Gamasutra have re-printed an article that appeared in Game Developer Magazine late last year which lists 50 of the most important contributors to the games industry. The people who made the list are from a whole range of fields, from art and design, independent to triple A game developers.
Joining the list which includes the likes of Steve Jobs, Will Wright, and Peter Moore, are two local Australian game developers. They are indie developer, Farbs, and Firemint CEO, Rob Murray. Congratulations, guys!
Jarrad Woods
Captain Forever
Captain Forever developer Farbs has had about eight years of commercial game development experience at companies like BigWorld and 2K Australia -- on either canceled or unreleased games.
But in his free time he started making independent games, and the fascinating and transgressive ROM CHECK FAIL -- which mashed up classic arcade games in cheeky ways -- was just the start, a Grey Album for games, if you will. His new project, and his first as a full-time indie, Captain Forever, won the IGF China Best Game award for the top Asian-Pacific indie title.
Rob Murray
Firemint
Melbourne-based Firemint is pointed to as one of the big winners in the iPhone and iPad development scene, and rightly so. While the studio has done work-for-hire for publishers in the past, it's really starting to break out with original IP.
The company has two games that have apparently grossed over one million dollars, in two very different price brackets and categories. There's the casual, pick up and play 99 cent Flight Control (now over 2 million sales!), and the bigger budget 3D, fully optimized Real Racing, which has sold for $6 to $10. CEO Murray has successfully diversified his game sizes and revenue streams in a smart way, and it seems to be paying off.