Here is a little bit of information about each one of the 5LS team, and a few others who are involved in the making of Satellite Reign. All information is from public sources like LinkedIn profiles, Wikipedia, personal webpages or interviews.
Chris Conte – The man with the ‘distinctly fondle-worthy’ beard is the designer on the team, which means that he will be in charge of gameplay mechanics, thinking up skills and abilities, balancing etc. He has previously worked as a Senior Environment Artist at Sega Studios Australia and as Senior Mesh Builder. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has been in the business for around 10 years and is most experienced with console work, having developed for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Notable games he has worked on are Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and Viva Piñata: Party Animals. His official title as given in the Kickstarter video is “Designer / Beard Cultivator”.
Mike Diskett – Technical director at 5LS and industry veteran, Mike Diskett is the most senior team member. Before going on to found 5 Lives Studios, he worked as a Senior Engine Programmer at Sega Studios Australia, as Senior AI/Gameplay programmer at THQ StudioOZ, at Rockstar North and a bunch of other studios. According to this developer BIO at MobyGames, he started programming computer games at the age of 13. He is obviously best known for his work on Syndicate (where he did the Amiga conversion) and Syndicate Wars (where he was the game director), but worked on a multitude of other games as well, including Theme Park, Startopia, Urban Chaos, Blade 2 and GTA4. In 1997 he co-founded the studio Mucky Foot Productions Ltd, which was however closed down in 2003. His highest expertise appears to be in the area of C++ programming and Artificial Intelligence, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Brent Waller – Brent is the Environment Artist on Satellite Reign and will be in charge of making sure the city and everything in it looks and feels the way it’s supposed to. He was previously a Senior Environment Artist at Sega Studios Australia and Lead Environment Artist at Kmm Games. Brent has 12 years of experience in the games industry according to LinkedIn, and his skills include mastering graphics tools like Maya, Photoshop and 3D Studio Max, among others. Brent has a background in the modding community and used to work on Quake 2 and Quake 3 maps / total conversions. You can check out some of his work on his personal website.
Dean Ferguson – Dean used to be a Lead Artist / Character Artist at Sega Studios Australia. He studied at Qantm College Australia and has been working in the business for ca. 10 years. He worked on a variety of games, including some Star Wars console games. His specialities appear to be Texturing and other 3D graphics stuff.
Mitch Clifford – Mitch is a specialist for Character Animation and Modelling. He got a Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment, Animation Major from Qantm College and appears to be working in the games industry since 2006. His most recent position was Animator at Sega Studios Australia. According to his LinkedIn profile, his tools of the trade are Maya, 3D Studio Max, Motionbuilder and Zbrush. Notable games he has worked on are Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Viva Piñata: Party Animals, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, and he did some contract work on LA Noir and Darksiders 2.
Other people who are involved in the making of Satellite Reign, but who are not members of 5 Lives Studios:
Russell Shaw – Famous enough to have his own Wikipedia entry, Russell Shaw has been in charge of sound and music for many video games. He has worked on Syndicate, Syndicate Wars, Dungeon Keeper, Populous, Theme Park and the Fable series, to mention just a few. Russell Shaw is on board as sound designer and composer thanks to the fact that the Kickstarter campaign reached its first stretch goal!
Russell Zimmerman – Writer Russell Zimmerman will be in charge of the Satellite Reign Novella offered to some of the higher tier backers. There’s also still a possibility that he will be brought on board for writing the game’s story, although it requires the fundraising for Satellite Reign to hit the next stretch goal of £500’000. Russell Zimmerman is well known for his work in the cyberpunk genre and has recently published the Shadowrun Novella NEAT.
Jeremy Love – One of the concept artist that 5 Lives Studios has been contracting out to is Jeremy Love. He made this magnificent piece of art that served as the main background / logo of the Kickstarter campaign. You may want to keep an eye on his blog for more Satellite Reign related art.
Duncan Mattocks – Artist who does paintings for Satellite Reign (backer reward oil paintings). He maintains a blog here, and there you can read a post about the ‘Hammerhead’ paintings he made for the Satellite Reign Kickstarter campaign.
Bruno Rime – Bruno Rime works at Photon Workshop. Some of his work on shaders and post effects for the Unity engine will be featured in Satellite Reign. You can check out some of it in this impressive reflections tech demo. Check this for some more information about the technology.
