elund]

Name: Eric W. Lund (same handle "elund" from Dexterity)
Company: Gearhand Studios
URL: http://www.gearhand.com
Occupation: Web developer (day), Indie game developer (night)
Location: Stamford, Connecticut, USA

Hello! Around the time the Dexterity Forums opened, I had quit my job and decided to start up a game development business. I did that for a year and a half, happily releasing Big Head Zed (http://www.gearhand.com/games/big-head-zed/) before my coffers ran dry. The folks at the Dexterity Forums were incredibly helpful and I'm very grateful I had that resource to utilize. Now I'm back to working full time, saving up my money for another run. In my evenings, I'm starting work on a Mac port for Big Head Zed and have been preparing designs for a new game. Thanks to Mike, Dan and the crowd for putting this Dexterity refuge together; I'm sure I'll find it just as invaluable a resource as Dexterity was.

[Gilzu]

Name: Gil Zussman
URL: http://www.gilzu.com/
Occupation: Game Developer / ISP helpdesk
Location: Israel

Background:
I released "Goose Chase" a year ago, and now working on a whole remake for it along with my next title. On my way to get my CS degree (one year left!).

[Nemesis]

**Copied form Dexterity Forums**

Hi, my name is Colin Vella, 29, from Malta - Europe. I've been into hobbyist game programming ever since I was 13 years when I started out learning standard BASIC and AMOS Basic on my first computer, a Commodore Amiga. I eventually moved on to a PC environment where I learned Pascal and 8086 assembly. In the meantime I also learnt Java and C++, amongst othe rlanguages.

Like most hobbyists my efforts were mostly of an experimental nature and I have only released one public domain game (Revolution) with a friend on Amiga Format, a UK magazine. Another notable effort was Androboy, a game similar to the original Sonic The Hedgehog featuring parallax scrolling and a lot of the "physics" i.e. loops and curved surfaces. Sadly, I never completed it due to other personal commitments.

I went through an extended stint without pursuing this interest and only last year I teamed up again with my old friend and with two other friends to work on a 3D shoot-them-up (Perihelion - http://colinvella.no-ip.com/perihelion/).

The game has been in production for over a year and we hope to finish and market it independently in about 6 months time.

[Diragor]

Name: Ryan Eibling
URL: http://eibling.net
Occupation: Programmer, internal business apps: http://www.bestbill.com
Location: Phoenix, Arizona USA

Game development has been a back-burner hobby for me for years. Music is my passion and I'm having a serious go at that with a band I joined in January - http://the-furnace.com (no recorded material there with me on it yet). I don't know if it's possible to complete, market and support a good game with the time I have available but I often consider it. I have a nice little utility I might start selling and I'll see what happens after that.

[Straightarrow]

Name: Ralph Brorsen
Company: Straightarrow Software
URL: todo
Occupation: Student, Shareware Developer Wannabe
Location: Odense, Denmark

As a few other people here, my first code was for the demoscene. Stopped doing that between 1997 and 2000, was in limbo. Wanted to pick it back up last year, started working on games since it's sort of tangential to demos.

But recently I've realised that I'm more into audio & visual synthesis and effects, so that's what I'm currently working on. Hoping to have an initial release out in a couple of months.

[wazoo]

Name: Erik Yuzwa
Company: Wazoo Enterprises Inc.
URL: http://www.wazooenterprises.com
Occupation: part-time Indie, full-time C/C++/.NET/ASP programmer
Location: Calgary, AB

As most people are here, I've been hooked on games since I played UltimaIV on my AppleIIe a lifetime ago. Since then I've been coding little things here and there but never a complete game....fast fwd to today.

On my site, I'm about to launch a new LGPL'd dx9 library that'll hopefully help others out, as well as some tutorials which make use of said project.

I'm also currently working on my "first commercial venture" which should hopefully be done in a few months here.

[Mithril Studios]

Name: Anthony Weissenberger (formerly "Justiciar" on www.dexterity.com)
Company: Mithril Studios
URL: N/A (yet)
Occupation: Office manager, pt time
Location: Sioux Falls, South Dakota (think "Dances With Wolves")

Background
I worked for 4 years Raytheon as a subcontractor to the USGS. Shortly after the Sept. 11th tragedy some of the USGS' funding was transfered for the Homeland Defense -- including my salary.

Since then I've been working at various jobs, trying to get back into software development and working part time on getting a game studio built up.

I've always loved games, and I feel that only rarely do I come across a truly superb game (Heroes of Might & Magic 3, X-COM, Master of Orion II are a few that come to mind). My goal is to change that so that quality, robust, and suck-you-in fun games are the norm, instead of the exception.

[grimreaper]

Name: Brian Azzopardi
Company: GFI
URL: gfi.com
Occupation: C++ software developer
Location: Malta

Background:
Read Economics & Political Philosophy at University where I had many interesting discussion on philosophy, international relations, etc.

Currently working for GFI: interesting experience as I get to meet some very IT sec knowledgeable ppl and on cool tech.

Thought myself programming and then went over to the dark side. Wrote a Linux rootkit and did some linux kernel hacking. Currently have a couple of projects going related to Windows kernel hacking (oh the joys of BSOD :) )

Have always wanted to write games and I've got a few projects going as well.

[Coyote]

Name: Jay Barnson
Company: Rampant Games
URL: http://www.rampantgames.com
Occupation: Software Engineer
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Background:
After I graduated with a Bachelor's in Computer Science in 1994, my first "real" job was a programmer for SingleTrac, where we worked on award-winning games for the Sony Playstation like Twisted Metal, Warhawk, and Jet Moto. And we had some not-so-award winning games for the PC and Playstation. Later, I worked for a short stint at Acclaim before finally leaving the games industry after six years.

I always planned to come back, but now I'm re-entering it part-time, on my own terms, as an independent game developer. Low budget, low profit, and lots more work to do to handle the role of game developer, publisher, marketer, and business manager. But it gets back to the reasons I got into the biz in the first place... the desire to create games!

[papillon]

... why do I feel like a new kid at school now?

Name: Georgina Bensley
Occupation: Parting people from their money with the power of the internet
Location: Sussex, UK

No industry experience, practically no job experience (I was working in a library, until that whole deportation thing, and have never been able to find employment in this country), just a few programming classes and a lot of determination. But I've been trying to make games ever since writing bad poker for my TI-82. Love games, particularly slightly obscure or non-mainstream things, and would be quite happy to be independently wealthy so I could give games away free and make everyone play them.


Stuff I Dig: Quest for Glory, Princess Maker, Fallout, Planescape: Torment, good old 2d Mario/Sonic platforming, Mr. Do! and other nostalgic Coleco memories...

Stuff I Don't Dig: Anything first-person, most things 3d, most things focusing on guns, war, or other depressing subjects. Hopelessly out of touch with the modern market, me.

[Kai Backman]

Nice to be (almost) back from holidays and a thanks to fellow developers who put this new forum together! :)

Name: Kai Backman
Company: Mistaril, Inc.
URL: http://www.mistaril.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Background:
Working as full time indie for 2 years now (time does really fly). Developed and published Space Station Manager in early 2003. SSM nominated as a finalist in the Independent Games Festival 2004. Currently completing a second title and working on publishing of SSM. Love improving personal productivity and experimental marketing.

[Valen]

Name: Ilya Olevsky
Company: Valen Games LLC
URL: http://www.valengames.com
Occupation: Software Engineer by day, Business Owner by night.
Location: Central New Jersey (right next to the town Jon Bon Jovi's from actually).

Background: I've been learning about the shareware business since joining the original Dexterity forums almost 2 years ago. Released my first game Brickster in January, and going to start working on my next game soon. Recently joined the ASP (http://www.asp-shareware.org/) as well, and strongly recommend everyone to join too.

[P-Q4]

Name: Joe Hillman
Company: WebAppstogo
URL: http://www.webappstogo.com
Occupation: Software Engineer/Part time indie
Location: Dallas, TX USA

Background:
Currently working for Siemens (formerly Efficient) developing tools for DSL modems. During the evenings I develop screensavers and now games for my online site.

