Chris’ Career

My career spans from 1993 to the present. My incomplete MobyGames profile.

• Education
• Accolade
• Morpheus
• Sculptured Software
• Engineering Animation, Inc.
• Hasbro Interactive/Microprose
• ChannelPoint
• Skillgames.com
• Headgate Studios
• NSA Engineering
• Sparta
• BreakAway, Ltd.

My formal training focused on Object-Oriented Programming and Microoft Windows (3.1) development. I got his professional start in game programming, the industry I credit for my original interest in programming. If I hadn’t discovered programming, I probably would’ve wound up doing something artistic. I originally wanted to be a book illustrator, like my idol, Frank Frazetta.

I earned his degree of BS in Software Engineering from Cogswell Polytechnical College in Sunnyvale, California. Before receiving my degree, I had never heard of Magna Cum Laude.

I actually began my professional career before receiving my degree. I obtained a job in Technical Support with longtime game developer and publisher Accolade. But I got laid off after a month. However, I got rehired in testing just two weeks later. While there I met Gary Strawn, Accolade’s sole Windows programmer. A few weeks after meeting him, Gary asked me to join him on his project.

Gary was designing a golf course editor for Accolade’s next Jack Nicklaus golf game, Jack Nicklaus 5. This was to be Accolade’s first Windows title (it didn’t turn out to be, but that was the plan). I was put in charge of the user interface and a lot of the editor’s graphics. The editor started out based in Windows 3.1, but was ported to Windows 95 shortly after the release of the new OS. Development was based in Borland’s OWL.

While here, I also met Dave Galloway. Dave helped keep us pumped up by playing Pink Floyd loudly on the full stereo he kept in his cubicle. Both Dave and his wife, Lori, were great to be around. Dave was especially laid back and had a great sense of humor. He also had tons of game programming experience, so he was great to sit adjacent to.

After development on the editor ceased, I was absorbed by the Tools department and developed a Windows version of Accolade’s interactive marketing application.

I realized, with some insight offered by my lovely wife, Joan, that I could not afford to support my family and live in California, especially not in Silicon Valley. Hence we set out searching for employment for me outside of California.

Long after my stint there, Accolade was acquired by Infogrames, who eventually changed their name to Atari.

Morpheus

A few weeks after instigating my job search, I left California and Accolade to work for a small, promising game company called Morpheus located in Orem, Utah. I began working for them in February of 1996. I worked on their sole product, a game called Geneticide. Using the brand new DirectX API, I developed the game’s sound engine and input routines. I also developed some low-level graphics modules. Alas, as a result of mangled financing, Morpheus went under in June of 1996.

We were a tight-knit group at Morpheus. We had cramped quarters, but it just helped instill a sense of comraderie and family among our group.

Sculptured Software

Scrambling for employment, I joined Sculptured Software in Sugarhouse (part of Salt Lake City). Sculptured Software was a long-standing video game porter. Their biggest claim to fame was the port of Mortal Kombat from the coin-op to the SNES and Genesis. I worked on a game too embarrassing to name. After a few months Sculptured starting having RIFs in December. Knowing I was a low man on the totem pole, I answered the request of a recruiter and interviewed at another nearby game company called Engineering Animation, Inc.

Since I wasn’t expecting much, I was pleasantly surprised at the conditions at EAI in downtown Salt Lake City. The interviewers seemed decent and intelligent and the game they were working on looked cutting-edge and showed market promise. Indeed, it was the first game I had seen that used 16-bit graphics. Also, all the employees had Internet access from their desktops!

I left Sculptured in December of 1996 and started at Engineering Animation, Inc. (EAI) on January 2, 1997. I worked on Eclipse, later renamed X-Fire (pronounced “Crossfire”). The completion of my first assignment, 16-bit translucency blitters, earned me a standing ovation (really!) from my co-workers when displayed in the game. My next effort was a shadow blitter based on his translucency blitter. Then my efforts focused on menus and the game’s user interface (UI). Alas, X-Fire never shipped, although it was completed by the fall of 1997.

My next project at EAI was Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion (buy it) for the now late Hasbro Interactive. I was one of the game’s two initial programmers. When Bob Pennington, the game’s Lead Programmer, left EAI, I took over as lead. The game eventually included five programmers (one part-time supporting EAGLE issues). Clue MABM was released in October of 1998. Several years later, it is still being sold and is the only conversion of the Clue board game available on the PC!

Clue’s Project Manager (PM), a.k.a. Producer, Virginia McArthur, established exceptional rapport with Hasbro Interactive and they asked her to be involved with Hasbro’s later Clue Chronicles titles. She was chosen as the Producer for my next project, Scooby Doo: the Mystery of the Fun Park Phantom for SouthPeak Interactive. On this project, besides working again with Virginia, I was also working with Game Designer Rick Raymer, who also designed Clue MABM. Several programmers from Clue were also involved in the new game. Work began on the game in November of 1998 and ended in October of 1999.

