About Travis

Dear Reader,

Briefly, I am an undergraduate student at Northern Arizona University majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. I started this blog as a means to express my opinions about various topics relevant to my field of study (software engineering). Within that much broader domain of software dev, I have a particular interest in game development. In fact, I’ve been a member of the International Game Developer’s Association since 2002, and have attended the Game Developer’s Conference with my father thrice. My aforementioned father has a company by the name of AddairWare through which we develop our games.

I started out in the games industry wanting to be a designer, but after being thrown off the deep end into programming, I quickly developed a love for the world of code. That, coupled with my having taken on a variety of managerial responsibilities on our first project (Hydrok) has lead to my interest in production, project management, and the general business side of the industry. Indeed, the fascination has gotten to such a point that I’ve even begun reading software engineering texts in my spare time.

Another major interest of mine is the Japanese language and culture. However, that’s not to say I read manga and watch anime exhaustively (I don’t). No, oddly enough, I got introduced to Japan through music and my already established association with the games industry. In the Summer of 2007, I was even an exchange student in Japan for two months, and came back with a whole new perception of both their country and my own. One question that takes up a reasonable amount of my idle thinking time (and brings together the two interests I’ve discussed on this page thusfar ) is the problem of western game developers reaching out to Japanese consumers as even the biggest budget games over here receive only lukewarm reception in the east.

What the anonymous reader can expect from the blog is a series of essays (often inchoate, as such is a consequence of youth) on the state of the games industry, developer diaries concerning projects I’m working on, and the occasional game review written by and for developers with a focus on what we can learn from the successes and failings of others in our industry. With any luck, the quality of the writing/subject matter will increase steadily over time, but I’m afraid I can’t make any promises.

I hope you enjoy (to one end or another) what you read here, and know that I’m always up for a good conversation if you’re ever so inclined.

Take care,

Travis Addair