[PoV]

Name: Mike Kasprzak
Company: Sykhronics Entertainment
Company URL: http://www.sykhronics.com
Location: London, Ontario, Canada

Personal URL: http://www.sykhronics.com/?main.html (Temp, Personal homepage still intertwined in to biz site)
Day Job: Fulltimer (Was previously Technical Director @ game studio)

Industry vetran with 6 years of professional experience, 10 titles for Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, and Sony Playstation under my belt, and some un-showcased experience on a dozen other consoles/platforms. Been coding and making games as far back as I can remember. Former graphic designer too (not that I claim to be a skilled artist mind you).

Best known in indie land for PuffBOMB (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4582), the 2003 classic Hamster Exploding game, Ludum Dare, GameTunnel Monthly Round Up (MK), sometimes Pixelation, and "that guy that did all those girl games". :D

Huge fan of bizarre and unique games, and all things game related.

[Jack Norton]

Name: Celso Riva (aka Jack Norton)
Company: Winter Wolves
Company URL: http://www.winterwolves.com
Occupation: Fulltime indie dev
Location: Italy, currently trying to escape

I decided that in my life I'd be doing games when I first saw a sprite moving in the old glorious Commodore 64.
I've done quite some games for the italian market only, now I decided to go indie when I first saw dexterity forums in the march 2003. My first game USM wasn't a failure but neither a big success, and took me 5 months to finish, so I started thinking to give up.
Now after more than 1 year I've done several more games and in particular one, Universal Boxing Manager (http://www.winterwolves.com/pc_mac_games3.htm), gave me some hope in a brighter future for me as fulltime indie developer :)

Preferred game genres: Strategy/simulations, RPGs, Sports, Adventures

[Mike Wiering]

Name: Mike Wiering
Company: Wiering Software
URL: http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer
Location: Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Background: While studying computer science, I wrote my first shareware games, which sold better than I'ld expected. In 2001 I started Wiering Software.

Games: Super Worms (http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/sw/) (3D racing game for DOS), Super Angelo (http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/angelo/) (Mario clone), Charlie the Duck (http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/charlie/) (platform), Sint Nicolaas (http://sint.sf.net/) (platform, puzzle), Charlie II (http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/ch2/) (platform).

Main current projects: New game engine and Charlie III.

Other projects (open source): Tile Studio (http://tilestudio.sf.net/) (sprite/map editor) and Clean Game Library (http://cleangl.sf.net/) (game library for the functional language Clean).

Other interests: music (I play the cello).

[Uhfgood]

Name: Keith Weatherby II
Company: n/a
URL: http://www.games-afoot-software.com
Occupation: What's an occupation?
Location: Pacific NW, USA (okay Oregon not WA)

Background: Uhh did stuff. Pascal till 97. Got serious, started learning C. Making games, with a little contract work thrown in for good measure.

[mkovacic]

Name: Marin Kovacic
Company: Lemonade Productions ("Genista" d.o.o.)
URL: http://www.lemonade-p.com/
Occupation: Full Time Indie/contractor
Location: Split, Croatia, Europe

Background:
Full time indie for about 2 years, the first one working from home. We developed/published 2 games in that time (Light&Shadow and Caribbean Puzzle). As our games still don't sell enough to sustain us we all do contract work on the side.

[Gary the Llama]

Name: Gary Phillips
Alias: Gary the Llama
Company: None at the moment...
URL: http://www.garythellama.com/
Occupation: IT Specialist/Programmer + Part Time Game Indie Game Developer
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Background:
I'm 21 years old and have been programming for about 10 years. I've created a few clones of "classic" games in the past such as Pong and Pac-Man. A while back I was working on a Duck Hunt clone but that was put on hold while I got married and enjoyed spending time with my wife. I've now been married for just over 3 months and it's been wonderful.

I hope to have my first released indie game in beta status in about 6 months but we'll see how that goes. I just recently accepted a new job as IT Specialist/Programmer for a major American home builder. My salary has increased significantly and I'm doing what I love. The hours are low, the pay is great, the atmosphere is relaxed... So far it's a great job! Each day I'm doing something diverse enough so that I don't get burned out, I hope it stays that way.

Anyway, I hope to be more of an asset to this board than I was at Dexterity. I mostly just lurked around on those forums and found lots of great advice. I hope IndieGamer retains the great community that Dexterity started.

[mhuang]

Name: Michael Huang
Company: Michael Huang Productions
URL: http://www.www.gamenoise.com
Occupation: music composer, sound designer, game tester
Location: california, USA
:)

[formfarbeminze]

Alias: you can see that if you look further to the left, thank you
Company: i have lots of different people around me
URL: http://www.kuettner.cc/
Occupation: i am studying the fine arts, and that's fine with me
Location: hamburg, in northern germany
Background:
prior to my adventures in college i worked as a web designer. i also did marketing and graphic design jobs. i am looking forward to establish a funky software hut in the wargaming/strategy niche. i do like apple computers. i do like amiga computers even more, but i could not find any of them in the stores since years...
greetings to all of you, fellow indie game developers!

[Gmicek]

Name : Gregory Micek
Company: DIY Games
URL: http://www.diygames.com
Occupation: Editor
Location: Sacramento, Ca.

Background:
I helped run a gaming news and review site for about 2 1/2 years called 'RPM Games' that was what you could describe as "yet another gaming news site." We got some fairly unique news that found its way onto other news sites, and were able to build some decent traffic. As I helped run RPM I did a little work for Cloudchaser not long before they were swallowed. After E3 2002 I got extremely depressed with the prospect of running a site that could not hope to compete with the millions of other sites out there covering games I had suddenly become very uninterested in. It was shut down not long after that and the domain was allowed to expire.

I briefly flirted with the idea of creating a a pretty basic game with my programmer roommate before I concluded that I had no place creating games. DIY Games went live in August 2002 with the help of a French national who has never heard of proper coding practices, and believes that user interface design is unimportant. I since gone with another coder who has helped make the site much easier to deal with.

Currently we're in the process of relaunching DIY sometime in August. In addition to new graphics and layout, the site includes a more user friendly game library, an online arcade, an online store, new release list, and much more.

[Guardian_Games]

Name: Michael Sikora
Company: Guardian Games
URL: http://www.guardiangames.com
Occupation: Owner
Location: Peterborough, Canada

Background: Guardian Games has been developing and publishing games online since late 2002. Even before that, 'Guardian Light Studios' developed a retail board game pack called 'The Champion Board Game Series'.

I've been working independently or on contract in the games industry for over five years now.

[Chris Evans]

Name: Chris Evans
Company: Outside the Box Software
URL: http://www.outsidetheboxsoftware.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer
Location: San Diego, CA

Background:
I've always wanted to create games, but initially out of high school I was a freelance web developer. I enjoyed it and I ended up getting a lot of experience, which is proving useful to me now. But after the Internet bubble popped, I wanted to take a break from the Web. I just so happened to read a job opening at Sony, so I applied for a QA position. I could have made more money staying in the web development field, but I decided I finally wanted to get my foot in the door of the game industry.

As many people here probably already know, working in QA at a large company is not the greatest environment. The majority are temp workers who are usually considered expendable. The testers are usually completely isolated away from the actual game developers, so it's hard to learn anything beyond QA duties. In smaller dev houses, you'll often find a programmer or artist take an eager tester under their wing and show them the ropes. That simply doesn't happen at big companies.

Still I managed to get promoted and hired permanent by Sony. I did my job well, the people were nice, and the pay checks were reliable. But unfortunately my burning desire to make games was still going unfulfilled. I tried making games in my spare time, but my work schedule was just too hectic sometimes (working 12 -16 hour days) that my hobby game projects would get abandoned for months at a time.

