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Joe Sparks (video game developer)

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Joe Sparks is an American video game developer, animator, songwriter, web publisher, and multimedia consultant from San Francisco, California. He is also a loving husband and father of his two children: Maxim Sparks and Samuel Sparks, and his wife Johanan Sparks.

He is best known for his Flash animation and video games. His Radiskull and Devil Doll cartoons were an internet craze in 2000-2001. His pioneering games Total Distortion and the classic Mac adventure game Spaceship Warlock won much acclaim.

Career

Joe Sparks is a former guitarist of the iconic Californian deathrock band Burning Image. As an original member of the band, he did attend reunion shows.

Joe Sparks was an early employee of Paracomp, which had become Macromedia in 1992.[1] He left to found Pop Rocket, which produced the critically acclaimed video game Total Distortion, to moderate success.[2] Pop Rocket folded in 1995, with Sparks returning to Macromedia in 1997 as a creative developer.

Sparks was instrumental in the formation and lasting success of shockwave.com, most especially because of the popularity of Radiskull and Devil Doll. He created all the graphics, programming, and animation, as well as wrote and recorded all the music.

A pioneer of the interactive web, Joe Sparks has been asked to speak at industry conferences and educational events. He continues to publish various media on his website, joesparks.com, and works as a consultant and contractor for development and design.

References

  1. ^ "Bio". joesparks.com. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  2. ^ Total Distortion page