WELCOME To MY PERSONAL WEBSITE

I joined Electronic Arts UK in 1988 when I was only 16!  I was lucky enough to live in Langley, where the EAUK office was located. I joined the Finance department thanks to my fairly decent 7 'O' Levels and learned all about project financing, and how much we paid for projects back then. 10,000 British Pounds was the average cost, sometimes on 3 platforms! 

I made the transition to the Development Studio on January 1, 1990 and my first project was to make sure Ferrari Formula 1 on Commodore 64 Cassette worked (not much work there to be honest!). My first ACTUAL project was Magic Fly on the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST (https://youtu.be/mHZOdlrv3fw?t=152). That was created with 1 person, and he was doing it part-time, as he was working as a teacher by day!

One thing people don't commonly know is that Electronic Arts didn't have Game Designers! Producers did that too. Projects were a lot smaller back then, it didn't need teams of Designers to make a game, and Unreal and Unity didn't exist...

I got to work with the esteemed Peter Molyneux at Bullfrog on Populous 2 and Powermonger; worked with the amazing Gary Roberts to convert John Madden Football to the Amiga (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUhoXbZfS6M); Helped on The Immortal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-ggBsSrd1c) and Hard Nova ports (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68OFy7eZ28) and many more. I think I worked on 15 games in a little over 2.5 years at the studio.

I didn't leave EAUK though, well, techincallly I did, but I went to EAHQ in sunny Foster City! Originally I was supposed to work on the first FIFA game, but that went to EACanada instead, so I joined the group of Assistant Producers known as the GOD Squad (GOD = Gold or Die), where I worked on Rolo to the Rescue, John Madden Football '93, and Jungle Strike. It was my connection to the High Score Production team that led me to working on the NHL series from '94-'98. Yes, the vaunted NHL '94 is something I'm rather proud of. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ld9Wr3OxFI I also ran the EA Sports Recreation Ice Hockey and Roller Hockey Teams. Bing Gordon is a BEAST on the ice. Richard Hilleman was the donor of the kickass Team uniforms, and staunch defender on the team. And watched many Shark losses....but I did see the first ever Sharks playoff game, I think my ears are still ringing from the incredible noise.

In 1997, EA transitioned a lot of game development to EACanada (games transitioned from Sprites to Polygons, and EAC were the PC guys....so it made sense). NHL went to EAC. So, I went to Tiburon, in Florida, to work with one of the best people you'll EVER have the honor to know, Jason Anderson. While there, I worked on the PC port of Nuclear Strike (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MeyZiAxoLw).

Sadly, my US L-1 Visa ran out after 7 years, so I was asked what I wanted to work on next, and since I like Hockey and Cars, moving to Vancouver Canada, and working at EAC seemed logical, so that's where I moved next! It's now 1999 btw.

Need For Speed Porsche PC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5KdgqcA1sg (not the substandard PS1 version) was my first project. I am a HUGE Porsche fan, and this was a great project for me. The development team was (mostly) amazing. Designing an Evolution mode that covered 50 years of Porsche was a lot of fun.  Next up was Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 on PS2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX77yVkYX88 (not the substandard PC, Gamecube or Xbox versions). I got to work from the Blackbox Offices for that one and met so many talented people there. The next project was also my last. I pitched an idea for a tuner car game to someone at EA Marketing. The idea resurfaced at EA Seattle and was put into development. While I was about to start work on NFS Most Wanted, EA closed EA Seattle and moved the project to Blackbox. That project was Need For Speed Underground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B25RQA33l6g

After 16 years, and way too much crunch, and a family member going through major health problems that they didn't seem to want to consider, EA and I parted ways.

Since I like to travel for work, my next stop was working for Auran Games in Brisbane, Australia! There I designed and produced the next version of their Trainz franchise, TRS 2006 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evnSZtDMId8. I then joined THQ Studio Australia and worked on Avatar The Last Airbender: The Burning Earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPlfn262qeM.

A desire to move back to North America led me to get yet another L-1 visa, and join Paradigm Entertainment in Texas!  What was supposed to be Stuntman Ignition 2, became a FPS called 'Hated', which became nothing as THQ went through a NINE studio closure in 2008. I remain employed and worked on pitches for what was going to be THQ Toronto, but became THQ Montreal. After THQ management changed, I jumped ship and moved over to Silicon Knights and began work on Eternal Darkness 2 (which became Shadow of the Eternals when it was put on Kickstarter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UAwnT8A8EQ. Silicon Knights downsized and eventually closed when Epic smoked them in court.