Last Christmas, I decided it was time to turn my hobby into a real business. So I quit my comfortable job at Sony and decided to become a full-time Indie game developer. I quit last February and haven't looked back since.

Don't get me wrong, I get nervous sometimes (as of this writing my first game, "Pow Pow's Great Adventure" has not been released). But there's a album title by a popular rapper (who I hate) called, "Get Rich or Die Trying". Well my personal slogan is, "Become a Successful Indie or Die Trying". :) I'm going to keep working on it relentlessly until I get it where I want it to be.

Running a business is in my blood, so for me it's worth fighting for.

[kerchen]

Hi, I'm Paul Kerchen. Like many others here, I'm a refugee from the industry, having put in seven years at Maxis where I worked on various incarnations of SimCity (mainly simulation programming). Since '01 I've been doing my own thing, including making games independently through my company Whirling Chair Games. After a tumultuous start and a few false starts, I released Vault Vex last fall. So far, VV has not earned enough for me to retire on :rolleyes:, so I'm pressing ahead with my next game as time permits.

During the warmer months, I put my games on the back shelf to help my wife with her business (http://fullbloomfarm.com); it's a lot of hard work, but it's a really refreshing change of pace from sitting in front of the CRT (no plasma/LCD monitors yet :(). We're both committed to making a living working from home, so I know we'll get there eventually.

[Applewood]

Hi guys. I'm the artist formerly known as PalmTree, from over on the Dexterity site.

Big kudos to the guys for taking over handling this stuff. If you need a hand, let me know...

[Pyabo]

Name: Bryan Parker
Company: Gamehaven
URL: http://www.gamehaven.net (not much there quite yet :) )
Occupation: Full time wage slave, part time indie
Location: Seattle, WA

Background:
Is anyone actually reading these? I think they're all starting to sound the same by now...

[Sillysoft]

Name: Dustin Sacks
Company: Sillysoft
URL: http://sillysoft.net
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer
Location: Montreal, Canada

I have been a full time indie game dev for about 3 months now (!) and loving it. My first game Lux was a computer version of the board game Risk and has been well received. I hope to create some more similar strategy-type games in the future.

[whisperstorm]

Name: Andrew Wooldridge
Company: Ziff Davis
URL: http://www.1up.com
Occupation: Sr. Software Engineer / Web Developer
Location: Bay area Peninsula

Background:
I used to work for Netscape - helping to create the Netscape 6 and 7 browsers' UI (also skins) and helped create the Netscape AIM interface. Moved to eBay after the layoffs, and now working at a great game news and social network site called 1Up.com I'm an avid gamer and budding indie game developer -- trying my hand at Flash gaming with Laszlo (http://www.laszlosystems.com) and Gamemaker (http://www.gamemaker.nl)

[peatsie]

Name: Peter Butler
Company: Event Horizon Systems
URL: http://www.eventhorizonsystems.com (not up and running yet...)
Occupation: Currently Technical Director with a drilling instrumentation company, part-time indie
Location: Aberdeen, UK

I've always been into games since...well, alot younger than I am now...and have written a variety of games purely for self gratification.
I set up my company last year to start work on 'real' games and aim to go full-time within the next year.

[FlySim]

Name: J.R. Gloudemans
Company: Flysim
URL: http://www.flysim.com
Occupation: Software consultant, part time games developer
Location: San Mateo, CA

Wrote software for the glowing hockey puck and the virtual first
down line for football on TV. Mechanical engineering background
but I have been writing code for the last 15 years. First game a
mild success, only need ~10 more to do this full time! Kitesurf in my
spare time.

[z3lda]

Name: JC Hsia
URL: http://www.endbossgames.com & soon www.sharewaregamer.com
Occupation: game tester, part-time 3d artist/developer
Location: Bay Area, CA

I work with a wide variety of programmers on independent projects over the internet, and do some occasional 3d contract work. Besides that I've mostly been game testing for major publisher/developers in the Bay Area.

[mathgenius]

Another refugee from working for the man.
Making games since i was 9.
Figure i should see if i can build a business around that.
Studied too much maths. Brain is heavy.
Working on my first release :p

Simon.

[ErikH2000]

Name: Erik Hermansen
Company: Caravel Software
URL: http://www.drod.net
Occupation: Full-time games progammer, part-time indie developer
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA

I've been a professional programmer since 1992, when I convinced my employer to let me write a telephone survey database instead of actually conducting the telephone surveys I was hired to do.

In 93, I worked for this guy that made a lot of money setting up networks, but his clients always tacked on programming projects to his jobs as a condition of using him and he hated doing programming projects--it was too high-risk and ended up eating into his profits. So he just gave me a bunch of his clients to deal with and I ended up starting a contract programming business. Incredibly lucky for me! I was 22 at the time and it was a little overwhelming, but I learned a lot. Most of the 90s I did smaller IT jobs involving databases, with some stints in multimedia and telephony. Around 2000, business was slow and I had an urge to learn more about formal software development, shrink-wrapped products, life cycles, testing, large teams--stuff like that. So I gave up the business for a bit and worked for a couple of companies that scratched that itch. The dot com bust ended up killing off both of these companies and I was back to contracting after three years. RIP, Kindred Communications, Seattle Lab.

Parallel to the regular career, I was always writing game stuff on the side. It seemed like I never had enough time, which got me all angstful and irritated. As a side project to learn C, I wrote a game, "Deadly Rooms of Death", and published it through Webfoot Technologies. More recently, I've released two freeware open source versions of the original game and am nearing completion of a commercial sequel. To pay the bills I'm currently writing games for Webfoot, and it's been great to get my "day job" closer to what I'm moonlighting on, since I don't need to maintain two completely different skillsets. I completed some PC card games that were published through eGames and did some of the coding on a soon-to-be-released DragonBall Z game for the GBA.

-Erik

[Inous]

Name: Michael Conaway
Company: StormFactor Design
Occupation: Full Time Indie Dev
Location: Oregon, USA

I've been full time indy for a month now, and my budget definately reflects that. I'm in the process of designing an engine based off SDL/OpenGL, and it will be my first software release. I've been a programmer for about 5 years(I'm 19 now), and plan to get a job in the industry at some point in the near future.

[Damon DuBois]

Name: Damon DuBois
Company: Wizard's Lab
URL: www.wizardslab.com
Occupation: Full time commercial game developer/Part time indie developer
Location: Thousand Oaks, California, USA

I tried to write my first indie games as a kid on the C64 but didn't get very far. Then in my early 20s I got a job in the game industry as an artist and have been doing that for 11 years now. About 5 years ago I got serious about becoming an indie and taught myself C++ and DirectX and started a really ambitious project. After pouring a year and a half of my life into that game I finally realized it had alot design flaws and retired it. I then started Net War (http://www.wizardslab.com) which was alot smaller in scope and the first game I finished and released. I'm just finishing a second game (this time collaberating with a programmer friend) which is about to go into beta, and I have a third that is about half done.

So far I haven't made very much money at it, but I hope to soon. My long term goal is to go full time as an indie within the next 3 to 4 years.

[Greg Squire]

Name: Greg Squire
Company: MonkeyTime Software
URL: http://www.monkeytimesoftware.com
Occupation: Full Time Web Application (Java) Developer, Part Time Indie
Location: Utah, USA

Background:
I've been in the Computer Software Industry for about 12 years now; latter half of that has been writing Java/JSP web applications. I started programming as a hobby at age 14, and I wrote small games on my TI-994A and Atari 800XL back in that day. I love retro games, and "wasted" (according to some folks) some of my youth playing games in the arcade, and on my Atari 800XL. I'm still "working for the man", but I've had the "itch" to do some "indie" work for some time now, and I'm headed down that road. I hope to meet some of you along that path. Good Luck (and maybe a little heavenly help) to us all!

[Nick Bischoff]

Hi,

My Name is Nick Bischoff (*ahem*). I live in Sunny South Africa, in joburg. I lecture IT at a tertiary institution. Ive worked on several game projects and completed and sold several applications as shareware. I'm always working on a game or tool of some kind. I also run a web development company focusing on online applications. I vent my creativity through web design (and kicking the dog), one of those statements are true.

