Chris Remo

Last updated

Chris Remo
Chrisremo outside reversed.jpg
Born (1984-09-10) September 10, 1984 (age 39)
San Francisco, California
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Video game designer, composer, podcaster, writer

Chris Remo is an American video game designer, composer, writer, podcaster, and former journalist.

Contents

As a journalist, he cofounded the original Idle Thumbs website as well as its flagship podcast, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Shacknews and Editor at Large for Gamasutra.

He composed the music for Thirty Flights of Loving , Gone Home , Spacebase DF-9 and Firewatch . He co-wrote The Cave with Ron Gilbert at Double Fine Productions. In early 2014, he left Double Fine to join his Idle Thumbs co-hosts Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman at Campo Santo, [1] where he contributed to the studio's narrative adventure game Firewatch as a game and story designer, composer, and audio director. [2]

Career

Chris Remo began his career as a video game journalist, writing for Adventure Gamers. He co-founded Idle Thumbs, a video game culture website, with colleagues from Adventure Gamers and The International House of Mojo in 2004. [3] As a professional journalist, he was Editor-in-Chief of Shacknews and later Gamasutra, becoming Editor at Large. [3] After Idle Thumbs went dark in 2007, Remo revived it as a podcast in late 2008 with other Thumbs writers Nick Breckon (then of Shacknews) and Jake Rodkin (then of Telltale Games). [4] While podcasting for Idle Thumbs, he composed and performed "Space Asshole", a satirical song about the protagonist of Red Faction: Guerrilla , which went viral. [5]

He left his position at Gamasutra in 2010 to work as a community manager and producer for Boston-based Irrational Games, ending the first run of the Idle Thumbs podcast at the same time. The show's then-final episode was recorded live at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo. [6]

In early 2012, Remo returned to San Francisco to start a crowdfunded campaign on Kickstarter to revive the Idle Thumbs podcast with then-co-hosts Rodkin and Sean Vanaman. [7] As part of the Kickstarter campaign, Remo composed the soundtrack for Blendo Games' Thirty Flights of Loving , a video game that would be released to backers of the campaign. [8] [9] [10]

He also took a job in a multi-faceted role at Double Fine Productions, where he contributed to various games, including as a composer and game designer for Spacebase DF-9, an Amnesia Fortnight project, and as co-writer of The Cave alongside Ron Gilbert. [11]

Remo composed the soundtrack to Gone Home , a game written by former Idle Thumbs co-host Steve Gaynor, [12] and co-wrote Rogue One: X-Wing VR Mission for Star Wars Battlefront , developed by Criterion Games.

As a member of independent game studio Campo Santo, Remo was a game and story designer, composer, and audio director of the BAFTA-winning narrative adventure Firewatch, and has spoken about the game’s design at numerous game development conferences around the world. [13] [14]

In 2018, Campo Santo was acquired by Seattle-area game developer Valve. [15]

In 2021, Remo started uploading daily vlogs of himself solving The New York Times crossword on his personal YouTube channel, in a series titled The Daily Solve. [16]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Schafer</span> American video game designer

Timothy John Schafer is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend and Broken Age, co-designer of Day of the Tentacle, and assistant designer on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. He is well known in the video game industry for his storytelling and comedic writing style, and has been given both a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Game Developers Choice Awards, and a BAFTA Fellowship for his contributions to the industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double Fine</span> American video game developer

Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two games – Psychonauts and Brütal Legend – underperformed publishers' expectations despite critical praise. The future of the company was assured when Schafer turned to several in-house prototypes built during a two-week period known as "Amnesia Fortnight" to expand as smaller titles, all of which were licensed through publishers and met with commercial success. Schafer has since repeated these Amnesia Fortnights, using fan-voting mechanics, to help select and build smaller titles. Double Fine is also credited with driving interest in crowdfunding in video games, having been able to raise more than US$3 million for the development of Broken Age, at the time one of the largest projects funded by Kickstarter, and more than US$3 million for the development of Psychonauts 2.

