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Gas Powered Games was founded in May 1998 by acclaimed game designer and industry visionary, Chris Taylor. The founding principle for GPG was to create immersive AAA games that push the boundaries of interactive entertainment.
The company's first project, Dungeon Siege, was released in April 2002, and its sequel, Dungeon Siege II was released in August 2005. Both games were critical and commercial successes, selling in excess of 1.7 million copies. Other games in the Dungeon Siege franchise include Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony for the PSP (developed cooperatively with SuperVillian Studios) and Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe Edition.
GPG followed the success of Dungeon Siege with Supreme Commander, a revolutionary RTS game that has been hailed by critics for its innovative gameplay, Strategic Zoom and streamlined Command & Control system. Supreme Commander received numerous Editors' Choice awards and went on to critical and commercial success.
Recent and current projects include Space Siege, Demigod, and Supreme Commander 2.
With its office in the Pacific Northwest, GPG is a short distance from Seattle, Washington and currently employs over 60 of the industry's best designers, programmers, writers and artists.
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| Jeremy Ables |
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Producer
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| Mike Biddlecombe |
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Lead Engineer
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Mike's 10 years of industry experience have been served at Gas Powered Games and Radical Entertainment. Mike's most recent work experience includes architecting and implementing many critical graphics systems, distributed AI control systems, and art process tools on Dungeon Siege. His work included prototyping the Dungeon Siege terrain engine, creating the Dungeon Siege skin/bone animation system, building the 3d Studio Max tools for terrain and actor asset creation as well as maintaining the art asset creation pipeline. These art tools were later released to the public as a gamepak for Discreet's gmax. Immediately prior to Dungeon Siege, Mike was the lead programmer on NHL All Star '98 for the Sega Saturn. Mike has been credited as a programmer on seven shipped titles.
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| Bert Bingham |
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Producer
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Bert "Sleepy" Bingham began his career in the games industry as a co-founder and Senior Mission Director for the combat simulation center known as "The Otherside".
Having directed over 4500 multiplayer combat missions, he turned his attention and unique experience toward helping the Gas Powered Team develop the original Dungeon Siege in 2001.
Since that time he has been involved in assisting production on every title GPG has released, and is currently developing an as-yet-unannounced addition to the GPG family.
Bert spends his spare time hiking, skiing, traveling, and playing Strategy and RPG games just enough to keep his callsign valid.
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| Sung Campbell |
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Senior Artist
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Sung is a recent graduate from The Art Institute of Seattle.
Favorite color: White
Favorite movie: Gladiator
Favorite food: T-bone steak
Favorite TV show: Lost
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| Justin Clark |
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Senior Software Engineer
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| Chris Daroza |
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Production Assistant
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Chris has been an avid gamer since the days of the Colleco Vision. He enjoyed Art at an early age and eventually attended Cornish College of The Arts studying Illustration. After a few years realizing that he enjoyed the idea of creating video games much more than becoming a traditional illustrator he decided to switch over to a Game Design Degree and attended courses at Lake Washington Technical College. Soon after he went into QA and then Production at GPG. In addition Fallout 2 is the greatest game ever made!
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| Gordon Duclos |
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VFX Team Lead
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In a moment, a breath for a reflection.
The gripping angst, while we walk the line between life, and what cannot be.
I stumble upon the steps of the ancient laboratory that soon would become my home.
Experiments dark and mysterious wrought with sub-conscious fear.
A secret friendship churns study of nature.
Outcast and shaved, the little one adventures into the wild.
Swirling decay whips us around as we swallow swells of purification.
Drowning no longer in reality dislocation.
The deepest blue in the center of nowhere.
Thousands of stones apart in the place that man should never be.
Resolution in piracy, lunacy becomes normalcy.
Whirlwinds of rage, soothing peace.
Lyrical incantations of science and philosophy, weave a dragon's fire, a soul.
The armies of the oppressor fold this ring of poverty.
Inklings of digital wisdom shape obsession.
A woman, an empire, the rebellion, assassination, and resolution.
To be lost in the future and past, where did the sands of presence leave us?