HA!

[world_creator]

Name: Jonathan Nguyen
Company: None
URL: http://betablocker.budfish.com/
Occupation: Student, part-time indie (not sure if i count, havent sold anything yet)
Location: Sunny South Cali

Background:
I, err, started programming in my freshman year of high school when my buddy showed me DarkBasic. I used that for a year or two and I learned a lot of programming and 3d basics from that. Requiring a little more power, I moved to Blitz3D and have been using that ever since (yes, I need to learn C++ and DirectX). Since then through my high school career I've had two or three false starts until my current project which I've been working on in my spare time for a year now, particularly in the summer. I plan to concentrate on my education for now while hoping to gain some money on the side through indie programming.

[Yavin]

Name: Paul Grayston
Company: Core Illusions (http://www.coreillusions.co.uk)
Occupation: Lead Programmer & Founder
Location: UK
Hobbies: Anything that takes a little thought.

Were currently working on a few titles, some of which are 3D and some are 2D, nothing really ground breaking as of yet but we have a few original titles in planning.

[tentons]

Name: Jason McIntosh
Company: Grim Inventions Interactive, http://www.griminventions.com
Occupation: Part-time web developer/Full-time indie developer
Location: Lexington, KY, USA

My most relevant experience was on a humongous Quake II total conversion called "Dawn of Darkness." Been programming for several years, from BASIC/assembly on C64 to Pascal to C on Amiga to C++ and Java on PC. Currently building a few web sites for small businesses while creating my own small business with games. Live with a wonderful woman who understands; never under-estimate the power of that!!

Working on my first release, which is officially unannounced. I have a lot of plans for growth, but they are layers, so I have to build up to the final glory of my endgame strategy: taking over the world. Or at least making a living by creating games and pushing the boundaries of what is considered "indie."

[Sirrus]

Name: Alex
URL: http://www.weaponstudios.com & dopefarmer.com & www.injoygames.com
Occupation: Intern/Producer/Associate Producer/Cdcopier
Location: Cambridge, MA

Currently working at a major game publisher as an intern...but have worn numberous hats - Producer, Associate Producer, Tester, etc.

Developer of Dope Farmer, released in 2003, which has done pretty well. Soon to release and launch my new family division, InjoyGames.com.

[alchemist]

Hey, good to see familiar names here. I'm Mike Sellers, formerly 'alchemist' over on the Dexterity.com forums. I've been in the games industry since 1994: co-founded Archetype Interactive and designed Meridian 59 (first 3D MMORPG); sold that to 3DO. Co-founded The Big Network (family games and social networking - a bit ahead of the market) in 1997; sold that to eUniverse in 1999. Went to Maxis (EA) for two years, Origin for another year, and then started Online Alchemy a couple of years ago.

We initially licensed and produced a couple of small games with less than resounding success (hey, it was an exploratory move), and are now working on a much larger AI-based game (for which we've received partial funding from DARPA). Small/indie games are still close to my heart (and my biz plan :) ) though; I plan to re-launch our small games and add to them as we move forward.

I hope these forums are as solid a resource as the Dexterity forums were!

[ztownsend]

Name: Zach Townsend
URL: Temporary http://www.zdt.co.uk
Occupation: Full-time Indie Developer & Part-time Web Developer
Location: Kent - UK (For now)

Hi all
Just decided to go back into games after a brief 15 year break. Spent some years at Ocean/Imagine back in the Commodore 64 days - remember that? Since then, spent my days in business software development,SQL etc and run a computer retailer/network integrator. Apart from a quick version of space invaders a couple of years ago in Flash, the last game I wrote was in 6502 Assembler 15+ years ago. Apparently, things have moved on from then - AND I've forgotten everything I knew, so it should be fun ahead.

PS. Can someone remind me what a sprite is?

[SyneRyder]

Name: Kohan Ikin
Company: namesuppressed
URL: http://www.namesuppressed.com/
Occupation: Full-time independent software developer
Location: Perth, Australia

Background: The forums' resident non-gamer. My development experience is mostly in Photoshop Plugins, where I have had moderate success as an independent developer/marketer, and become an expert in the FF+ (Filter Factory Plus) language. Prior to that, I'd started by writing electronic music under the pseudonym "namesuppressed" using Impulse Tracker, and was even nominated for some statewide awards for my music. Despite that, I'm best known as the creator of the South Park Kenny Translator (http://www.namesuppressed.com/kenny/).

I found my way here via Steve Pavlina's articles and the Dexterity Forums, where I was a semi-regular. At the time, I didn't realize that an "indie" means a game developer; as a fan of indie rock/grunge music, I thought "indie" referred to anyone working independently, and/or outside of the mainstream. Hence my presence here. Though I played with the Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit on the Commodore 64 when I was a kid, I've never considered myself to be a game developer.

While most of my time is spent developing Photoshop plugins, I've also written other applications in C++ and PHP. I do occasional contract PHP/HTML work for DotGarden, and casual work writing content for e-consultancy.co.uk. My future plans include developing more applications and even getting back to my audio roots, writing music and developing a cross platform MOD music engine & tracker program.


To Zach: I sure do remember the C64/Ocean days. Batman The Movie and Platoon were two of my favorite C64 games, and I also had Rambo III & Cobra. I was probably only 8 or 9 when those games came out, and when I was 11 my dream was to be a programmer "highly acclaimed by Ocean". No one had any clue what I was talking about :)

[Igmon]

A copy paste :)

Name: David Dionisio
Company: RenegadeWare
URL: www.renegadeware.com (http://www.renegadeware.com)
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Developer
Location: Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico

Background:
So far it has been 6 months since I started as a full time indie game developer. I am not making money right now and have only made one shareware title. I have several experience with game development as shown in my website such as the 3d platform game called Ta-Ta Mahatta. Right now I am helping out another indie game company called Xibalba Studios.

Anyways, so hopefully I am able to help people here and find help as well.

[LiquidAsh]

Name: Ashley Moore (aka LiquidAsh)
Company: Sugar Pill Studios, LLC
URL: http://www.sugarpillstudios.com
Occupation: Game Instructor
Location: Minneapolis, MN

Background:
Just started offering my first indie developed, and self published title within the last 24hrs. Otherwise, I do have some commercial game industry experience, a lot of random contract programming/design experience, and some teaching experience. I'm doing this mostly for fun right now, but would love to find enough success to afford the choice of going full-time one day.

[Mark Currie]

Name: Mark Currie
Company: Inhuman Games
URL: http://inhumangames.com
Occupation: Game Developer
Location: Redmond, WA

At the tender age of 15, I released my first indie game, Chopper Commando 2, in 1989. It was distributed via BBSs such as CompuServe and PC-LINK (now known as AOL). Over ten years, it sold about 500 units, all through mail-order.

After studying CS at UF, I went to work at Sierra On-line on their football game. When the project was cancelled, I went to work for Microsoft on the multiplayer flight-sim/RTS hybrid game Allegiance. In April 2000, I began work on my second indie game, a real-time strategy game called Trash. In July 2003 I ran out of money, and I worked as a contractor for Microsoft’s Mythica. Seven months later it was cancelled and now I’m back on Trash. Trash will be released this Fall.

[lexaloffle]

Name: Joseph White
Company: Lexaloffle Games Ltd.
URL: http://www.lexaloffle.com
Occupation: Game Developer
Location: Wellington, New Zealand

Background:

I started Lexaloffle in 2003 to release Neko Puzzle and Zen Puzzle Garden. I spend most of my time working on new games and also do a bit of graphics programming for other companies in NZ. My formal training and commercial experience is mainly in 3D graphics, but I still love the look of pixel graphics and generally prefer 2D games. Before Lexaloffle, I worked for Right Hemisphere and before that I was a Philosophy student. When I'm not writing games, I like playing football, playing jazz standards on my piano, and thinking about writing games. My favourite games are Thrust, Elevator Action, Ghosts and Goblins, Liero and Ico.

