|
Cryptic Studios
Cryptic Studios
is a massive multiplayer online (MMO) video game studio responsible for the award
winning and successful City of Heroes game. I am a Senior Programmer on
the team working on upcoming products. (2007-current)
Composite Software
Composite Software
is a software company known for its best of breed solutions for distributed
database access and reporting. I was the Chief Architect through the development
of the core product line through this time. (2003-2007)
webMethods
webMethods
is an integration company with the best EAI and B2B software
around. When Active Software was acquired by webMethods, I took the
role of Chief Architect and Vice President of Systems Architecture for
the larger company. (2000-2003)
Active Software
I was a founding employee of Active Software,
developing communication software for Web, internet, and enterprise
application development. I was the Chief Architect through the
development of Active's award-winning EAI software platform.
We were acquired by webMethods in 2000. (1995-2000)
SunSoft (Distributed Objects)
Prior to that, I worked for SunSoft
developing applications on the Distributed Objects Environment (DOE)
product, which was Sun's CORBA offering. (1994-1995)
I.B.M. (Personal Systems Multimedia)
Prior to that, I worked for IBM
Mountain View on a multimedia server project aimed at serving
video and audio across LANs and digital phone services.
We received "Best of Show" at Comdex in 1993 with the product. (1992-1993)
ALH Group
Before that I was project lead (and founding member of) a start-up in
San Luis Obispo which worked on a Microsoft Windows application to
allow for on-line access and analysis of grocery store UPC scanner data.
Check out ALH Group.
(1991-1992)
|
|
I have a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
|
|
|
Crystal Keep is the name of the game business I own and manage.
We are registered as a business in Santa Clara, California.
I am also a member of the
Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
Crystal Keep is doing various in-print gaming projects, but is
probably most well known as an online resource. I'm the
primary author and editor of the content of this site.
The Magic: The Gathering
section is the most heavily visited part of the site, but
information has been collected on many other games, including
for the d20 System.
|
|
Wizards of the Coast was one of the first game companies to
use the internet as part of its support team. From shortly after the
first release of the game, they have been using official
Network Representatives (commonly called NetReps) to answer
questions on their games.
I was the official Network Representative to the MTG-L mailing list from
January 1995 to January 1996. I worked part time answering questions on
the net for people with an official voice. I had to retire from this
position due to founding a new software company
(Active Software).
I became a NetRep again in January 1997 and stayed the official
Rules Summary Network Representative until January 2004, when I retired.
I am now running the Magic Rulings Summaries purely as voluntary work.
|
|
It's hard to be part of the game industry without doing at least
a little playtest work. It generally doesn't pay much, but it
gives you a chance to try your skills and to meet people. The
latter is important, as this industry is small and who you
know helps.
I was part of a playtest team called the Crash Test Wizards.
The team consisted of eight gaming enthusiasts in my area.
Playtesting is a lot of hard work, at least when you do it right.
During a playtest, our team met twice a week for four hours to
play. This does not count any prep time required. For example,
we may be reading and analyzing rules or card lists,
designing decks or characters, or other tasks for many additional
hours each week.
Magic: The Gathering
Our group has playtested for the following Magic expansions:
- Ice Age
- Homelands
- Alliances
- Mirage
- Visions
- Weatherlight
- Tempest
- Stronghold
- Exodus
- Urza's Saga
- Urza's Legacy
- Urza's Destiny
- Mercadian Masques
- Nemesis
- Prophecy
Shadowfist
Our group playtested the Flashpoint expansion and the never released
Throne War expansion for Daedalus.
We also participated in the Throne War release by Z-Man games.
Netrunner
Our group playtested an early version of the v1.0 card set. Our feedback
earned the Crash Test Wizards special credit in the rulebook.
(Netrunner manual online with credits)
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
Our group playtested the Sabbat expansion set. This playtest was
actually done with a different group from our core team.
|
|
Writing is a difficult job to make much headway in when you
do it part time, but you have to keep working at it. Most of
my in-print credits right now center on the trading card game
(TCG) industry. I am working to shift into the role playing
game (RPG) industry with some projects that are in the works.
Internet Credits
I'm prolific and well known for significant online works,
such as my well known
Magic Rulings Summaries
that are published montly. Most of my work is published on
this site.
Dragon Magazine
Not much to show in Dragon just yet, but I'm working on content
for them.
- "Poison and Energy Drain" --
Issue #251 (Sept 1998). This letter to Forum addresses possible
improvements to the poison and energy drain rules for D&D.
Duelist Magazine
I have co-written three articles for The Duelist magazine. They are:
- "Report from the Ice Agents" --
Issue #6 (May 1995). This 2,000 word article previewed the
Ice Age expansion to Magic.
- "Return of the Ice Agents" --
Issue #11 (July 1996). This 2,000 word article previewed the
Alliances expansion to Magic.
(Online copy of the article)
- "Midnight at the Oasis" --
Issue #13 (October 1996). This 2,000 word article previewed the
Mirage expansion to Magic.
(Online copy of the article)
Mayfield Preferred Customer Newsletter
I wrote a 1,500 word article for volume #1, issue #2 (April 1996),
titled "How to Design a Fun SimCity Deck".
|
|
