Milkman Games just got indie-er…

The reason I can't ride a bike.

Twenty years ago, I brought home Basic Programming for Kids from the local public library,  and started spending a lot more of my time on my family's VTech Laser 128 and a lot less playing outside with the other kids.  For those who know me and marvel at why a 28-year-old man doesn't know how to ride a bicycle, you can now place the blame on Roz Ault.

In 1997, serif'd fonts were still cool.

Fourteen years ago, I developed my first piece of commercial software, a game called Spinball.  The internet game market was a completely different landscape at the time; the classic shareware model was still completely viable.  I received checks from users mailed to my home, and sent them back "registered versions" on 3.5" floppy disks with home-made labels.  AOL and CNet were the primary venues for discovery.  Shortly after, some publishers took interest in the game. One of them was eventually sued by Atari, one of them distributed games on CD-ROM as ticket prizes inside brick and mortar arcades (they were out of business before the 2nd royalty check was ever cut).  And one of them was eventually purchased by RealNetworks, who was starting to build up their casual games business.  The revenue from that last one was amazing, at least for a 14-year-old, and somewhere around that time I shortened my response to "what do you want to be when you grow up" from "an artist or a game developer" to just "game developer."

Double Fine didn't have any openings.

Five years ago, I graduated from college and moved to San Francisco to try to enter the games business.  After a brief stint in the um, Unsolicited Telephone Research Industry, to make ends meet while doing freelance art projects, a friend introduced me to the very talented Mike Dashow at a party and he invited me to interview for an art internship at Meez.com.  I did work on some animated flash banners among 3d art projects, and as the company began to expand into a virtual world with a Flash front-end, I was given an opportunity to get more involved on the development side of things.

Two years ago, I incorporated Milkman Games, LLC in the state of California and began work on a puzzle game aimed at casual download portals.  I learned a great deal about just how much the download games business has changed since I was 14, but that's a story for another post.

Yesterday was my last my day at Meez- a moment that's at once very sad, very exciting, and a little scary.  It's going to be hard missing all the wonderful people I will no longer see every day.  I can't thank enough the company and its employees, both past and present, for the opportunities given to me. Mike Dashow, who helped me develop a critical eye for layout and timing, Bryna Bank, who taught me to plan, Keith Neal and Mike Schulman, who shared their knowledge with me; Sean Ryan and John Cahill, who believed in my potential, and Peter McDonnell, who mentored me and turned me from a Flash hack into an engineer.  In the interest of not making this page into a full company roster, I'll stop there- but know I love you all.

And finally, Today is my first day at Milkman Games as a fully indie game studio.  I'll be blogging more.  I'll be talking more about what I learn along the way.  I'll be making the development process more transparent.  I'll be connecting with other indie developers.  I'll be eating a lot more Ramen.

I probably won't have time to learn how to ride a bike though.