[JoshuaSmyth]

Name: Joshua Smyth
Company: Peachysoft
URL: http://www.peachysoft.com
Occupation: Student / Game Developer / Rock Star
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

I'm currently studying maths and philosophy at university. Thought about setting up Peachysoft for the last 5 or so years when I first started programming back in high school. When I first had this really ambitious idea for a RPG. Which I'm still going to attempt. Just not yet. But first I'm going to create a couple of arcade games and sell them online in order to test the waters and learn more about game development and running a business.

My first title 'Starcars' which is a variation on the game 'skyroads' by bluemoon interactive is very near completion. I want to have it done by the end of this year. So far it's been 12 months in development. Which is an awfully long time for a game of its scope, but I haven't been working on it fulltime and I've had to learn soooo much.

I got started in game development because as a young un I really loved sierras adventure games. Both the parser and point and click variations and it was my goal (from about age 9) to get a job with sierra making adventure games. Now that they've killed that product line, and now that I've discovered just how much work is involved in an adventure game - I've decided to go into business for myself.

As a hobby I play bass in an originals pop rock band. We've got a single demo mp3 avalible for download, which you can check out at http://www.amperzahn.com We've been togeather for approx 6 months and have just started to work on playing live gigs - so it should be fun to see where that goes.

[C.S.Brewer]

Name: Clint Brewer
Company: UnEarthed Games
Occupation: coffee drinker
URL: http://www.unearthedgames.com
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA

Hello Everyone,
I've found the Dexterity Forums, and now these, a great resource and inspiration over the past year or two. Today, September 2nd, is my first day being a full time indie. Introductions are needed.

I've recently been working at NVIDIA in the Developer Technology Group, helping game developers with bugs, graphics engine optimizations, writing technical demos, papers, and presentations. A great job indeed. Before that I programmed at Haptek Inc. with a tiny team for about 5 years making virtual character entertainment software. Another great job!

But as I know all of you understand, I've wanted to make my own games, and be my own boss for a long time now. I've been surprised by how many of the posts seem to parallel my journey to this point. Thanks to all of you for sharing.

I've been seriously working towards today for a few years now, saving money, researching, reading, learning. Finally things have fallen into place.

now it's time to get to work :)

[Peter Wayne]

Name: Peter Wayne
Company: Bluetone Studios
URL: www.BluetoneStudios.com
Occupation: Music Composer, Sound Designer, Voice Actor
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Background: I started playing computer games when I was about 5 and knew from an early age, that I wanted to be apart of creating them. In my early teen years I found a strong passion for music and wanted nothing more than to become a musician. I also started to get heavily into recording my own music. I went on to finish a sound production course back in 2000. I started my own business at the end of last year specializing in all aspects of game audio. I have been composing music for about 8-9 years. I've always been able to create character voices and I take pride in creating sound effects that are accurate and realistic. Combining those three areas (music, sound and voice). I'm happy to say I specialize in all aspects of game audio :P. Drop me an email if you would like to know anything else info@bluetonestudios.com

[aduro]

Name: John Burkert
Company: Aduro Games
URL: http://www.adurogames.com
Occupation: Programmer
Location: Warrenville, IL (Chicago Suburb)

Background:
I just started game programming this past summer. Did a remake of Dynamite Kat by End Boss Games for Sony Ericsson phones. Started Aduro Games with a buddy and we are working on our first game right now.

[DDustin]

Name: Dustin Dettmer
Company: N/A
URL: N/A
Occupation: Student
Location: San Jose, CA (near it, anyway)

Background:
Been programing in my free time for almost 2 years now. Its more of an addiction really, though it would be nice to make some money doing it. I tend to come and go, for one week I might be going typing on all the forums, the next I might be caught up in real life, and then the next I might be furiously coding something in isolation. This forum looks awesome though, and I'm surprised I didnt find it sooner :D

[Fry Crayola]

Name: Liam McGuigan
Company: Nope
URL: the very out of date http://www34.brinkster.com/frycrayola
Occupation: Unemployed
Location: Belfast, Ireland

Background:
I've been coding in some shape or form since the age of 12. A few non-descript titles for the Amstrad CPC followed, though never released. Pretty simple BASIC games - a Klax clone and a footie management title that was about the equal of Soccer Boss.

I've spent the last two years on and off working on The Complete Football Game, which is the ambitious uber-project that I like to work on now and then. Rather than an attempt to set the world on fire from the beginning, it's currently little more than a hobby, although the dream is still very real.

Just recently graduated from University with a hefty degree only to enter a world where I'm finding it nigh on impossible to get a job, leaving me a little delusional and also straining the relationship with the girlfriend. After four months of that I've finally decided that TCFG isn't going to make me any money in the short term, but I can certainly try my hand at other smaller projects to test the waters, bring in some cash and appease the missus.

In practically all respects I'm a noobie, but that's the way it goes. I find if there's one way to learn, it's to get stuck in and try things out. I have absolutely nothing to lose and at the age of 22, everything to gain. Now if only I can find a job in the meantime....

[tolik]

Name: Anatoly Ropotov
Company: CTXM SIA
URL: http://www.ctxm.com
Occupation: Development Manager
Location: Riga, Latvia, Europe

Background:
Year 98, first Latvian online gaming services and forum bringing dozens of national igaming places together, creating baltic states championships in the area which nowadays is called cybersport (organisations: AVI Center, Quaker).
In 2000 I've established first russian emulation news resource (webarchive.org -> romov.net). Due to the high success, I've opened my non-commercial internet holding featuring 20+ major russian gaming-related sites (webarchive.org -> dotnet.lv). The whole thing collapsed in early 2003, when hosting provider (which was advertised by our successfull resources), was acquired by a bigger company and has shifted their area of interests.
Since year 2001, I was also working at SyberSoft. We were doing games for GBA, GameCube, own arcade platform and hell knows also what (NES, Sega Pico, Mac, using RenderWare, Virtools...) featuring a dozens (http://home.balticom.lv/pal/images.html) of other things (http://www.lynx.lv/albums/gamestudio.jpg).
Early 2003 I left the ship and joined CTXM, where my team has created and developed a number of gambling games which you can play on major betting sites (sportingbet, victorchandler, paddypower, ladbrokes...).
Since 2004 I'm (again) responsible for _real_ games - Xbox, Win/Mac, Flash...

WOW, Did I really wrote that one? Ok, to summarise it all, just read the bottom of this page (http://www.ctxm.com/company/management/).

[Giuli]

Name: José Carlos
Company: ??
URL: ??
Occupation: IT consultant ;)
Location: Portugal

Dont know what to say... i'll edit this later.

[MrPhil]

Well, Giuli reminded me that I hadn’t made a Roll Call post so here it goes.

Name: Philip J. Ludington
My Company: Mr. Phil Games
URL: www.mrphilgames.com
Blog: www.mrphil.name
Occupation: AT&T Business Applications Developer
Location: Northern Virginia, USA (i.e. practically Washington, D.C.)

Background:
Grew up in Mississippi, went to college at University of Maryland. Always been interest in computers and wrote my first program when I was a kid in BASIC on a Texas Instrument TI-99/4A (I was nine or ten.) Got my first paying programming job during college in 1992 and went full-time in 1997.

Current Project: Alien Sovereign
I'm in the midst of serious work on my first title, which will be a strategy game set in a sci-fi universe.

A big motivator for me is that games today focus too much on whiz bang features and/or 3D graphics and rarely produce strategy games I really like playing. I'm also highly motivated by the freedom over my time and creativity that success in the field could bring.

[SonSon]

Name: Olivier *SonSon* Behr + *Mysterious associate*
Company: Coming really soon!
Occupation: Full time indie developer
Location: Paris, France
Nationality: French

Background - We both worked as graphic artists during 4 years @ CryoNetworks and 2 years @ Gameloft in Paris, France.
At present time we are finishing our first game and commercial website. We expect launching everything early 2005.

