Meet the Team of Mad Otter
Hello Everyone!
We’re located in Eugene, Oregon, in the Northwest corner of the USA. Eugene is a town of 150,000 people. It is home to a surprising number of game developers. It has more game developers than any other city between Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area.
We picked our name Mad Otter when we watched a video of a tribe of otters chasing away a large crocodile from the local watering hole. The crocodile was too large, too slow, and most importantly, too cold-bolded to compete with the more agile (and fun-loving) otters. This was a metaphor for the kind of studio we wanted to build.
Damon Slye -- Director, Designer
Damon has been building games since 1978. In 1983, he co-founded Dynamix, a successful game studio that grew to 200 employees. Dynamix built games at the forefront of design innovation and technology, and had the most advanced 3D engine at the time. He is best known for creating a popular series of historic flight simulations that included Red Baron, A-10 Tank Killer, and Aces of the Pacific. At Dynamix, he led the development of many of its core technologies, including its 3D engine. His gameography includes Red Baron, Arcticfox, Stellar 7, MechWarrior, A10 Tank Killer, Abrams Battletank, Project Firestart, Aces of the Pacific, Aces Over Europe, Ace of Aces, and Villagers and Heroes.
Paul Bowman -- Programmer
Paul has been leading the development of games for over 30 years. He has specialized in building technologically advanced games like simulations, first-person shooters, and MMOs. He was a Lead Engineer at Dynamix and Sony. His gameography includes Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops, Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow, Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, Nova 9, Project Firestart, MechWarrior, MetalTech, and Villagers and Heroes.
Liam Ryan -- Programmer
At the age of 10 Liam received a book of programming from his father, and has been programming ever since. After working with GarageGames and Top Meadow on such games as Marble Blast, Minigolf Mania, and Puzzle Poker (not to mention on innumerable personal projects) Liam joined Mad Otter in 2011.
Cameron England -- Designer
Cameron has been working with Mad Otter as lead content designer for 2 years. He is a graduate of the excellent Game Development program at Lane Community College. Cameron especially loves world creation and system design, but also enjoys story writing, boss scripting, and filling the world with wonderful and kooky characters. Cameron has been playing games since his first Windows 3.1 computer, and has always had a particular fascination for RPG’s and MMO’s.
Chris Fulkerson -- Artist
Chris has a background in both traditional and digital art and has always had a passion for games and art. He enjoys painting both on the computer and with actual paint. He graduated from the University of Oregon Digital Arts program in 2012 and started working full time with Mad Otter shortly after. For the past two years he's been working on the art of Villagers & Heroes as well as the new Red Baron game. For Chris, bringing together all the details in a fantasy world and increasing immersion is one of the best parts of the job.
Adam Alexander -- Artist
Joining Mad Otter in the summer of 2013, Adam helped both develop art content for the new "Fury of the Stone Lord," expansion and helped port the game to the upgraded engine. He loves working on new zone environments, and in his spare time, playing bluegrass and board games.
Sarah Skibinski -- Writer
Sarah joins us this year from the indie film world, where she has spent the past ten years writing a number of award winning screenplays, including ‘The Rhythm of Chaos,’ ‘The Punishing Business’, and an adaptation of Michael Dorris’ bestselling novel, ‘A Yellow Raft In Blue Water’ to name just a few. Sarah currently writes the game lore and quests for Villagers and Heroes.
Clark Fagot -- Programmer
Clark is helping Mad Otter on a temporary basis, focusing on improving the performance of the core technology (memory usage, bandwidth, loading times). He’s an expert in the game engine since he wrote parts of it while he worked at GarageGames. He has his PhD in Psychology from UCSD, and Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science. He has worked at Dynamix, Brave Tree, GarageGames, and Kontagent.
We are also being very ably assisted by Ben Johnson and
Addy Taylor
.
They are doing internships through the excellent program at Lane Community College. Ben is contributing artwork, and Addy is helping Mad Otter with promotion, and the creation of videos and other promotional assets.
Cheers!