Old Man Murray (OMM) is a UGO Networks computer game commentary and reviews site, known for its highly irreverent and satiric tone. Founded in 1997, it was written and edited by Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw. Old Man Murray was critical of games that received strong reviews elsewhere, Common targets of OMM news updates included John Romero and American McGee. Old Man Murray was a significant early influence in both the world of game development and internet comedy, and is often considered to have "helped birth online games journalism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The International House of Mojo</span> Gaming fan website

The International House of Mojo is a website focused on LucasArts video games. It later expanded to cover studios founded by former LucasArts employees, including Double Fine Productions, Telltale Games, Autumn Moon Entertainment and Crackpot Entertainment. It was founded in 1997 by James Spafford and is among the longest-running "fan sites" on the internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jake Rodkin</span> American video game designer

Jake Rodkin is an American video game designer, writer, graphic designer, and podcaster. He was the co-project leader of Tales of Monkey Island and the co-project leader and co-writer of The Walking Dead, Poker Night at the Inventory, and Puzzle Agent 2. He was also the director of the fifth episode of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, and designer and writer of Firewatch.

Blendo Games is an American independent video game development company based in Culver City, California. It was founded by Brendon Chung in 2010 and is primarily a one-person effort. Blendo Games gained more widespread exposure with the short form stand alone title Gravity Bone; the following games Flotilla and Atom Zombie Smasher were met with critical praise. The studio has also released several other games in several genres.

<i>Broken Age</i> 2015 video game

Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. Broken Age was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's Grim Fandango, and was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014, and the second was released on April 28, 2015. A retail version of the complete game for Windows, macOS, and Linux, published by Nordic Games, was released on April 28, 2015. A Nintendo Switch version was released on September 13, 2018.

Idle Thumbs is a video game culture website and podcast network founded in 2004.

Oliver Jonathan Moss is an English graphic artist, best known for his reimagining of movie posters. His work has been released by Mondo and is regularly featured in Empire magazine.

Moai is a development and deployment platform designed for the creation of mobile games on iOS and Android smartphones. The Moai platform consists of Moai SDK, an open source game engine, and Moai Cloud, a cloud platform as a service (PaaS) for the hosting and deployment of game services. Moai developers use Lua, C++ and OpenGL, to build mobile games that span smartphones and cloud. Several commercial games have been built with Moai, including Crimson: Steam Pirates, Invisible, Inc., and Broken Age. Moai integrates third-party game analytics and monetization services such as Apsalar and Tapjoy.

Video game development has typically been funded by large publishing companies or are alternatively paid for mostly by the developers themselves as independent titles. Other funding may come from government incentives or from private funding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Vanaman</span> American video game designer

Sean Vanaman is an American video game designer, writer, and podcaster. He was the co-project leader and lead writer of The Walking Dead, and Puzzle Agent 2. He also wrote the third episode of Tales of Monkey Island, and was the designer of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, and the writer of the third episode, Muzzled. He was one of the regular hosts of the Idle Thumbs podcast and is one of the co-founders of Campo Santo, the company that produced Firewatch.

<i>Thirty Flights of Loving</i> 2012 adventure video game

Thirty Flights of Loving is a first-person adventure video game developed by Brendon Chung under the name Blendo Games. It was published in August 2012 for Microsoft Windows, in November 2012 for OS X, and in December 2021 for Linux. The game is a non-direct sequel to Gravity Bone (2008) with the same unnamed spy as the main character. It follows three people as they prepare for an alcohol heist and the aftermath of the operation.

Brad Muir is an American computer game designer and programmer. He was a designer on Brütal Legend, and the project leader of Iron Brigade, Brazen, and Massive Chalice.

<i>Amnesia Fortnight 2012</i> 2012 video game

Amnesia Fortnight 2012 is a bundle of prototypes made during a two-week public prototyping session in 2012 by Double Fine Productions, which was held in conjunction with the Humble Bundle group in 2012. Everyone that paid a minimum of $1 had the opportunity to vote on 23 concept ideas. After the completion of the voting period, Double Fine developed the top five voted ideas into game prototypes that became available to those that purchased the bundle after they were completed. There were also three bonus prototypes included, including two from the first Amnesia Fortnight that were made into commercial games, and one prototype from the previous year's Amnesia Fortnight that hadn't been released to the public before that point. 2 Player Productions filmed a documentary about the making of the prototypes, which was included with purchase of the bundle. Amnesia Fortnight 2012 was later released on physical media as part of a special edition bundle.

Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alpha, alpha, and/or beta, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue further development on the game. Those that pay to participate typically help to debug the game, provide feedback and suggestions, may have access to special materials in the game. The early-access approach is a common way to obtain funding for indie games, and may also be used along with other funding mechanisms, including crowdfunding. Many crowdfunding projects promise to offer access to alpha and/or beta versions of the game as development progresses; however, unlike some of these projects which solicit funds but do not yet have a playable game, all early access games offer an immediately playable version of the unfinished game to players.