Current project - An offline multiplayer kids/family party-game. The game has a super easy gameplay, each player needs a single key/button to play.

This forum (and Dexterity's archives) must be state-approved!:D

[Capi]

So I typed out this nice post. Then I typed it all backwards just to go against the grain, clicked preview and it said I wasn't logged in and cleared it all...

:(
capi crimm
AbeedA Game Development (http://abeeda.massdeop.com)
Location: WI.
Nationality: American [or if thats to egocentric, United Stateian]

Background- how I got into this whole thing I'm stil unsure of. I'm an artist in real life. So computers aren't my forte to say the least. Only game I really enjoy is Earthbound. Im hoping all my years watching IFC and falling asleep in movie theaters may pay off here. Original awsome games with neat-o fact-o stories and a lack of real graphics... hopefully this area of indies doesn't have the same pitfalls as the movie industry.

Current Project- I guess the team I'm part of is working on developing a C++ program to create our first games in.

Sadly you don't get to see this all typed backwards... I know you're all crying, it'll be okay, like the time Socrates drank the Hemlock... I still am bothered by that story. Did Crito ever pay the cock they OWED ASCLEPIUS! What a cliff hanger!

AIM: capi crimini
YIM: greenfieldsof

love to talk, if not there I'll probably be on a various forum.

[TheArtifex]

Name: Justin Smith (http://www.sanctuslegacy.com/web/justinsmith.html)
Team: Trillæm Productions (http://www.sanctuslegacy.com/)
Team Introduction: Trillæm Productions - Introduction (http://www.sanctuslegacy.com/web/mission.html)
Occupation: Head of Development, Tools Coder, Composer/Musician
Location: IUPUI, Indiana, USA
Hobbies: (Indie game dev isn't a hobby? Hrm... well I suppose there's a fine line between a "hobby" and a "recreational activity that has formed an obsessive addiction that consumes 8-11 hours of every day of my life".) I also like composing music, a bit of writing every now and then, logical debate, theology, and an occasional hand at video games.

Profile: Graduated early from high school to study New Media at IUPUI, with a cognate in Informatics, which is essentially the equivalent of a Game Design degree from Full Sail in Florida at 1/10th the price, and close to home. I've been in the indie field for about 3 years, working on my current project for just shy of 14 months. I've got 2 years of coding experience, 8 years of music composition, and a whole bunch of project management experience, starting out as early as running some of my old kindergarten events, all the way to organizing complicated coding projects and now, high-membercount long-distance team management.

Currently heading up the development of Sanctus Legacy Online: an indie MMORPG that has actually fared surprisingly well in communities like GarageGames and Gamedev. We try to maintain our high aspirations while working with reasonable goals. Our members have become reknowned for skill and dedication- especially at the young age which many of them are at.

Contact:
http://www.sanctuslegacy.com/ (http://www.sanctuslegacy.com)
AIM: SanctusLegacy
MSNm: SanctusLegacyOnline@hotmail.com

[bluejay]

Name: David Hammond
job: software engineer/wanna be indie :p
Location: Redwood, California

29 yr old software engineer working on my first golf game! :)

[mrhollow]

Name: Aaron Hachez
Website: http://www.hollowworks.com
Location: New Mexico, USA

Background: I've been programming for 8 years, and have been a systems administrator for 5. My goal has been to make games for profit, and I'm nearing that stage.

I've developed one game which has been released as Freeware, and am working on another that will be shareware.

I'm a linux/unix proponent and user through and through, and do all development on linux computers.

Contact:
ICQ: 92836354 (mrhollow)

[Surrealix]

Name : Philip Buchanan
Company : Surrealix
Website : www.surrealix.com
Occupation : Student
Location : New Zealand (Christchurch)

Started programming at age 11, in VB4. I'm now studying Computer Engineering at University. I wrote my first large application when I was 15 (ski field pass management software), and have since written a number of games, which invariably don't get finished. The ones I have can be found on my website.

I know C and C++, but use VB 6 as my major language. Until I started uni, I'd never had any tuition, and have completely taught myself DirectX, 3D programming, and all the associated maths.

I've also done a little web design, as well as a lot of 3D modelling.

contact : philip@surrealix.com

edit - detail, contact, etc, updates.

[AndyN]

Name : Andrew Nye
Company : Melted Games
Website : www.meltedgames.co.uk
Occupation : Freelance multimedia developer (and now lead programmer of Melted Games :) )
Location : Macclesfield, UK

Profile: Born 1976, not dead yet. Starting programming games in 1985. Finished one in 2005.

Okay, that's not strictly true - I have finished a couple of games in twenty years but nothing I'd want mentioned in my biography.

I teamed up with a couple of very talented 3D artists in 2004, who also had a great game design idea in mind. 6 months and much wailing and gnashing of teeth later we have our first full game. It's a 3D driving combat game for Windows that goes by the name of Autofrag: SUMO and thankfully it's been pretty well received so far :)

We're working in shockwave 3D and Havok at the moment but I'm planning to graduate to TGE for the sequel.

[Abscissa]

Name : Nick Sabalausky (Sometimes go by "Nitrode" online, sometimes "Abscissa")
Company : Twisted Pair Gaming (formerly Abscissa Software)
Website : http://www.twistedpairgaming.com
Occupation : Your typical struggling 20-something ;)
Location : Cleveland, OH, United States

Born 1981, so by the time I was old enough to really notice the 80's they were over. Shit! ;)

Started programming on an Apple IIc at about 7 (give or take). Made my first complete game at 16. It was an Arkanoid clone called HyperBall, later made a slightly updated version called Zarkanoid (http://www.twistedpairgaming.com/download/ZarkDemo.zip) ('cause there's about a million other games called HyperBall). It was on a few of the "billion games on one disc" collections, back when those were still aound. Made a Centepede clone called Mechapede (http://www.twistedpairgaming.com/download/mechapede_demo.exe) a couple years later (which has music from a friend of mine's electronic group ShadeFix. They're actually pretty good if you like electronica, although the Mechapede tracks aren't their best stuff. Check them out on ACIDPlanet (http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?AID=164107&T=714637) and iTunes). Both games were done under the name Abscissa Software.

I'm currently changing the name to Twisted Pair Gaming, since Abscissa is too hard for many people to spell and pronounce. I'm planning to re-write Mechapede and Zarkanoid in D (the existing code is awful), fix a bunch of stuff that's been *really* bothering me for quite some time, and re-release them as Deluxe versions together with the launch of the new website.

I've also been doing some homebrew GBA stuff: GBAForVS6 (http://www.twistedpairgaming.com/gbadev), My Robot (http://www.twistedpairgaming.com/download/MyRobot_v1.0_by_Nick_Sabalausky.zip)

[TMAN]

Name: Tobias N. Nteireho
Company: TBA
Website: TBA
Occupation: computer engineering sophomore
Location: School in Philadelphia, but home is Fairfax, VA (aka D.C.)

Been programming since I was 11, but developing games is pretty much all I've envisioned myself doing since I got an original NES when I was 3 or 4. I'm determined to launch a business and sell some games this summer, but I'm sure I'll get wonderfully sidetracked.... These forums been pretty helpful to me even though I'm not done.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Name: Scott Lantz
Alias: Hiro_Antagonist
Company: Tiny Hero Game Studios
Website: http://www.TinyHero.com/
Occupation: Producer, dev, those sorts of things
Location: Seattle, WA

Working on my first game, Land of Legends. I think it's swell, and I hope you do to.

-Hiro_Antagonist

[ZuluBoy]

Name: Sila Kayo
Occupation: full-time Research Engineer for Nokia ( working on 3D/2D APIs like OpenGL ES, OpenVG ), part-time indie developer.
Location: Oulu, Finland.

I was born in 1978 in Yaounde, Cameroon ( Central Africa ).
Wrote my first program/game in 1994 on a Casio fx7900 that my brother gave me as present.

