Game Development Essentials: Online Game Development 1st Edition

RICK HAS FOLLOWED a strange path in life. Graduating from Penn State in 1986 with a degree in electrical engineering, he spent a few years working for the US Navy in Virginia, repairing F-14’s and A6’s. After a brief stint designing circuit boards in Pittsburgh, he made a left turn and became a video game developer. For the next fifteen years, he was a programmer, a game designer, a producer, and executive management. Working for both Take 2 Interactive Software and for Electronic Arts, his name appears in the credits for titles such as Star Crusader, Ultima Online, and Madden Football.

Somewhere along the way, he took yet another detour with the University of Central Florida, serving as one of the original faculty for their nationally recognized Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, where he teaches video game development.

He is an avid chess player (having briefly trained with a Grandmaster, against whom he once proudly managed to achieve a draw). He collects history books, boasting over seven hundred volumes in his library at home. He is a process junkie, obsessed with making spreadsheets for EVERYTHING. He has been writing as a hobby for over a decade, with the patient forbearance of his family, who allow him the opportunity to close the office door at home and tinker endlessly.

He lives at home in Florida with his wife Cheryl and daughter Jesse, along with two lovable dogs, a psychotic cat, and a guinea pig named Max.

Jeannie Novak is the Lead Author & Series Editor of the widely acclaimed Game Development Essentials series (with over 15 published titles), co-author of Play the Game: The Parent’s Guide to Video Games, and co-author of three pioneering books on the interactive entertainment industry — including Creating Internet Entertainment. She is also Co-Founder of Novy Unlimited and Founder/CEO of Kaleidospace, LLC (d/b/a Indiespace, founded in 1994) — where she provides services for corporations and creative professionals in games, music, film, education, and technology. Jeannie oversees one of the first web sites to promote and distribute interactive entertainment and a game education consulting division that focuses on curriculum development, instructional design, and professional development for higher education and secondary school.

As Online Program Director for the Game Art & Design and Media Arts & Animation programs at the Art Institute Online, Jeannie produced and designed an educational business simulation game that was built within the Second Life environment—leading a virtual team of more than 50 educators, students, and industry professionals. She has also been a game instructor and curriculum development expert at UCLA Extension, Art Center College of Design, Academy of Entertainment & Technology at Santa Monica College, DeVry University, Westwood College, and ITT Technical Institute—and she has consulted for several educational institutions and developers such as UC Berkeley Center for New Media, Alelo Tactical Language & Culture, and GameSalad. Jeannie has also worked on projects funded by the National Science Foundation and Google Grants for Lehigh Carbon Community College and the University of Southern California (USC) Information Sciences Institute.

An active member of the game industry, Jeannie has served as Vice Chair of the International Game Developers Association-Los Angeles chapter (IGDA-LA), executive team member at Women in Games International (WIGI), Game Conference Chair for ANIMIAMI, advisory board member at the Game Education Summit (GES), and session chair at SIGGRAPH. She has participated on the Online Gameplay selection committee for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ DICE awards since 2003 and has developed game workshops, panels, and breakout sessions in association with events and organizations such as the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), Game Education Summit (GES), International Game Developers Association (IGDA), GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin), Macworld Expo, Digital Hollywood, USC’s Teaching Learning & Technology Conference, and the Los Angeles Games Conference. Jeannie was chosen as one of the 100 most influential people in technology by MicroTimes magazine – and she has been profiled by CNN, Billboard Magazine, Sundance Channel, Daily Variety, and the The Los Angeles Times.

Jeannie received an M.A. in Communication Management from USC’s Annenberg School (where her thesis focused on using massively multiplayer online games as online distance learning applications) and a B.A. in Mass Communication/Business Administration from UCLA (where she graduated summa cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa and completed an honors thesis focusing on gender role relationships in toy commercials). A native of Southern California, Jeannie grew up in San Diego and currently resides in Santa Monica with her husband, Luis Levy. She is also an accomplished composer, recording artist, performer, and music instructor (piano/voice).