Team Introduction: Phillip

Hi, I’m Phillip.

I’ll be working on graphics programming, especially creating tools and technologies to help make it as easy as possible to make cool art assets, maps, animations, and special effects.

I recently graduated from Yale University with a major in CS. Prior to settling on CS, I jumped around quite a bit, exploring interests in physics, cognitive science, art, and architecture. I’m really excited to have found game development, since the field tightly integrates my several areas of interest.

In college I did research on human visual perception and computer vision, and worked on a tool for freeform 3D modeling. At Wolfire, I’m looking forward to tackling cutting edge technical issues and pushing innovation in all our games!

Favorite Games: Marshmallow Duel, The Dig, Myth

Random Fact: Back in the day I suffered from a fervent addiction to Marshmallow Duel. It was a tough time, but some good did come out of it: I introduced David to the game, and it was his inspiration for GLFighters!

Team Introduction: Jeff

Hey, I’m Jeff.  David’s (fraternal) twin brother!  David and I are really excited to finally get Wolfire off the ground and really get serious about game development.

I am a student at UC Berkeley, but Wolfire Games is too cool of an opportunity, so now I am a part time student.  This is why we are all located in the East Bay.  My role here is as a software developer with an emphasis on web stuff, so if you notice anything weird on the site, let me know!

A little bit of background about me:  I wrote AIMM, the original third party AIM client for Mac OS.  I then went on to write some shareware apps for people who sell stuff on Amazon, and have since been doing a lot of contract work for Amazon sellers.  If you bought something used on Amazon and received an annoying email about it asking for feedback…  Yeah, that’s me.  Sorry!

About a year ago, I joined Redux, Inc., as a software developer and wrote the back end for flick.im (you can check out the iPhone version, but the main Meebo style site has been canceled - it was awesome though!) and worked as a developer for the redux.com site itself. However, once David graduated, we officially formed Wolfire Games and I am really excited to finally be working on my real passion: video games!

Favorite Games: Quake 3: Urban Terror, Angband (you don’t need graphics to be an awesome game), Super Smash Bros.

Random Fact: When David and I were ~8, David made me really mad and I deleted his "Games" folder on his computer, not knowing his original HyperCard games were in there too.  This loss of data and trade secrets probably set Wolfire back years.  That is how I earned the title "Evil Twin".

Team Introduction: Aubrey

I started working with David about 3 years ago as a concept artist and 3D modeler for Lugaru 2. I am looking forward to continuing that work with the new Wolfire team.

In the time I have been contracting with Wolfire I have also been working for other companies. Some of the bigger jobs were characters for the XBLA version of Marathon: Durandal and level design on the upcoming FPS game Darkest of Days. Working on these contract jobs, I have been able to develop professional level skills in a lot of different areas. Being the only full time artist on the Wolfire team means that I am going to get a chance to use everything I know to make our games look great.

I graduated a few years ago from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in economics but have since focused solely video game art. It wasn’t easy starting out. I even worked as a cake decorator for Wal-Mart just to get by. A couple months ago my wife and I moved out here to California to work more closely with the Wolfire team. So far everything is great! 

Favorite Games: XCom: UFO defense, Deus Ex, Super Metroid, Silent Hill 2

Random Fact: I had never seen any of the rest of the Wolfire team face-to-face until I moved from Iowa to work with them.

Team Introduction: David

Here is the last introduction: David himself (written by Jeff, his twin brother). David is too valuable to spend time writing his own bio, so I am writing it for him while he codes!

David is the head programmer at Wolfire Games and the company really exists because of him. He is an amazing programmer, completely self-taught. The combination of David’s brainpower, his intuitive mastery of all things math, and the crazy properties of his memory / speed reading freakiness (more on this later) lend him to honestly be the most insane programmer I’ve ever seen, and he is perfectly tailored for graphics programming, which is what he really enjoys.

David recently graduated from Swarthmore College, near Philadelphia, with a major in computer science. His favorite classes were in psychology, but he also enjoyed computer graphics, which he totally dominated. After college, well, that is the present, we started Wolfire Games last week!

David has been an avid video game programmer since he got his start in HyperCard at the age of ~6. He then got into FutureBASIC and made some more real time games. FirePong, FirePong 2, and Sword, are the most notable ones he completed. Soon, he graduated into C++ / OpenGL, making awesome 3d games of increasing complexity. Tank game, GLFighters, GLFighters 2, Lightning’s Shadow, Soul of Steel, and Black Shades are notable. Finally, he made Lugaru, did some secret graphics contracts, and most recently a top-secret iPhone game.

I remember when David and I were maybe six or seven, we really liked the game Monkey Island. We wrote a letter to LucasArts saying how much we loved their game and we really wanted to work for them. LucasArts of course said "thanks, but no thanks". I think that’s what got us started in computer programming. Ironically, in high school and college, David started getting job offers from a number of companies: namely, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Raven, and Crytek. No LucasArts :(. Of course, they did not know that David was ~16 at the time.

David is not interested in working for other companies, though. He has long since wanted to write his own video games, instead of working for the man. In many ways, he is the man.

Favorite games: Unreal, Marathon, Hammerfall

Random fact: David is a speed reader who has read an insane amount of sci-fi, fantasy, and technical books. He also has a near photographic memory (sometimes). Once I was struggling to memorize a scene in Hamlet for high school English class and David, in order to tease me, took the book from me, read it for maybe four minutes, and then recited it back, perfectly. Amazingly, he often forgets really big things like whether or not he has seen a popular movie.