Spent 6 years studying computer science in St-Petersburg, Russia.
During that time I developed games like: SuperTown (http://www.geocities.com/silakayo/supertown/) ( it was later abondoned ), and KatDoom (http://iden.motorola.com/motorola/en/j2me_details.cfm?itemid=6296&price=4.99) ( Published by Micro Java Network ).

I'm currently developing a Symbian/Pocket PC game that I hope will be a hit :D .

[DavidL]

Name: David Ludwig
Company: Funkitron
URL: http://www.funkitron.com
Occupation: Full Time Indie Game Programmer
Location: Worcester, MA

Hallo!

I've been co-authoring/coding indie games since the summer of 2004. Before then, I spent a year debugging device drivers for telecommunications boards. Further back in time, I was a Computer Science student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), which I graduated from in 2002.

My professional interests are primarily in game engine design, however I do enjoy design in terms of general gameplay and user interface. I am also a big proponent of open source tools and libraries.

When I'm not working on code, I enjoy hanging out with friends, playing video games, and drinking beer. :D

[Joneda]

Name : Jonathan Ho, Edwin Kong, Darren Kong


We're currently working on our easy to play set of card game. Hope it will be a hit! :D

[Sega Ages]

Hi... I'm inspired by developers like Jeff Minter who started on the VIC-20 and are still "keeping it real" in the corporate world of this dystopian 21st century. ;) I have an avid interest in game design, applying classic gaming concepts to modern projects, and I'm a fan of all kinds of abstract and niche genre games from around the world (Japan, NA, EU). Hoping to try focusing some of my energies into producing small projects that can be played and enjoyed by a modest underground/niche audience... working on my first release...

[Alex]

Name: Alex Parker
Company: Web Synergy
Occupation: Chief know-it-all
URL: TBA
Location: Western Australia

First started in business as a web designer, then realised how boring and simple that is. I've always had an interest in programming games, been programming in one way or another since I was about 6, made my first real "game" (text adventure) when I was 11, on an Amstrad CPC. So by now, I should know it all right? Well, the trouble with adolescence and rave parties... well, thats another story. Lets just say I spent about the last 2-3 years catching up on everything thats happened since Turbo Pascal and linear C was all the go.

Ideally I would like to throw of the shackles of drudgery and be one of those (if they exist) rich indie game developers. My second goal would be to work for some other successful game developer, using my own projects as examples of my 1337 skills. Other than that, I suppose I will take on an electrical apprenticeship or something, Australian programmers don't get paid much. Maybe I'll move to india (they get even less pay, but theres lots of jobs)!

[Battleline]

Name: Rick Battagline
URL: www.epochstar.com (http://www.epochstar.com)
Occupation: Software Developer / Amateur Game Developer
Location: Colorado, USA

Background: I actually develop mortgage software as my full time gig. Current project is Epoch Star, a Space Adventure / Space RPG. (http://www.epochstar.com) I aspire to do this full time, but I have to finish a game first... so it may be a while.

[aiosup]

The roll call continues...

Name: Alexandru Iosup
Company: Suntstic Software
URL: http://www.suntasticsoftware.com
Occupation: Part-Time Indie Game Developer
Location: Delft, NL

Background:
It's my third year as an indie, but never went full-time. Last year I and a couple good friends decided to start an indie game company, mostly for the fun of it. We currently focus on fast-paced turn based strategy games (yes, a bit of a contradiction here), suited for 1 player/family. Our first game is Leaderz, and we have another one in development. We are full of (hopefully great) ideas, and basicly stubborn as mules into turning them into games. To summarize, I am enjoying very much doing this, and our company is doing every possible startup mistake (mostly my fault(s)), from which we hope to learn faster than we go bankrupt...

[etali]

Name: Lesley Harrison
Company: err... Myth Games? (lol)
URL: http://www.myth-games.com
Occupation: Student
Location: UK

Background:

Ex sysadmin / database person, now at uni trying to actually do something they've wanted to for years. Hoping one day to be an AI programmer for games.

[Matt Parry]

Name: Matt Parry
Company: Grubby Games
URL: http://www.grubbygames.com
Occupation: Part-Time Indie Game Artist/Developer
Location: London, Ontario

Background: I've been a lifelong gamer and hobbyist artist and only recently (3 years ago) realized how much fun stuff you can do with today's 3D software, so I jumped right in - currently using Lightwave. A friend from university (Ryan Clark) and I recently teamed up and decided to stop talking about making games, and just start making 'em! Our first game should be completed in a month or so, we hope... :)

[AtmaVegeta]

Name: Dustin Oliver
Company: In-Geek Productions
URL: Under Construction
Occupation: Student
Location: Bradford UK (July: Russellville, AR)

Background:
I was a student at the University of Bradford, studying Interactive Systems and Video Games design. Did that for year and a half then decieded to go back to States and do Computer Science instead (cheaper).

Earlier this year I thought to myself, why not have a hand at making Indie Games? Even if I don't make much it will look very good on my Resume!

I've had some experience with: VB, C, C++, Lingo, JavaScript, DirectX

While I'm not expert at these, just having a bit of all, I wish to learn them much more. (Most Experience with Lingo/JavaScript currently)

And ready for the future!! Hopefully good things will come! Money or not! :)

[destron]

..................

[Carolyn Ann]

Name: Carolyn Ann
Company: Not sure yet
No URL, either
Occupation: Furniture/cabinet maker
Location: Nether regions of NYC

Background:
I've been in technology for over 20 years. I decided to go into furniture making a few years ago, and I frankly prefer it to the late nights and stress of a Wall St job. Did some pretty interesting and cool stuff while on Wall St, but it's all ancient history now.
I'm developing the game I want to play as I can't buy it anywhere.
My interests are (in no particular order): fashion, Formula 1 Racing, NASCAR, my ever-suffering spouse, my cats, furniture making, art & sculpture, music (classical, rock & punk with the occasional bit of jazz for good measure). I also enjoy mountain climbing and caving, kayaking and so on; I've not had much chance to do those activities lately. I also like my house, but I don't like the bills that come with an old Victorian.

I'm looking forward to some interesting interactions and learning quite a lot from the people on this board. You all seem to be quite talented!

Carolyn Ann

[appleTRON]

(Finally! A lurker no longer!)

Name: Noah Appleton
Alias: appleTRON
Occupation: Sound Designer / Editor
Location: Los Angeles, California

I'm what you call a fresh-faced newbie. I have never developed a game in my life. What I do do however, is edit music, fx & dialogue for film and TV. As a musician and life-long game player/connoisseur, I look to independent development as a way to hold on to art and innovation as games go to the future. I am here to collaborate on ideas and start working on my first titles -- oh, and to share my knowledge with the rest of the community.

[sparkyboy]

Well seeing as I've moved up from junior to a proper tool err i mean member here goes. :p

Name: Mark Seymour
Alias: Sparkyboy
Occupation: Used to be general builder.
Location: Brittany,France.


Right where do I start.....OK got it.


Born in 1967,left school at 16 with 5 O'levels in Maths,English Literature,Biology,physics and chemistry.

First computer I had was a 48K rubber keyed ZX Spectrum,on which I produced a few adventure games using a tool called PAW(professional Adventure writer)

Moved onto Commodore 64 and produced a few titles using SEUCK (shoot'em up construction kit) one of which got released in Germany and UK.


Then ST and AMIGA which is when I started programming in BASIC,using STOS and AMOS and SEUCK.Released a logic puzzle game for AMIGA in '93 through F1 Licenceware in UK.


After that learned enough 'C' to produce 2 DOS games between '96 and '98 which I released as Shareware.


Didn't really touch a computer for the next 6 years or so.After a major works accident in November 2001,have been on the 'sick' and have not yet decided what i'm going to do in the future.

Just recently started to get back into programming,and even though i'm no programming expert,maybe this is something I may have to do and try and make a go of it.

