After the Warthog acquisition assisted in licensing, portfolio planning and concept creation while advising on internal and external developments. Contacted and signed external developers for licensed and unlicensed products while supporting the publishing business in acquisitions. Assisted in portfolio planning and defining process for both internal and external studios. Produced a series of game titles to budget and on schedule with external development teams.
?Licensed FIFA 2005, SSX 3 and TBA form EA.
?Produced six titles to schedule and quality.
I set up and ran the internal and external development for the acquisition, development and QA of original and licensed game properties for the Gizmondo launch catalogue. In 4 months brought high profile publishers such as EA, Microsoft, Activision, Midway and Codemasters to Gizmondo and created a balanced portfolio and production plan for game production in 2005. Also assisted in the creation of TRC documentation, QA procedure and defined best development practises. Assisted in the organisation and running of a technology conference for 3rd party and internal studios and liaised with external parties such as Nvdia, Samsung, Intrinsic and Flextronic to bring the Gizmondo to the marketplace. Managed and produced a number of external game productions on time and to budget. Oversaw eighty-nine external production companies.
?Created a Gizmondo developer community
?Advised on technical design issues for console
?Engaged the publishing community
?Defined process for game development and publishing
<h1> Gizmondo Colours – GPS </h1>
<H1> Catapult – Augmented Reality </H1>
<h1> Gizmondo – Smart Adds </h1>
<H1> JUMP </h1>
Gizmono was an independent hardware manufacturer and publisher. I started at Gizmondo when there were no developer relations, one game in development and no relationships with Publishers.
Gizmondo was a great job but a poor career choice, I travelled the world talking to publishers/developers and building relationships while assisting in the development of the console itself.
There were many great things about the Gizmondo, it’s open architecture, the possibilities of GPS and augmented reality games working in unison. However Gizmodo turned out to be largely an investment scam, run by Swedish Mafia.
As head of games i created a development community of 80+ developers, started license negotiations with all games Publishers and IP holders, entered into developer negotiations, created a games portfolio and worked with external companies to launch the Gizmondo.
The flagship Gizmondo product was a 3rd person action game with a unique feature that has still not been replicated to date. In Colors you could buy and defend your own turf via geo caching (GPS). As your domain grew other players could challenge your turf and either compete against the defenders guarding your space (offline) or enter a heads up deathmatch to win and occupy real world real estate! The product was designed and produced on time for the Gizmondo launch by ex members of The Chronicles of Riddick developer, Starbreeze.
The Fathammer relationship was the only existing development relationship within Gizmondo and I successfully produced the three games in Fathammer classics for the launch of the console.
Initiated and concluded a liscensing deal with Microsoft Game Studio to liscense Age of Empires, MechAssault and It’s Mr Pants for publication on the Gizmondo, in the “fastest liscensing deal” in Microsoft history!
In addition i produced and oversaw the design treatments of the 3 games with teams at Warthog Studios.
Helped in the acquisition and running of Warthog Studios. Warthog became the internal development resource for Gizmondo and I assisted in the re-organisation of the three studios. I sourced and signed external developers for licensed and unlicensed products while supporting the publishing business in acquisitions. Created portfolio planning and defining process for both internal and external studios. Produced a series of game titles to budget and on schedule with external and internal development teams.
One of the coolest things in the Gizmondo was the open architecture which allowed for Augmented Reality gaming. When combined with GPS augmented gaming has some amazing possibilities, still not realised today.
Liscensed and produced the awesome Alien Homind from Zoo Digital and developed by Tuna Tech in Sheffield. Homind was an excellent choice for the Gizmondo and was shaping up to be the best conversion for any platform.
Worked with Nvidia to help produce the SC10 chip for deployment with the Gizmondo. The SC10 was a brand new chip which failed to deliver on it’s performance and shader support. As the one of the first customers for the new chip i applied pressure on Nvidia to increases internal resources to add support for shaders, improve performance and resolve QA issues.
Liscensed Rainbox 6, Rayman and Myst for the Gizmondo console.
