All Roads Lead To Rome: An alternate Take on Indie Development

SUBOTRON pro games powered by Wirtschaftskammer Wien

Barry Meade
Commercial Director Fireproof Studios, Guildford UK

The Fireproof-team of 17 has been creating their own games since 2012, beginning with the multi-award winning iOS, Android & PC game ?The Room?, followed by the critically acclaimed iOS, Android & PC title ?The Room Two? and ?The Room Three? for iOS & Android. Fireproofs Virtual Reality Jetpack game ?Omega Agent? is available for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift & Samsung Gear VR.
In his talk, Barry will give a brief history of himself and then speak about the formation of Fireproof: their early careers at Criterion Games making the ?Burnout? games and leaving to form Fireproof as a work for hire art team. About creating ?The Room? series of games: How the original idea came about, and how that changed over development time. He will speak of ?The Rooms? early reception & sales, and finally will talk about what it means to be a developer & why we all do this work.

After the talk:
Panel with Denis Mikan (Co-Founder of kunabi brother) and Helmut Hutterer (Ex-Socialspiel) about the current state and future of indie game development.
Moderation: Robert Glashüttner (ORF/FM4)

Biography
Barry Meade?s career started in Dublin, Ireland in 1992 working on health related ?edutainment? titles for SNES, AMIGA and PC. In early 1994 he moved to the UK to join Bullfrog Productions Ltd. where he spent his time as a lead designer and artist/animator on titles such as ?Magic Carpet 1 & 2?, ?Syndicate Wars?, ?Dungeon Keeper? and many others. Over the next ten years Barry worked for various studios as a game designer (Acclaim Teesside, Negative Productions, Mucky Foot) before being hired as a character artist by Criterion Studios in 2004 working on ?BLACK? and subsequently ?Burnouts 3?, ?4? and ?Paradise?. In 2008 Barry and five friends left Criterion to form Fireproof Studios, which went on to create the 10m selling game series ?The Room? for Mobile & PC.