After that, my life took me to Sweden, while my wife headed back to Vancouver. I worked on https://game.raceroom.com/ for a couple years (first for Simbin Studios, then Sector3, as management there was rather inexperienced.....and 2 weeks after I joined, they shipped a multiplayer racing game without multiplayer). I added Multiplayer and some DTM Content, before I decided to look elsewhere.

I briefly went down to Australia again, to help my friend with the next iteration of the Trainz Franchise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4sAtmoNGL0 before joining Ubisoft Dusseldorf (at the time it was still called Bluebyte). I was hired as the Creative Director for Settlers 8, but management changed course and hired Volker Wertich instead (no comment). So I moved over to the For Honor PC co-dev team and helped them make one the most amazing games you'll never play, cos you're scared. Try it!

After For Honor shipped, we stopped doing co-dev and became part of the core team and worked on many new cross-platform features. I even came up with the perfect AFK detection system, that was sadly never implemented.  

While working FULL time on For Honor, during my OWN TIME I worked on a pitch for a game that the Studio had previously failed to get greenlit in Paris. I took that pitch, put on a new IP, added a bunch of cool USPs, and took that pitch to Paris and got in greenlit in 30 minutes. For reasons that I will never know, the project was cancelled 6 months later, breaking my heart. I was the only one working on it....

Eventually, the For Honor team downsized again, and I moved over to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It was 3 years into its 7 year development at the time. It was rough going, but it gave me time to work on my personal projects, including some VR stuff.

Ubisoft and I separated in 2020 and I went to Gunzilla Games. I was hired as Creative Director, but switched to Game Director (but ended up doing both anyway). I took over as Studio Director in September 2022 and helped build the studios (Frankfurt, Kyiv, and remote workers) to around 260 people while hiring some key talent for the studio outside of my area of expertise. Lisa Steele hired the rest https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-steele-40354410b/ . Health issues in 2024 forced me to step away and take some time off to recover. I have scans that prove I have a brain, and I also have a disc in my neck, so technically I'm Cyberpunk. Neill Blompkamp says so, so it must be true. I really miss working with Neill, but he's on WhatsApp, so I'm good :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neill_Blomkamp. Off the Grid is out, it's on Steam. Go Play it. 

36 years later and I'm looking for something cool to do next, or for someone to listen to the ideas I have and want to make them. They're truly innovating, trust me, I know what I'm doing :)

I've made a few games, including First Person Shooters, Third Person Horror Action Adventure, Train and Flight Simulators, Sports Games, Car Racing Games, Kids games and more. Here's a list of the games I'm credited on according to Google!

Off The Grid - PC/Consoles
Avatar : Frontiers of Pandora - PC/Consoles
For Honor - PC, PS4, XBOXONE
RaceRoom Racing Experience - PC
Eternal Darkness 2 - announced as Shadow of the Eternals (never shipped)
Cancelled 1st person shooter entitled "Hated" – PS3 / Xbox360 / PC
Australia Zoo Quest – Puzzle Fun – NDS, iPhone, PC
Avatar The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth – PS2 / Wii / Xbox360
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 – PC
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 – PC
Need For Speed: Underground – PS2 / NGC / XBOX / PC
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 – PS2 / NGC / XBOX / PC
007: Agent Under Fire – PS2 / NGC / XBOX
Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed – PC
Nuclear Strike – PC
NHL 97 – PSX / Saturn / Genesis
Elitserien 96 - Genesis (Swedish Hockey League)
NHL 96 – SNES / Genesis
Elitserien 95 - Genesis (Swedish Hockey League)
NHL 95 – SNES / Genesis
NHL 94 – SNES / Sega CD
Jungle Strike – Genesis
Scooter's Magic Castle (kid's title) - PC
John Madden Football ‘93 – Genesis
Rolo to the Rescue – Genesis
Techno Clash – Genesis

PC / Amiga and/or Atari ST
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Space Hulk
Match Pairs
John Madden Football
Hard Nova
Flood
The Hound of Shadow
Road Rash
Projectyle
The Immortal
Imperium
Birds Of Prey
Populous 2
Powermonger
Magic Fly

8-bit
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Ferrari F1 – C64