As I was returning from vacation on July 6, 1999, I arrived at the office and gave a cheerful hello to the Office Manager, Alison Johnston, as I passed her in the hallway. Picking up on this clue, she stopped me and said, “You didn’t hear the news, did you?” She informed me that EAI had decided that games were not part of their “core business” and that they were shutting down the SLC office. As soon as the current projects finished up, the team members would be “downsized.” How’s that for motivation to finish a project?

The one positive aspect of the layoff was that the employess were given apt notice. The first round of employees were let go six weeks after the announcement. The employees were allowed to use whatever time they needed to look for new jobs and were given job searching facilities at the office, as well as access to a job-finding specialist firm. My project was slated to be completed the end of September, so I had a fair amount of time to search for new work. The downside was that my project slipped into crunch mode the beginning of August because of new requirements from SouthPeak. The Scooby team did finish the project, though, and from all reports, it did fairly well in the marketplace.

My last day of employment with EAI was September 30, 1999. My longest employer to date kept me employed for two years and nine months.

Hasbro Interactive

My family and I left Utah forever (so far) on October 1, 1999 for North Carolina. I assumed his new position as a Senior Software Engineer with Hasbro Interactive/MicroProse in Chapel Hill two weeks later.

I acted as backup Lead (Wayne Harvey was official Lead) on the highly anticipated X-Com: Genesis (XCG). At last this was the opportunity I had been waiting for—“the brass ring.” To work on a world-class game that was actually anticipated in the marketplace! XCG was the best-designed, most exciting game I had ever worked on. It looked great when I joined the project, but promised to look even better as new art and other assets trickled into the game.

For the first time in my career, I had a real office—with walls that went all the way up to the ceiling! Its two wall-width windows overlooked a large duck pond located in front of the office building. The 15'×15' office also had a door for privacy and to shut out some infrequent noise from the outside hallway. My development environment was comprised of two Dell 500’s—one running NT, the other running Windows 98.

Fulfilling my role in pathfinding and AI, I started developing an A* (pronounced “A-Star”) pathfinding algorithm for XCG’s Battlescape. Just as I was winding up the implementation, Hasbro Interactive dropped the ax on December 7, 1999. Hasbro’s Chapel Hill studio officially closed on January 7, 2000.

The Genesis Game Designer was X-COM veteran (or "luminary", take your pick) Dave Ellis. He wrote up a great design document, but the funny thing is, I never got to know him very well. I worked with him fine, but we really weren't good friends. But after everything fell apart and we went our seperate ways, then we became better friends. I set up this web site and he set up his (his arcade). I don’t remember quite right, but I think he said I "inspired" him to set up his site (maybe it’s just delusions of granduar on my part). Anyway, he has a great site with nice reviews of the latest films.

• An X-Com fan’s site dedicated to the developers of X-Com: Genesis. I don’t know why I am next to last on the list—I was a Senior Programmer after all! ;)
• Afterward of the Chapel Hill Studio shutdown.

Disappointed with the volatility of the game industry, Joan and I decided to leave it behind: six years was enough time for me to pursue my dream career. Of one thing Joan and I were certain—North Carolina wasn’t for us. Thus we focused our job-finding efforts in places where we could be sure we could enjoy a better standard of living. A place where the climate was milder than in the East, where hurricanes and tornadoes didn’t threaten daily and it snowed at Christmastime. Utah was that way, but Joan had a brother that still lived in her hometown of Colorado Springs. We decided it would be nice to be near some family for a change. Therefore, we focussed our job search in the Springs. With the aid of a recruiter, I got an interview with a company called ChannelPoint in January of 2000. I started my job there on February 7, 2000.

ChannelPoint was a company with lofty goals. They wanted to automate the health insurance industry. They thought it was ludicrous that companies sometimes had to wait weeks or months to get quotes on health insurance. They also thought the way they handled claims was neolithic in the Internet age. Thus, they set out to change all that. One key decision they made actually proved fatal.

Back in the 1990s, Sun Microsystems had some key offices in Colorado Springs. Sun, of course, developed the Java programming language. Predictably, many of the Sun employees were married to Java because of all its advantages. Time marched forward and Sun decided to close all of its Colorado Springs offices. Dozens of these laid-off Sunners created ChannelPoint. So, of course, whatever they did, it would use Java. So all of ChannelPoint’s software was in Java. And it was slow. And it killed them. I could go on, but I won’t. Just like my good friend Gary Strawn says, "Don’t use a pocketknife to cut down a tree. Don’t use a chainsaw to open your mail." You must choose the right tool for the job. Java wasn't right for what ChannelPoint was trying to accomplish.

I worked on two large projects at ChannelPoint. Through my work there, I learned HTML and Java.

PureSkill / Skillgames

In August of 2000, through Josh, I learned about a new game company looking for offsite employees. They needed experienced game programmers who could develop in C++ and Java. Since Josh was just about to start a new job with Microsoft developing for the XBox, he wasn’t too interested. However, he gave the tip to me and I ran with it!

