Edmund McMillen

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Edmund McMillen
Edmund McMillen - Game Developers Conference 2010 - Day 2 cropped.jpg
McMillen at Game Developers Conference in March, 2010
Born (1980-03-02) March 2, 1980 (age 34)
Santa Cruz, California
Occupation video game designer, artist
Known for Video games, comic art, Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac
Religion None[1]
Spouse(s) Danielle McMillen (2005–present)

Edmund McMillen (born March 2, 1980) is an American video game designer and artist known for his flash-game visual style.[2]

Early life[edit]

McMillen has been a lifelong resident of Santa Cruz, California.[3] He is especially fond of drawing, his favorite subjects being monsters.[3] Edmund spent most of his childhood with his grandmother, whom he considers to be the greatest source of support in his creative endeavors. Later in his life, Edmund received a box from his grandmother that contained all of his drawings as a child. Many of these drawings can be seen by unlocking The Box in one of his games, The Basement Collection.[3]

Career[edit]

McMillen's initial graphic work was in independent comics.[4][5] While he has largely abandoned this field in favor of video games, he has released a series of comics featuring Meat Boy, the title character in the video game Super Meat Boy, as a promotional tie-in for the game.[6] His most well-known games are the Flash-based game Meat Boy, and its much-lauded sequel Super Meat Boy, which has been released for the Xbox 360 platform and PC. McMillen is also known for the award-winning games Gish, Aether, The Binding of Isaac and Coil. Gish won Game Tunnel's 2004 Adventure Game of the Year, as well as Indie Game of the Year.[7][8] His game Coil was nominated for the Innovation Award at the 2009 Independent Games Festival.[9] McMillen was the original character artist and animator on Braid,[9] before those assets were replaced by the work of David Hellman.[10] Braid went on to win the Innovation Award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival prior to its release, and several awards in 2008, including GameSpot's Best Platformer,[11] and Best Original Downloadable Console Game,[12] and the 12th Annual Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Awards Casual Game of the Year.[13] His game Aether was a 2009 IndieCade finalist and received an honorable mention.[14]

Super Meat Boy[edit]

McMillen and programmer Tommy Refenes established Team Meat, an independent game production company, with the intent that they would never utilize a third-party publisher.[15] Their first game, Super Meat Boy, was released on October 20, 2010 on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade,[16] and on Valve Corporation's digital distribution system Steam on November 30, 2010.[17] A release was planned for the Nintendo Wii, but was canceled. According to Kotaku, problems arose due to the file size limitations of the Wii's WiiWare Channel.[18] A retail version of the game was released on April 5, 2011.[19] Due to Sony's initial disinterest in the game, Team Meat entered into contractual obligations that prohibit the game from being released for the Sony PS3.[20] McMillen and Refenes responded to the success of Super Meat Boy and the impossibility of a sequel in a brief statement that read, "We feel like we did it...the 1st time."[21] In the April 2011 issue of Game Developer, McMillen said that during the development of Super Meat Boy he had to go under emergency gallbladder surgery which put him $50,000 in debt because he could not afford health insurance.[22]

McMillen and Refenes' development of Super Meat Boy was featured in the film Indie Game: The Movie.

Games developed[edit]

Game Platform Release year Notes
Carious Weltling Adobe Flash 2003
Gish Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux 2004
Blast Miner Windows 2006
Triachnid Adobe Flash 2006
Cereus Peashy Adobe Flash 2007
Host Adobe Flash 2007
Guppy Adobe Flash 2007
Coil Adobe Flash 2008
Meat Boy Adobe Flash 2008
Cunt Adobe Flash 2008
Aether Adobe Flash 2008
Grey-Matter Adobe Flash 2008
Spewer Adobe Flash 2009
Time Fcuk Adobe Flash 2009
Super Meat Boy Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux, Xbox 360 2010
The Binding of Isaac Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux, Adobe Flash 2011
The Basement Collection Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux, Adobe Flash 2012
Facist Adobe Flash 2014
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita 2014
Super Meat Boy: Forever Steam, iOS, Android TBA In development
Mew-Genics Steam, iOS, Android TBA In development; currently on hold[23]

