Melv May, a Good Guy to Follow
by Eric Preisz · 02/02/2009 (7:41 am) · 9 comments
If Melv is going to GarageGames, I know I made the right decision. This is my first blog as a GarageGames employee.
'08 was a BUSY year. I spent a lot of my time working very closely with Plastic Games on our second Disney game, several projects for the department of defense, and a really cool CUDA ( NVIDIA's Compute Unified Device Architecture ) based simulator, and the beginnings of a training system for the hospitality industry. All of our projects used some version of Torque.
In my remaining time, I did my duties as department chair and a course director for optimization at Full Sail University and presented at GDC 08, Austin GDC 08, and at Microsoft Research on video game optimization techniques. Somehow between all this I found some time to marry Cheryl; we are expecting our first noob in eight weeks. Lastly, I worked on the first third of an industry trade book co-authored by ex-GG phenom, 10,000 comment blackbelt, Ben Garney. 08 was a busy year.
All this hard work has paid off. The beginning of 09 started with a job offer from GarageGames and today is my first day. It was a real pleasure to be in Eugene brushing up on my expected duties, when Davey Jackson yelled the first of many Were Number 1!!! in regards to the Front-Line award, a sign that 09 will indeed be busy too.
I will be working very closely with Brett on new business development efforts regarding Instant Action technologies. Digital distribution and on-line games are no doubt the future.
This market is already carving away chunks of market share from the AAA boxed game market as indicated by my friends who worked at Midway, Austin ( OK, so maybe they have other problems too ). In 08, Take Two, Microsoft, EA, Activision, THQ, and Midway performed worse than the S&P which was down 36%*. The writing is on the wall, AAA budgets are not justified by their returns unless they are a big enough of a hit to distract someone from WOW. Playing and beating Bioshock and selling it used at GameStop will not keep this industry going.
I am greatly honored to be working for GarageGames and can't wait to see what the rest 09 brings. My role wont have me working directly with the community, but I hope to get back in touch like I did years ago before I got so busy.
If you would like to find out more about my background, or to see me working via web cam at my desk, visit me.
*Courtesy of Google Finance
'08 was a BUSY year. I spent a lot of my time working very closely with Plastic Games on our second Disney game, several projects for the department of defense, and a really cool CUDA ( NVIDIA's Compute Unified Device Architecture ) based simulator, and the beginnings of a training system for the hospitality industry. All of our projects used some version of Torque.
In my remaining time, I did my duties as department chair and a course director for optimization at Full Sail University and presented at GDC 08, Austin GDC 08, and at Microsoft Research on video game optimization techniques. Somehow between all this I found some time to marry Cheryl; we are expecting our first noob in eight weeks. Lastly, I worked on the first third of an industry trade book co-authored by ex-GG phenom, 10,000 comment blackbelt, Ben Garney. 08 was a busy year.
All this hard work has paid off. The beginning of 09 started with a job offer from GarageGames and today is my first day. It was a real pleasure to be in Eugene brushing up on my expected duties, when Davey Jackson yelled the first of many Were Number 1!!! in regards to the Front-Line award, a sign that 09 will indeed be busy too.
I will be working very closely with Brett on new business development efforts regarding Instant Action technologies. Digital distribution and on-line games are no doubt the future.
This market is already carving away chunks of market share from the AAA boxed game market as indicated by my friends who worked at Midway, Austin ( OK, so maybe they have other problems too ). In 08, Take Two, Microsoft, EA, Activision, THQ, and Midway performed worse than the S&P which was down 36%*. The writing is on the wall, AAA budgets are not justified by their returns unless they are a big enough of a hit to distract someone from WOW. Playing and beating Bioshock and selling it used at GameStop will not keep this industry going.
I am greatly honored to be working for GarageGames and can't wait to see what the rest 09 brings. My role wont have me working directly with the community, but I hope to get back in touch like I did years ago before I got so busy.
If you would like to find out more about my background, or to see me working via web cam at my desk, visit me.
*Courtesy of Google Finance
About the author
Manager, Programmer, Author, Professor, Small Business Owner, and Marketer.
#2
What you are going to bring to GG is well needed.
It's gonna be awesome hangin' with you in Eugene. The downside is there probably isn't much reason to start up a TIG here =^/
All we now is to make Scott and Garrett move too.
02/02/2009 (9:50 am)
Huzzah! Congratulations again on the marriage and future noob =)What you are going to bring to GG is well needed.
It's gonna be awesome hangin' with you in Eugene. The downside is there probably isn't much reason to start up a TIG here =^/
All we now is to make Scott and Garrett move too.
#4
02/02/2009 (10:09 am)
Congratulations, Eric! Big step! :)
#5
02/02/2009 (11:59 am)
Awesome Eric! But don't you miss Florida and all it's sunny glory? hehe
#6
02/02/2009 (12:40 pm)
@Lateral Well I'm still here in Florida for a bit (although it looks more like Eugene plus 40 degrees right now). I'm hoping to make my way to Eugene before the Florida swelter hits.
#7
Welcome aboard! Let the hazing begin!
02/02/2009 (12:43 pm)
Oooh pretty glamor shot on your site. Auditioning for Legends of the Fall 2?Welcome aboard! Let the hazing begin!
#8
got you red handed.
02/02/2009 (12:54 pm)
hay get off the phone and get back to work i can see you on the cam. :Pgot you red handed.
#9
@Brandon - caught me red handed. So far you, me, and my cats are the only one watching this channel :P
02/02/2009 (1:25 pm)
@Davey - haha, I told you I'm a shameless self promoter. I'm only a level 40 aspiring to level up to game veteran David Perry@Brandon - caught me red handed. So far you, me, and my cats are the only one watching this channel :P
Torque 3D Owner Deborah M. Fike
Default Studio Name
HAHAHA. That's the best line to announce you're having a child I've ever heard.
Glad to have you aboard, Eric!