The company was located in New York City. They had been named PureSkill, but were in the process of changing their name to Skillgames. They were indeed interested in working with me. They seemed confident on hiring me based on my reputation in the game industry alone (plus a hefty recommendation from Josh). After several weeks of negotiation, I agreed to begin working for them on Monday, November 6, 2000.

For six months, I worked from home in my basement office. I travelled to the New York office about once a month. I developed games and prototypes in Java.

Despite abundant financing from companies such as Disney, Skillgames ran into financial problems about six months after hiring me. Being a telecommuter, I was one of Skillgame’s costliest employees. Therefore, I was laid off with others in June of 2001. Eventually Skillgames went out of business in November of 2001. However, Walker-Digital, Skillgames’ creator, may someday resurrect the company.

Headgate Studios

Since I had lived in Utah from 1996 to 1999, I had friends and acquaintences to meet with and catch up with. I met with my old EAI-er, Darren Eggett, and was invited to another ex-EAI-er’s, Josh Jensen’s, on several occasions. It was good to see old friends again and catch up on times.

I was impressed with Headgate and the people who worked there. It seemed like a vibrant and fun company to work for. During the Spring, Summer and Fall, the entire company went golfing together daily. While I was there, they were planning a post-release party for Tiger Woods 2002 in Jacksonhole, Wyoming and, later in the year, a company trip to Africa for a photo safari and a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. I felt some desire to work for Headgate on a permenant basis, but, alas, they were not looking to staff up and could only afford him for the short month to help finish up their current project.

NSA Engineering

Shortly before leaving Utah from Headgate Studios, I saw a job posting on Monster.com for a programmer with DirectX experience. DirectX being right up my alley, I contacted the contract agency which had made the posting. The Monday after returning from Utah, I had an interview at NSA Engineering’s office in Golden, Colorado. NSA Engineering, as I found out, did near-surface seismic imaging. This was the most incredible interviewing experience I had. It was so easy! They didn't ask any trick questions, or even technical questions. They didn't ask what my 3D experince was or even if I knew what it was. But every problem they were expereincing, I told them what the solution was. As I was leaving after the interview, the interviewer asked me when he could start! I started working as the 3D Graphics Programmer for NSA two days later.

To be honest, I hadn't had much 3D programming expereince before starting at NSA. Oh, I knew what it was and some abstract ideas behind it, but hadn't had any solid development experience with it. But with some hands-on programming, and some tips from Josh, within months, I was a 3D programming expert, really. This really proved to me that anything is learnable, as long as you use it.

I developed a Direct3D interface for their product that allowed the user to see a tomogram (3D model of the materials under the surface), rotate it, slice it and examine it in a number of other ways. NSA was 80 miles from our home in Colorado Springs, so I had to leave by 5:30 a.m. in order to get there in decent time (not really, but I was desperate and needed work. I made the drive because, after the dot-com burst, I had to).

I left NSA in May of 2004. I couldn't stand the drive anymore and I could tell the company wasn't going to be solvent much longer. After the dust had settled from the dot-com bust, I found something closer (see below). I was right. A few months after I left, the company went under. I got an email from the IT admin, Frank Horn, describing their demise. I wasn't exactly sad to see them go, but I learned some interesting stuff while I was there. Besides 3D programming, I got a taste of embedded, C# and WinCE programming.

Sparta

I was fortunate to land a job with a defense contractor, Sparta, in Colorado Springs (sort of; the actual work location was out east of Falcon). Since the work was classified, the less I say about it, the better. I worked for Sparta from May 2004 to February of 2007. I worked on two seperate projects while with them, but held the same title of Senior Software Engineer on both of them.

BreakAway

While I was with Sparta, I heard about new types of video games called Serious Games. I did a great deal of research on them and found many of them are used in defense and most were being developed by a company called BreakAway Games. I thought this would be a good line of business for Sparta to go into, since they were always interested in broadening their business lines. They were fortunate to have me onboard, an experienced video game developer. Though my proposal had a lot of interest, I couldn't quite get this started. The truth be known, Sparta had no idea how to go about winning work in this field.

So now as a Senior Programmer for BreakAway, I'm much better off than if I had stayed with Sparta. Working at a video game developer again is a dream come true. I get to use modern tools on modern equipment. I work with great people, many of whom are from MicroProse, who everyone knows was the greatest video game publisher of all time! BreakAway also has a lot of ex-Avalon Hill employees, who everyone knows was the greatest table-top game publisher of all time . The workplace is very casual, just like all great jobs. Sodas are free, as is work satisfaction. No longer sharing a cube with three other people, like I did in defense, I have my own cube. I'm working on a world-class serious game, mosbe, probably the most widely used Serious Game on the market.

Since BreakAway develops traditional entertainment games as well, there is a chance I may work on regular video games again sometime. But for now, I'm happily doing core development on Mosbe.

To work for BreakAway, I had to move to the East Coast. BreakAway is located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, but we live in Pennsylvania, just southeast of York. You know what? The East Coast is very different from Colorado.