I am a game designer
I've been a professional software developer for 20 years. I've written a lot of website applications and I absolutely love what I do. I've used lots of different languages. My real passion, however, is writing computer games.
It's taken a while for me to realise this. So I'm making the switch to becoming a game developer, designer, director, owner and hopefully get a few people to help me in my quest.
Who is Electric Visions?
Originally founded in Bournemouth, Dorset, United Kingdom in 1998 it eventually became a consultancy firm specializing in Agile software development and Web technologies. It's now evolving to become a games developer house.
Electric Visions is run by one person, me, Phil A Thompson.
A bit more about me
I was 7 years old when I got my first computer, a Commodore 64. It didn't take me long to go from playing games to keying in the programs from the manual and magazines.
When I was at school, Graham, a friend in the year above gave me a book on C programming and I was hooked. Later, I programmed graphics, 3D, effects and made a few small demos with Sean, another friend of mine and some games such as a tron light cycle clone and 2 player Asteroids style shoot 'em up.
I also got into electronic music and music programs called trackers that allowed you to trigger samples at certain times to create music. It was magical!
I played around with graphics software, 3D modelling software, even CAD programs. Lego, Meccano and Scalextric also featured heavily. I loved creating things with any medium I could get my hands on. One time I built a scale model Spitfire out of balsa wood. It glided incredibly well. So well, in fact, it flew straight into a tree! I enjoyed technical drawing at school and even toyed with the idea of going to art college.
I've built a Media PC using MDF, another with ply and one with perspex, a tiny PC using a coffee tin and PCs built into cars. My previous setup was a custom built gaming chair.
My name is Phil A Thompson. I live in a van, somewhere in -Europe- the UK with my lovely girlfriend, Claudi and our dog, Colin.
My vision
Although I love what I do, I've had an idea for a game for 20 years. It's changed a lot over the years, had plenty of false starts but it's always been at the back of my mind.
So, I'm telling myself "I am a game designer". One day it might be true.