<i>Firewatch</i> 2016 adventure video game

Firewatch is an adventure game developed by Campo Santo and published by the developer in partnership with Panic. The game was released in February 2016 for Linux, OS X, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in September 2016, and for Nintendo Switch in December 2018. The story follows a fire lookout named Henry who works in Shoshone National Forest. Henry interacts with his supervisor Delilah using a walkie-talkie, with the player choosing from dialog options to communicate. His exchanges with Delilah inform the process by which their relationship is developed. Over the course of the summer, Henry and Delilah appear to be menaced by unseen forces and have to unravel a years-old mystery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campo Santo (company)</span> American video game developer

Campo Santo Productions LLC is an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington. Founded in September 2013 by Sean Vanaman, Jake Rodkin, Nels Anderson, and Olly Moss, the studio is best known for its debut game released in 2016, Firewatch. The company was acquired by Valve in April 2018.

<i>The Foo Show</i>

The Foo Show was an interactive virtual reality talk show developed by Foo VR and created by Will Smith. The first episode was released in April 2016.

Jane Ng is a Chinese-American 3D environment artist, best known for her work on Firewatch, The Cave, and Brütal Legend. She previously worked at Campo Santo, a game studio that is part of Valve, as a Senior Environment Artist. Other notable works include Stacking, Costume Quest, Spore, and The Godfather.

References

  1. ↑ "Idle Thumbs 144" . Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Mr Moon (February 9, 2016), Firewatch ending credits , retrieved September 1, 2017
  3. 1 2 "Chris Remo Author Biography". Gamasutra. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  4. ↑ Tabacco, Doug. "About Us". Idle Thumbs. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  5. ↑ Good, Owen (October 27, 2009). "Is Your Population Demoralized? Watch "Space A-hole"". Kotaku. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  6. ↑ Idle Thumbs (March 21, 2011). "Idle Thumbs Live at PAX Prime 2010 – Burnin' Down the Wolfman". Vimeo. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  7. ↑ Caoili, Eric (February 28, 2012). "Kickstarter drive offers exclusive game from Atom Zombie Smasher dev". Gamasutra. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  8. ↑ Hinkle, David (February 20, 2012). "Idle Thumbs Kickstarter includes exclusive game, neat artwork". Joystiq. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  9. ↑ Hamilton, Kirk (February 28, 2012). "Indie Darling Gravity Bone Gets a Sequel". Kotaku.com. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  10. ↑ Smith, Graham (March 6, 2012). "Thirty Flights of Loving tells a better story in 13 minutes than most games do in 13 hours". PC Gamer. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  11. ↑ Caravella, Vinny (January 21, 2013). "Quick Look EX: The Cave". Giant Bomb. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  12. ↑ Gaynor, Steve (October 23, 2012). "Status Update: IGF, here we come!". The Fullbright Company. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  13. ↑ Interactive Story Without Challenge Mechanics: The Design of Firewatch , retrieved November 19, 2021
  14. ↑ Firewatch: Narrative Design is Game Design - Chris Remo & Arthur Protasio - BIG Festival 2018 , retrieved November 19, 2021
  15. ↑ Alexander, Julia (April 21, 2018). "Valve acquires Firewatch developer, Campo Santo". Polygon. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Chris Remo - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  17. ↑ Schafer, Tim (April 29, 2004). "SHIFTLESS LONERS, DRIFTERS TORTURED at DF". Double Fine Productions. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  18. ↑ "Unbearable OHTLTSWALTB trailer". Idle Thumbs. April 3, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  19. ↑ Priestman, Chris (September 9, 2013). "Destroy all the Erflings in veteran BioShock dev's upcoming Captain Bubblenaut". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  20. ↑ "Spacebase DF-9 Original Soundtrack". Bandcamp. October 15, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  21. ↑ Wawro, Alex (December 3, 2015). "Interactive fiction meets arcade racer: Designing Wheels of Aurelia". Gamasutra. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  22. ↑ Seamster, Jeff (December 7, 2016). "And incredible working with writers @chrisremo and @nickbreckon to bring our characters to life. <3". Twitter. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Italian Indie Studio Santa Ragione is partnering with The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild to publish 'Saturnalia', a Sardinian survival horror adventure". Gamasutra. July 19, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.