So this year, I’ve decided to actually start using my blog to talk about my profession rather than my hobby!  As strange as it may seem, I’ve never really had any desire to talk much about game design, although I definitely have learned a few things over the years that might be worth sharing.

For those of you who don’t know me, and might be skeptical what a mediocre photographer might have to say about game design, let me share a few of my credentials:

• I officially entered the game industry in 1997, as a programmer / designer working for Sierra Online on one of the first graphical MMORPGS called ‘The Realm‘ (it’s still alive and kicking, believe it or not – check the link if you don’t believe me!)
• I am currently an Executive Producer for Zynga, developing a new title that should be launched sometime around April or May.

Everything between those two bullet points is somewhat of a blur – suffice it to say it’s been a long, hard road, and I’ve had more than my fair share of failures along the way (but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?)  Even so, I have had at least a few successes, most notably a collectible card game for Facebook called ‘Warstorm‘, which probably 5-6 million people have played to date.  Believe it or not, this is still bottom of the rung for most Zynga games, some of which have 15 million people playing them every day, but I still count Warstorm as a success given that it’s a fairly ‘hardcore’ game that your typical Facebook game player wouldn’t know what to make of.

Anyway, here’s to New Year’s resolutions!  If I manage to stick with this one, you can look forward to (at the minimum) a series of basic game design principals that I often preach but never have actually written down.  Looking forward to your comments!