References[edit]

  1. ^ McMillen, Edmund (2012-11-25). "EdmundM.com". Retrieved 2012-11-25. i have no idea anymore, i dont believe in organized religion.. and i dont think there is a god that controls everything but id like to believe there is something after death.. i dunno what that makes me. a hopeful atheist? 
  2. ^ Toots (2008-08-08). "The Delightfully Demented World of Edmund McMillen". Gay Gamer. Retrieved 2010-12-18. Edmund McMillen splashed onto the scene with his signature art style in Gish, a side-scrolling platformer with a dementedly unique style. 
  3. ^ a b c "IndieGame: The Movie "Growing Up Edmund"". IndieGameTheMovie via YouTube. 2010-05-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  4. ^ Sikora, Drew (2008-11-10). "10 Years of Independent Art on CD from Edmund McMillen". gamedev.net. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  5. ^ timw (2008-08-28). "Interview: Edmund McMillen, Part 2". indiegames.com. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  6. ^ McElroy, Justin (2009-09-28). "Exclusive: The new Super Meat Boy comic". Joystiq. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  7. ^ "Adventure Game of the Year". =Game Tunnel. 2004-12-11. Retrieved 2010-06-17. 
  8. ^ "2004 Independent Game of the Year". Game Tunnel. 2004-12-31. Retrieved 2010-06-17. 
  9. ^ a b Caoili, Eric (2009-02-03). "Gamasutra". Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  10. ^ Hellman, David (2008-08-05). "The Art Of Braid: Creating A Visual Identity For An Unusual Game". 
  11. ^ "GameSpot's Best Games of 2008: Best Original Downloadable Console Game". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-12-25. 
  12. ^ "GameSpot's Best Games of 2008: Best Licensed Music". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-12-25. 
  13. ^ Jenkins, David (2009-02-20). "LittleBigPlanet Dominates At AIAS Awards". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2009-02-20. 
  14. ^ "IndieCade 2009 finalists". Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  15. ^ Ransom-Wiley, James (2010-10-26). "If you think Super Meat Boy is hard, try developing it". Joystiq. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  16. ^ "Super Meat Boy". xbox.com. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  17. ^ "Super Meat Boy on Steam". Steam. Retrieved 2010-12-16. 
  18. ^ McWhertor, Michael (2010-11-01). "Size Limit Spoils Super Meat Boy's November Release On WiiWare". Kotaku. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  19. ^ "Amazon.com: Super Meat Boy Ultra Edition: Video Games". amazon.com. Retrieved 2011-04-25. 
  20. ^ Sterling, Jim (2010-11-12). "No Super Meat Boy on PS3, and you can blame Sony". Destructoid. Retrieved 2010-12-17. 
  21. ^ McMillen, Edmund (2010-10-30). "No SMB 2!". Team Meat. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  22. ^ "Postmortem: Team Meat's Super Meat Boy". Gamasutra. 2011-04-14. Retrieved 2011-04-25. 
  23. ^ McMillen, Edmund (2014-08-29). "Announcing Super Meat Boy Forever!". Retrieved 2014-11-01. Mewgenics is not canceled, we just put it on hold to work full time on this one. once SMB:F is released we will hop back on it. 

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edmund McMillen.
Video games designed by Edmund McMillen
Meat Boy
Isaac
The Basement Collection
  • Aether
  • AVGM
  • Carious Weltling
  • Carious Weltling 2
  • Clubby the seal
  • Coil
  • Dumpling
  • Grey-Matter
  • Meat Boy
    • Map Pack
  • Spewer
  • Time Fcuk
  • Triachnid
Other games
  • Blast Miner
  • Cereus Peashy
  • Cunt
  • Facist
  • Gish
  • Guppy
  • Host
  • Mew-Genics
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