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| Elijah Emerson |
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Software Engineer
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| Brian Fricks |
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Content Engineer
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Brian Fricks, aka Trailstorm-Radeem, recently embarked on his first official adventure into the world of game design. Formerly a tenured teacher of visual arts at a most amazing public elementary school in Durham North Carolina, Brian found his way to Kirkland Washington and GPG through modding in the Dungeon Siege Community. Yes, it really can happen. Spending forty or more hours weekly (on top of the typical super-hero teacher's work schedule), and working on several small and large modding projects, including his own Circle of Lorent, Brian achieved sufficient levels of sleeplessness to qualify for a career change. Three thousand four hundred miles, two tires, and the entire collection of Harry Potter books on CD later, Brian now contentedly cranks out dungeons, wilderness, caves, and ruins in between eager requests for mule-i-corns, light-rays, and scale 5 Krug with scale 10 sledgehammers.
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| Michelle Hippe |
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Director of HR
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Michelle runs all things human resources at GPG. She is thrilled to work with creative geniuses every day!
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| Bartosz Kijanka |
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Vice President of Engineering
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When he was a boy, Bart wanted to be Cosmonaut. But, he got hooked on the Atari 2600. [Contrary to popular belief, when he was a boy he never wanted to be a fireman.]
When he was in junior high, he thought he'd be an astronomer. But, he spent most of his time programming the Commodore 64...
When he was in high school, he thought he would be an Aerospace Engineer. But, he spent most of his time programming the Amiga...
When he got to college, he wasn't sure what he wanted. So, he decided to study hardware in Electrical Engineering.
It was in College that he finally accepted the Truth. He couldn't run, he couldn't hide. He had to write software to be happy. Specifically, had to write games. Since that time he has happily worked on the SNES, Playstation, and the PC. While working on these different platforms he spent quality time at Squaresoft, Electronic Arts and Cavedog. You will find his work in Secret of Evermore, FIFA Soccer, Total Annihilation and Total Annihilation: Core Contingency.
Currently Bartosz is working in the capacity of Lead Engineer at Gas Powered Games. He works with a bunch of great and crazy people, some of which wanted to be firemen when they were children. But, then they saw the Atari 2600...
Lastly, he really hates talking about himself in the third person.
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| James Loe |
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Sr Software Engineer
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James has been working in the games industry since 1997, when he joined Chris Taylor at Cavedog Entertainment for the final months of development on Total Annihilation. Since that time he has worked on a number of titles, including Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, the ill-fated Good & Evil, and Gas Powered Games' first title, Dungeon Siege. When not at work he keeps himself busy with R/C cars, the latest console RPG's, and attempting to keep all his shots in the 10-ring down at the local range. If you look carefully you might even find him attending the occasional Magic tournament in the Seattle area.
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| Mike Marr |
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Lead Designer
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| Jacob McMahon |
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President
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| E. Andres Mendez |
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Software Engineer
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Andres arrived to the US from Colombia many moons ago. He lived a few years in Long Island, NY, but eventually made Seattle his home. Andres has always had a passion for programming, especially soccer games (or football as it should be called).
Trying to combine all three, he joined Humongous Entertainment as a programmer for Backyard Baseball and Backyard Soccer, what a match! Once the projects were completed Andres decided to start a game company with a friend. Financial paradoxes, zodiac misinformation, and the weather played key roles in the eventual suspension of the project.
Since then, Andres has ventured to a few projects in and out of the industry. He has finally found a home here at GPG where he stares at individual pixels a frame at a time while consuming tremendous amounts of coffee and soda.
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| Kevin Pun |
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Senior Artist
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Kevin was born in Hong Kong but immigrated to the U.S. when he was twelve. Even as a wee little kid, he wanted to draw and draw he did. He drew on the floor, the wall, school books, you name it. Some of his favorite subjects were drawing various Japanese anime and live action heroes. In the U.S. Kevin initially had some trouble speaking English but thanks to religously watching TV shows like Happy Days, Brady Bunch and Family Ties, his language barrier was broken in no time flat.
School was a significant period for Kevin. Among many things, he discovered girls, comics and D&D. Unbelievably even with his dashing good looks, he would have little luck with girls but he was hooked on role-playing and superheroes. He found much pleasure creating his own Melinda the Fox comic, drawing D&D character portraits and illustrating modules that he would run. By the time he was ready for college his art was looking pretty decent but unfortunately majoring in art was never in the deck. Citing many examples of starved artists, Kevin's parents successfully talked Kevin into studying Civil Engineering.
Eventually Kevin graduated from the University of Washington. While waiting for job interviews, he dabbled in the professional comics field, trying one last time to get an art career going. In 1990, he penciled a short story in Manga Monthly #2 (Fathom Press) and made a pin-up of Trixie from Speedracer sitting on top of the Mach 5 in a Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Issue (Fantagraphics). Kevin's parents were almost right as he discovered that comics work paid very little and Fathom Press closed down, killing the deal to do more Manga Monthly. As fate would have it, just when he was about to give up on art, a local upstart games company was desperate for artists. Having to choose between engineering or making game art, it took him about two seconds to make the right decision. The rest was history.
