Where I started…Video Game Development
Some of even my closest friends are unaware that I spent several years developing / building a PC game from 16-19 years of age. This was around 2004, when PC games were starting to really take off and before zombies were as ubiquitous as they are today. This started as an idea by a friend of mine, Coleman, and at the end of my reign as project manager we had around 40,000 forum members, had been featured in several major publications like PC Gamer (US) magazine and had a lot of eyes on us in the PC gaming community in general. We sought out to create a hyper-realistic zombie survival game that relies on teamwork and strategy, not unlimited ammo and health packs. Not only did I lead the project but contributed as occasional 3D Modeler, 2D Graphic Artist (Model skinning) and web designer. The title of this Half-Life 2 mod is called No More Room in Hell and had gone on to win PC Gamer’s ‘Mod of the Year’, as well as ModDB’s Mod of the Year, among other awards.
To this day it is still very popular on Steam with well over a million downloads, has a very high “score” and is well respected in the gaming community. I took over the development when it was in it’s early stages and we marketed and garnered a lot of attention for the time, competing for the spotlight against games / mods like Insurgency and arguably Counter-Strike at the time. I managed a team of about 15-20 developers of different trades (programmers, graphic artists, 3D modelers, mappers / level designers, audio engineers, etc) and was an incredible project to be a part of. Here is a video of the gameplay (watch in 1080p).
I had to leave the mod after several years of development to pursue personal obligations since it was a full time job but am proud to have been a part of it. So many of the team became close friends and went on to work for major game development studios like Bungie (Halo), Gearbox (CounterStrike), Rockstar Games (GTA series), etc. I cannot take any credit for the games ultimate success(es) but it was a chapter of my life I look back on with fond memories.