It’s a little disconcerting to realize that I wrote my first computer game in college in 1976, before many now in the game industry and perhaps even some of my fellow gaming mercenaries here were born. And yet I don’t feel like a dinosaur (well, at least not most days!) despite that. A couple of years ago I gave a talk at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and started with a joke about how I was ancient by game development standards – and in mid-joke realized that I was probably one of the youngest people in the room and might be unintentionally offending some of the people I was speaking to. Many of the NASA engineers there had been inspired by the space race and stayed in aerospace since the 60’s and 70’s. So I endeavored to politely recover from that gaff, but it got me thinking. In most other industries I’d be in about the middle of the pack now, but game developers of my generation NEVER had older mentors from our field to guide us or inspire us. As such, a large number were natural leaders, pioneers or entrepreneurs. Even now my graying and balding (or as in my case, both) peers remain at the forefront of experimentation and novelty, fueled by a love of creativity and a driving desire to push boundaries. The games industry has transformed radically over the last 30 years, but ironically that very consistency of ongoing transformation has attracted a certain type of person who is not only willing, but eager to embrace change. And it’s not something you can say about any new industry. Because games are at their very heart all about learning, and the game industry itself demands constant learning of new techniques, platforms, and styles of anyone who wishes to stay in it for the long haul. But more about that in a future post.

My Background

There’s a lot more about my background and my accomplishments on my web site, http://www.theinspiracy.com, but let me give a little summary here. As I mentioned, I was lucky enough to discover computer games in college, in the days of the mainframe games like the original Adventure in the Colossal Caves, Hunt the Wumpus, and Hammurabi. I wrote my first games in APL, a delightfully weird computer language. Upon graduating I was lucky enough to get a job at Milton Bradley Company, where they were just beginning to get into the electronic/video game field. I spent sixteen years working as an employee at various companies often as startups – was the 7^th employee at Lucasfilm Games, the 9^th at 3DO, and the 3^rd at Dreamworks Interactive, all before they published their first games. But after enduring many frustrating changes of direction based on the whims of CEOs, I struck out on my own ten years ago. Since July of 1996 I’ve headed The Inspiracy, doing freelance design and production work, usually on my own and sometimes bringing friends in to help.

Through The Inspiracy I’ve had the privilege to work on a lot of fascinating projects: Design consultation on big entertainment projects like Disney’s Virtual Kingdom, Microforte’s Bigworld, Sunflowers’ Paraworld and LucasArt’s Empire at War to name a few. Lead design on smaller projects like Dreamworks’ Chaos Island, Health Media Lab’s Hungry Red Planet, and the upcoming Freedom Fighter 56 from Lauer Learning. And a myriad of other jobs for startups, individuals, and corporations, on just about every platform and in just about every game genre (except sports…). Increasingly I’ve been working in the Serious Games field, doing games for corporate learning, for the military, and for academia. Most of my serious game work has been in the medical field, making games designed to help kids with poor nutrition, with ADD/ADHD, or with cancer, games to train physicians, and games to help people retain mental acuity as they age, and more.

Aside from my design and production work, I am a frequent speaker at industry events. I’ve spoken – and worked on games – on five continents (still working on South America and that hotbed of game development, Antarctica). I’ve been a judge for many award programs, including the European Multimedia Awards, Independent Games Festival, and the D.I.C.E. Awards. I was the first elected Chairman of the IGDA and wrote the design column for the CGDA newsletter. For nearly five years I’ve written the design column for Game Developer Magazine. And I’m on the board of advisors for the Serious Games Conference, the Games for Health Conference, and the Asian Game Developers Summit.

Freelance work can be lonely, so it’s great to have Brian’s efforts here provide a place for us fierce independents to band together and trade war stories. I hope that Gaming Mercenaries will be around for my next 26 years in the industry!