Category: Uncategorized

As soon as I decided to go indie, I’ve been involved in entirely too many discussion on what defines art and whether or not games are art.

My stance is simple – I believe games can be art, but I just want to make games. If people want to call it art – that’s up to them. I just want to make the games I want to make and hopefully enough people enjoy what I make that I can keep making them.

The gloriously wonderful Amanda Palmer sums it up in this little song:

Amanda Palmer rules beyond ruling.

Link courtesy: Infinite Ammo

The last month has been absolutely insane, perhaps the busiest month of my life.

In the past 30 days I have:

– Sent my family across Canada
– Hit two major milestones as the producer on two unannounced titles
– Left my job and home for the past two years
– Joined my family on the other side of Canada
– Roasted a turkey for Christmas dinner
– Read three books on Actionscript/Flex/Flash games
– Completed over 20 Flash Game tutorials
– Watched Avatar (only once, despite my deep desire to watch it at least 5 times in the theater)
– Filled 35 pages in my sketchbook (with actual drawings)
– Enjoyed many ‘catch-up’ lunches, coffees, dinners and evenings with old and new friends

And now I find myself suddenly in 2010. The year I’ll finally be rockin’ out flash games, making t-shirts and doing the things I’ve spent the last four years talking about doing.

2010 is not a year for resolutions for me. It is a year for action.

I’ll be talking a lot over the next few weeks about my plans for NRD in 2010 and why I’m moving from a career making PC/handheld/iPhone/console games for large corporations into making independent Flash games.

Mochi media recently conducted a survey of flash developers and got a good lay of the land for the current flash dev scene. The high level overview is here for your viewing pleasure:

Back in the day I used to make BMX videos and run a little bike company called Ronin. Terry Adams was one of the guys my company sponsored and he’s one of my favorite people. Not only incredibly skilled (he once entered a skateboard contest for fun – he doesn’t skate – and he got 2nd) but he’s a genuinely great person. Always up for anything and always smiling.

I can’t say enough good things about Terry – and when you see a guy who used to crash on your hotel room floor (and visa-versa) hanging out with Ellen – you can’t help but be psyched.