All I know is that this site has provided me with insight,confidence and knowledge of things which are invaluable to me,and I hope to be able to impart my own input whenever possible.

Thankyou all.


All the best

Mark.

[Gnatinator]

Hey guys, I just joined the game officially just a few days ago! Here are my player stats:

Name: Nathaniel Sabanski
Company:Photonik Games (http://www.photonikgames.net)
Grand Opening Date: 6/4/2005
Launch Title: Outer-Rim Pod Digger (http://www.photonikgames.net/orpd.php)

Im currently a lone wolf "one man army" developer. Like most rest of us ;)

[jankoM]

Name: Janko Metelko
Occupation: Programer
Location: Slovenia
Url: http://nomind-tech.com, http://otroski.net, http://arkedu.info... (all in slovene lang, sorry;)

I actually didn't like computers and was more interested in other things until few years ago. I newer played games much and don't know any of the classics you talk here sometimes. Some day I started messing with MSAccess and somehow started programing. I later became webdeveloper (php, python) and left job - i survived with this for few semi-sucsessfull years . Now I am exploring indie-game world and bending my mind to accept statically typed languages :)

I am a little proud of portal for kids in slo. otroski.net that I made while learning to program in Zope. It became very big thing with tons of very interesting and smart kids that never stop amazing me.

LSM, Janko

[Didier]

Name: Didier Evrard
Company: Illusion Software
URL: http://www.illusionsoftware.be
Occupation: Full-time Developer/Publisher, part-time LPG car Mechanic
Location: Spiere, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Background:
Back in 1999 started learning programming with Visual C+ for the Morfit3D engine.
Later on switched to c-script (3D GameStudio).
In 2003 released "Mini Golf 2003" and "Magician's Lair" (both retail published by Xing).
In 2004 released Dope Dealer (online distribution only) and June 2004 began working as a publisher/reseller with my colleague Michael.
This is what we still do at the very moment.
All game submissions are more than welcome ;)

Didier

[DashingPixels]

Name: Laurent Testud
Company: Dashing Pixels LLC, based in Seattle, WA
URL: http://www.dashingpixels.com
Occupation: Freelance Software Engineer, currently contracting for a BIG software company in Redmond.

Background:
20+ years of sw engineering experience.
Worked with XBOX Live
Author of this book (http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2744019119/qid%3D1118717906/sr%3D1-1/ref%3Dsr%5F1%5F0%5F1/402-2137400-0596106)
Authored the Open Source game engine SxDL (http://sourceforge.net/projects/sxdl/)
Work in progress : Aura (http://www.jeux-directx.com/downloads/AuraDemo_Setup.exe)

[dntoll]

Name: Daniel Toll
Company: Spell of Play
URL: http://www.spellofplay.com
Occupation: Full-time Programming teacher, part-time game developer
Location: Kalmar, Sweden

Background:
I have been programming for many years now but just started developing games. I have always wanted to be programming games but I always thought it was so hard and had to take so much time. So i spent lots of years just practising programming.
Now I have started on a game "Time Breaker" with some friends and it is so much fun! And now I realised that I could have started programming real games years ago. It is more important to be a teamplayer than an elite programmer... no brainie really... :D

[chrisroyale]

Name: Chris Henderson
Company: HEMI Games (http://www.hemigames.com)
Occupation: Software Developer
Location: London, UK
Hobbies: Tennis, Judo, Reading.

Hi Guys,

my name is Chris and I run an ambitious new videogame company specialising in low-cost and free 3D games called HEMI Games. Although we have yet to release a game, we will officially launch our website and announce our first titles within the next few months. Feel free to subscribe to our mailing list at www.hemigames.com (http://www.hemigames.com) and we will keep you up-to-date as things progress.

Although we are a small company with only two staff, we both have many years experience in the games industry and believe we have developed the tools and working practices we need to succeed in the casual gaming market.

I have followed this forum for quite some time and look forward to finally joining the discussions :).

Cheers,
Chris.

[hObbE]

Name: Tobias Ohlsson
Company: Spell of Play Studios
URL: http://www.spellofplay.com
Occupation: Full-time Programming teacher, part-time game developer
Location: Mönsterås, Sweden

Background: Been programming for a rather long time, and took my degree at Blekinge Technical University, Sweden a few years ago. Started working at swedish game developer massive entertainment (www.massive.se) doing, serverside game logic/ai/physics and such. Moved on to it-consultant business doing robotic simulation/visualization software. Now I'm a full time teacher in a game development education in sweden. Doing some (well a lot actually :) ) game coding in my company Spell of Play Studios together with a few friends (including dntoll above). Hopefully we will turn this hobby into a profitable business in a not so very distant future :D

Regards,
hObbE

[ManuelFLara]

I can't believe I didn't post here earlier ..

Name: Manuel F. Lara
Company: FunMan Games
URL: http://www.funmangames.com
Occupation: Architectural design & CAD
Location: Barcelona, Spain

After reading a lot about the indie world at the old Dexterity forums and seeing that making a living was actually possible I developed my first game, The Cursed Wheel. Now I've got my feet wet I'm doing a new game that hopefully will do better :)

[HappyCat]

Name: Alan Broad
URL: http://www.thehappycat.ukf.net
Occupation: Software developer, parent, and part-time indie wannabe
Location: Aberdeen, UK

Been programing since my dad built a ZX81 from a kit ... I feel old ... sob!

Tried many, many times in the past to write games (on Spectrum, Atari ST and PC) but none of them ever got anywhere. Last year decided to give it another try, but this time I kept my ambitions to a minimum in a hope of actually completing something.

Currently working on a simple little shmup called Eridani (http://www.thehappycat.ukf.net/eridani.html) - it's basically code complete, just got to finish off the graphics really. Have no plans to charge for Eridani as it's really just my "test bed" for finding out what's involved in developing a game and isn't in itself a particularly wonderful game. But I would like to make to make a real go of it in the future and to that end I'm also working on tech for my next idea which will be slightly more ambitious.

Just heard about the bombings in London this morning ... now I feel old and sad ...

[itero]

Name: Sergey Tikhonov
Company: Inril Games
URL: http://www.inril.com
Occupation: Game developer, webmaster

I have 3 released games: Christmas Tale, CosmoBlocks and Rabbit Dream. First game was created for Alive Games. Second one for Energames. Third game let me understand that players don’t buy boring games. Now I am indie. It’s great feelings. :rolleyes:

[Stefan Maton]

Since I haven't introduced myself yet:

Name: Stefan Maton
Company: Dude Development
Occupation: Full time speech recognition application developer/spare time game developer
Location: Pepinster(Verviers), Belgium

I've started as a professional game developer in '96 for Blue Byte Inc. (Germany) (Game, Net & Match, Settler series, Incubation, ...), in '98 I switched to Funatics to develop the table top adaptation of "Settlers of Catan", I've been working for EA for a very short time before joining Westka (Y-Project) until they hit the wall.

Currently I'm developing picking applications with speech recognition whilst developing games in my spare time. My current project is "Tombs'n'Treasures".

Best regards,
Stefan

[NothingLikeit]

Name: Marvin Hawkins
Company: Nothing Like it Games
Occupation: Student/ Game Developer/ part-time entrepenuer
URL: http//:www.nothinglikeitgames.com
Location: Chicago, IL

I'm going to school for game design. But I'm too impatient to wait to get hired by a studio to make games. I'm also stubborn, so I"ve decided to make my games now. I'm making two games. The first is an RTS the other is a World War II FPS that should see an Early Adopter release this fall... also i'm making web sites and designing graphics for business. if it's on a computer i have an interest in it. I also like to read books and write novels in my spare time.... which i haven't had much of.

[Escapee]

Name: Kenneth Lim

Company: FunPCGame

Occupation: Full time as Quality/Customer sevice Engineer in Semicon industry, Part time as indie developer .

URL: www.funpcgame.com (http://www.funpcgame.com)

Location: Malaysia , Kuala Lumpur .