Edmund McMillen

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Edmund McMillen
Born March 2, 1980 (1980-03-02) (age 31)
Santa Cruz, California
Occupation Video game designer, Co-CEO of Team Meat
Known for Video games, comic art, Super Meat Boy
Spouse Danielle McMillen (2005–present)

Edmund McMillen is an American video game designer known for his unique visual style[1] and his emphasis on careful level design and rewarding difficulty curves.[2]

Contents

[edit] Early life

McMillen has been a lifelong resident of Santa Cruz, California.[3] In spite of the city's scenic attraction, he preferred to stay in-doors. He was especially fond of drawing, his favorite subjects being monsters.[3] Some of his drawings were deemed so disturbing that his third grade teacher recommended that he be given a psychological evaluation. Edmund spent most of his childhood with his grandmother, whom he considers to be the greatest source of support in his creative endeavors.[3]

[edit] Career

McMillen's initial graphic work was in independent comics.[4][5] While he has largely abandoned this field in favor of video games, he recently 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 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]

[edit] Super Meat Boy

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 site Steam on November 30, 2010.[17] A release is planned for the Nintendo Wii, but has been delayed 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 programmer Tommy Refenes recently responded to the success of Super Meat Boy and the impossibility of 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 (magazine), McMillen admitted 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]

[edit] Games developed

Game Platform Release date
Gish Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux 2004
Blast Miner Microsoft Windows 2006
Triachnid Flash 2006
Carious Weltling Flash 2006
Cereus Peashy Flash 2007
Host Flash 2007
Guppy Flash 2007
Coil Flash 2008
Meat Boy Flash 2008
Cunt Flash 2008
Aether Flash 2008
Grey-Matter Flash 2008
Spewer Flash 2009
Time Fcuk Flash 2009
Super Meat Boy Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Mac OS X, Linux 2010
The Binding of Isaac Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux 2011

[edit] References

  1. ^ Toots (2008-08-08). "The Delightfully Demented World of Edmund McMillen". Gay Gamer. http://gaygamer.net/2006/08/the_delightfully_demented_worl.html. 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."" 
  2. ^ McMillen, Edmund (2010-04-21). "Super Meat Boy's McMillen Explains 'Why So Hard?'". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28150/Super_Meat_Boys_McMillen_Explains_Why_So_Hard.php. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  3. ^ a b c "IndieGame: The Movie "Growing Up Edmund"". IndieGameTheMovie via YouTube. 2010-05-18. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpnUIyAk498. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  4. ^ Sikora, Drew (2008-11-10). "10 Years of Independent Art on CD from Edmund McMillen". gamedev.net. http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=514436. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  5. ^ timw (2008-08-28). "Interview: Edmund McMillen, Part 2". indiegames.com. http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2008/08/interview_edmund_mcmillen_part.html. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  6. ^ McElroy, Justin. "Exclusive: The new Super Meat Boy comic". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/28/exclusive-the-new-super-meat-boy-comic/. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  7. ^ "Adventure Game of the Year". =Game Tunnel. 2004-12-11. http://www.gametunnel.com/html/section-viewarticle-66.html. Retrieved 2010-06-17. 
  8. ^ "2004 Independent Game of the Year". Game Tunnel. 2004-12-31. http://www.gametunnel.com/html/section-viewarticle-74.html. Retrieved 2010-06-17. 
  9. ^ a b Caoili, Eric (2009-02-03). "Gamasutra". http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22106. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  10. ^ Hellman, David (2008-08-05). ""The Art Of Braid: Creating A Visual Identity For An Unusual Game"". http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3753/the_art_of_braid_creating_a_.php?page=4. 
  11. ^ "GameSpot's Best Games of 2008: Best Original Downloadable Console Game". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/special-achievement/index.html?page=9. Retrieved 2008-12-25. 
  12. ^ "GameSpot's Best Games of 2008: Best Licensed Music". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/special-achievement/index.html?page=14. Retrieved 2008-12-25. 
  13. ^ Jenkins, David (2009-02-20). "LittleBigPlanet Dominates At AIAS Awards". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22406. Retrieved 2009-02-20. 
  14. ^ "IndieCade 2009 finalists". http://www.indiecade.com/index.php?/games/. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  15. ^ Ransom-Wiley, James (2010-10-26). "If you think Super Meat Boy is hard, try developing it". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/26/if-you-think-super-meat-boy-is-hard-try-developing-it/. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  16. ^ "Super Meat Boy". xbox.com. http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Super-Meat-Boy/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a5a. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  17. ^ "Super Meat Boy on Steam". Steam. http://store.steampowered.com/app/40800/. Retrieved 2010-12-16. 
  18. ^ McWhertor, Micheal (2010-11-01). "Size Limit Spoils Super Meat Boy's November Release On WiiWare". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5678896/size-limit-spoils-super-meat-boys-november-release-on-wiiware. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  19. ^ "Amazon.com: Super Meat Boy Ultra Edition: Video Games". amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Super-Meat-Boy-Ultra-Pc/dp/B004NS77OM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303739583&sr=8-1. Retrieved 2011-04-25. 
  20. ^ Sterling, Jim (2010-11-12). "No Super Meat Boy on PS3, and you can blame Sony". Destructoid. http://www.destructoid.com/no-super-meat-boy-on-ps3-and-you-can-blame-sony-187645.phtml. Retrieved 2010-12-17. 
  21. ^ McMillen, Edmund (2010-10-30). "No SMB 2!". Team Meat. http://supermeatboy.com/52/No_SMB_2_/#b. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  22. ^ "Postmortem: Team Meat's Super Meat Boy". Gamasutra. 2011-04-14. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6348/postmortem_team_meats_super_meat_.php. Retrieved 2011-04-25. 

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