About Me

I'm a designer/developer/musician and my life revolves around music and technology. On this website, you'll find links to my résumé as well as game and music projects on which I've worked. I've also added a new developer's blog section to discuss my current projects.

I've been actively programming for close to eight years now and have done everything from running my own web design and development company to working for a large computer software company.

As far as music goes, I've been playing guitar for several years and I'm a big fan of independent and vintage rock music; however, I'll listen to anything that has genuine artistic merit.

I spend most of my time playing guitar, working on games, or recording music. In what little free time I have outside of that, I like to act and sing whenever I get the chance.

Thank you for taking your time to check out my site. Please feel free to look around, and if you like my work, contact me.

-Ben

News and Updates

Six Flags Fun Park DS Released
October 30th, 2008

My first published game has now been released and I'm extremely excited! There's nothing quite like the feeling of being able to go to the store and see your game on the shelf. Even though I'm doing design work now for LucasArts, I worked as a gameplay programmer in this DS title. Watch the trailer below and you can see some of the mini-games I worked on including the alien and zombie versions of whack-a-mole.

Six Flags Fun Park DS on Amazon...

New Job With Lucas
October 20th, 2008

Well I've left Austin and moved to San Francisco to work for LucasArts as a Systems Designer. I loved living in Austin and I'm sorry to have to say goodbye to all my friends here but unforunately with all the lay-offs that have been taking place recently, the job market is very competitive and there are just more opportunities available out on the west coast. Wish me luck!

Hero Design Challenge Winner!
September 3rd, 2008

So a few weeks back, I entered into a game design challenge on a website to design the next big video game hero. Not thinking about it again until recently, I went back to check and I had won! Go to their website to find out more details about the competition and to read all about my hero.

"This is an all-too familiar story, but one that's so classic, it has the stamina to be told again and again." - (GameCareerGuide.com)

Read the results...

Midway Project Cancelled
August 12th, 2008

Well it was a lot of fun while it lasted but unfortunately Midway pulled the plug on the project we were working on. I had a great time and really enjoyed working with everyone and hope to see you all again on future projects.

Read the full story...

Contraption Complete!
April 09, 2008

It's finally finished! Our game is complete and I could not have been happier with the way everything turned out. Of course there are always features that you wish you could have put in at the last moment but overall, the game plays very well. Go to the official website to check it out and download the final version of the game!

Contraption Official Website

Developer's Blog - Contraption Week 17
February 23rd, 2008

Well my head is still spinning from the Game Developer's Conference this past week, but I'm pleased to say that our team feels confident in our Beta build that we put together and will be presenting this next week.

Read More...

Developer's Blog - Contraption Week 15
February 9th, 2008

Well it's been two weeks since my last update as we were really busy last weekend when preparing for Alpha. After a few minor hickups we had testing our installer, we were finally able to get together our Alpha build last Saturday and submitted it on Monday.

Read More...

Video Games Live
February 8th, 2008

Last week, I was lucky enough to get to go see Video Games Live at the Hard Rock here in Orlando. The performance combined to of my most cherished loves, video games and music. I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed with the performance and I feel like it gave a good musical history of the evolution of games. Everywhere the Video Games Live goes, they use local symphony musics and singers but there were a couple stars on tour with them and several video-introductions from the original composers including Masato Nakamura (Sonic the hedgehog) and Koji Kondo (Super Mario Brothers). I really enjoyed the performance and would go see it again at GDC if I had not already commited all my time to being a Conference Associate. It seems like it is going to continue to stay on tour for a while though, so I'm sure I'll see it again soon.

New Game! - Spring, Sprang, Sprung
January 27th, 2008

One of the side-projects I was working on during my Christmas break was called Spring, Sprang, Sprung. It was created as part of a game-design contest for P.A.C.E. To find out more, go check it out in the games section.

Read More...

Developer's Blog - Contraption Week 13
January 26th, 2008

I really have to say that I am very impressed by all the hard work our whole team has been putting in. We are just now arriving at Feature Fragment Two and already, our game is nearing our milestone requirements for Alpha.

Read More...

Developer's Blog - Contraption Week 12
January 19th, 2008

We have really moving along in the development of our game this past week. We are continuing to get several tasks done ahead of schedule which is going to free up time for us to add more polish later. As we are developing and adding new systems to our game, we are squashing all major bugs and taking care of any errors as they arise. This seems to be helping us not get hung up on any one task for too long.

Read More...

Game Developer's Conference Associate
January 13th, 2008

So I am excited to say that I have been accepted as a Conference Associate for the Game Developer's Conference this year! This could not have come at a better time as I will be graduating soon and this is the perfect opportunity to start contributing to the game development community. I look forward to seeing everyone there!