Over the years Kevin worked with many different games companies and various gaming platforms. Some of his past published games included: Inspector Gadget (PC), King Arthur and the Knights of Justice (SNES), Secret of Evermore (SNES), and Total Annihilation (PC). A member of GPG since February 2000, Kevin is proud to be a part of the Dungeon Siege development team.
Kevin enjoys spending his spare time with his wonderful wife, Sophia. Whenever she is not paying attention he collects a scary amount of action figures and Gundam models. One prized toy in his collection is the 1979 18 inch Alien figure from Kenner. Music and movie wise, he digs Hong Kong pop singer, Gigi Leung and wishes that the obscure 80's romantic comedy, Electric Dreams will make it on DVD soon.
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| Chad Queen |
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Lead Tools Engineer
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Chad got his start in the game industry working as a technical support representative for Humongous Entertainment. He decided that was too much fun for him and so he became a production assistant where he worked on various Humongous Entertainment children's titles. A little more work and some schooling and now he's an engineer at GPG and loving every minute of it. Chad loves console gaming and will hopefully master the Samba de Amigo maracas to the point where he doesn't look like a flailing drunken monkey.
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| Aimee Rickerson |
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Accounting
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| Damian Smolko |
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Level Designer
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Born and raised in one of the 666 levels of Hades known as Youngstown, Ohio. Played lots of Commodore 64 games (Adventure Construction Set, Bop-N- Rumble, Bard's Tale, Forbidden Forest) and dreamed of making games. Bombed out of college because of evil MUDS and the first Mechwarrior. Grew up to be a slave on the demonic plane of Sandusky, Ohio at a world famous Abusement park. Got bored. Went back to Youngstown State University the home of the Fighting Penguins. Annoyed many Deans by declaring his own video game based major. Got degree! Moved to Seattle to be closer to Metal Church, Nevermore, Sir Mix-a-lot and the Games Industry. Tested on Perfect Dark Zero and Dungeon Siege: Broken World. Became Production Assistant on Supreme Commander. Has top secret job on top secret project. Makes lots of cool games and lives happily ever after till Great War. Becomes known as Thundarr and marries the beautiful Ookla.
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| Jessica Snook |
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Content Engineer
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| Mike Swanson |
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Studio Art Manager
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Mike started making games back in 1987 working on a touch-screen laserdisc driven golf simulation machine for Joytec - the $40,000 machine has sensors for your weight shift and for which club you were using and featured all the best holes of Hawaii (using real video) and had to be surrounded by lexan barriers in case the golf ball on the swivel broke off and killed someone......
We sold 6 units before folding.
After that it was creating art and as an art lead for EA for 10 years, then managing art at Lucasarts for 3.5 years and then 1+ year at Take 2 creating artwork for a yet unpublished RTS drug-dealing game called SNOW (go figure!)
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| Chris Taylor |
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CEO/Founder
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Chris Taylor began his career in the video games business at Distinctive Software in Canada. His first title, Hardball II was a sequel to the popular Hardball, and won the SPA (Software Publishers Association) award for best sports game of the year. Next, Chris created 4D Boxing, which won many accolades for its innovation as a 3D title. Chris later served as designer and project lead for the original Triple Play Baseball at Electronic Arts.
Chris went on to create the highly acclaimed RTS, Total Annihilation, at Cavedog Entertainment. After completing the expansion pack, The Core Contingency, he decided to start his own company. Chris founded Gas Powered Games in May of 1998 in Kirkland, WA. GPG released its first title, Dungeon Siege for the PC in April of 2002. Chris and Gas Powered Games have established themselves as an innovator in both technology and gameplay, and are now working on the next round of games to be released in the near future.
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| Morien Thomas |
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Lead Artist
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| Gautam Vasudevan |
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Content Engineer
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The first thing Gautam learned to program were games. Starting with programming text-adventures, and eventually moving on to arcade games and first-person shooters, Gautam found himself game-programming professionally after graduating from UCLA in 2003. Now at Gas Powered Games, Gautam continues to forge his game-creation legacy through his programming skills. His hobbies include playing tennis (when the Northwest weather cooperates), feeding his inner info-junkie, and honoring his Canadian roots with his unwavering support of the Calgary Flames.
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