John Passfield, founder and Design Director of Krome Studios, has left Krome to pursue other opportunities in the video game market.
Passfield says while he is proud of the work he has done during his time with Krome Studios, he sees his career taking a different direction to that of Krome.
?Making games is definitely part of the next phase of my career and there are a number of exciting opportunities on the horizon,? Passfield says.
Passfield, a founding director of Krome Studios and shareholder since 1999, is the creator and lead designer on the TY the Tasmanian Tiger game series which has sold close to two million copies since its release in 2002.
Passfield established and managed Krome?s design team, was actively involved in the creation of new intellectual property, and implemented and oversaw the company?s promotion during his tenure.
A seasoned industry veteran with more than 20 years professional experience, Passfield is also credited as a founding member of the Australian games development community. He helped establish some of the first development houses -- Interactive Binary Illusions in 1992 and Gee Whiz! Entertainment -- where he oversaw game design, script writing and story creation as well as conducting the original programming on several games. He was also responsible for business management, production and liaising with publishing partners.
A lifelong avid gamer, Passfield was seemingly destined to follow a path leading to the interactive entertainment industry. In high school, he designed, developed, and published his first two games, Chilly Willy and Halloween Harry. Halloween Harry celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and was also the world?s best selling shareware game when it was re-released in 1993. Passfield also established online sales for Zombie Wars, Spirit Board and Jaruu Tenk during the infancy of Internet-based sales. Several of his early games have been profiled in the prestigious Museum of Brisbane?s ?Bite the Blue Sky: Brisbane Beginnings? exhibition.
Wow, Dont quite know how to react to that. Good luck in your endeavours John - I really hope you do wish to stay within the games industry and startup something new fresh and exciting.
Thanks. Don't worry, I've been making games for a long time now, so I won't be giving that up. You'll hear about the new venture here at Sumea first, so stay tuned!
I have to chime in and say I was pretty shocked as well. It must be a rather big decision to make to leave a company that you help found (which has also gone to become the country's biggest game development studio), and I'm sure you could have easily just sat at the top sitting on your laurels and enjoy a comfortable existence (although, you probably busted a lot of sweat working on Ty and it's sequel :)).
Anyway, best of luck with your future endevours!
Thanks for the kind words Souri. You can keep track of what I'm up to at www.passfieldgames.com and www.gamemusings.com (my weblog)!
Looking at the blog entries back then it seems things were messed up, does anyone know the story behind this?
Please close this thread, there is absolutely no reason to dredge this ancient history up again.