About GameDev.net
From our humble beginning in June of 1999, GameDev.net has emerged as the leading online community for game developers of all levels, from the green beginner to the seasoned industry veteran. Over 350,000 developers from around the world return here regularly to take advantage of our frequently updated developer news, thousands of articles and other resources, amazingly active forums, and most importantly to be a part of the growing international community of game developers.
GameDev.net has received accolades from numerous sources. Nearly every game development book published in the last several years praises GameDev.net as the best place on the Internet to learn about game development. We've been mentioned in many magazines and other periodicals. We've even been featured on television, being named as TechTV's Help Site of the Week in November 2000. Who is behind GameDev.net? Nowhere will you find a team of people more qualified to run a game development website than the group of people that brings you GameDev.net.
Our staff members have been producing high quality game development sites since 1996, and together we have over 30 years of website and online
community development experience. And to top off our qualifications for running the largest game development website: our staff members
have written game development books, have written numerous articles for magazines and online publications (including GDNet!),
are regular game industry event speakers, Microsoft MVP's, or simply work in the games and simulation industries. In the end it means
you get a site driven by people with the experience and knowledge to provide a quality resource for the games industry.
Almost all of the original founders of GameDev.net are still around today. Many have been drawn away from active duty as the site has grown beyond their original hobbyist dreams and slowly become a recognized entity in the game industry, but they are still contributing time and effort towards the site. As founders and owners, they retain the final say in regards to GameDev.net, and continue to oversee the development and direction of the website. Kevin "Khawk" HawkinsChairperson ten.vedemag@nivek Kevin's focus with GameDev.net is to grow, nurture, and develop GameDev.net into the central trade resource for the games industry. Outside of GameDev.net, Kevin works in the simulation and training industry as a Sr. Software Engineer responsible for creating and enhancing product technologies that enable his employer's simulation products to be developed faster and with ever-increasing capabilities. He co-authored Beginning OpenGL Game Programming, OpenGL Game Programming, and was a contributing author to Game Programming: Tricks of the Trade. Kevin earned a B.S. in Computer Science and Master's of Software Engineering from Embry-Riddle University. As a side note, Kevin played intercollegiate baseball for Embry-Riddle and was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 35th round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. "Act as if it were impossible to fail." Dave "Myopic Rhino" Astle Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson ten.vedemag@evad Dave is involved in just about everything as the CEO of GameDev.net. His primary responsibilities are community relations and content, including the articles and resources section, featured articles and columns, product review management, and the overall site design. Outside of GameDev.net, Dave has worked in the game industry for more than 5 years, and is currently working full-time as a Staff Engineer at ATI. He also edited and co-authored More OpenGL Game Programming and co-authored Beginning OpenGL Game Programming, OpenGL ES Game Development, and OpenGL Game Programming. Dave has contributed to many other books and has spoken at several industry conferences, including the Khronos OpenGL ES Series. He received his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Utah "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had to kill today because they pissed me off and also, help me to be careful of the toes I step on today, as they may be connected to the ass that I may have to kiss tomorrow." Mike Tanczos Chairperson ten.vedemag@ekim Mike provides some of the site's visual design and supports the site development group as a web programmer. Mike obtained a B.S. in Computer Science from Penn State University and is currently enrolled in the Masters of Secondary Education program at Kutztown University (math specialization). Prior to GameDev.net, Mike was the webmaster of Game Programming '9x since 1996 and ran his own company specializing in web development and hosting. He has also attained the rank of Eagle Scout from the BSA and has published chapters in books. He is currently teaching computer networking at Easton Area High School in Pennsylvania. "There are three types of people in this world.. those who can count, and those who can't." -Read it off of some website... John Munsch and Don Thorp Server Support John and Don provide server support and maintenance for GameDev.net. Operations Team Tasked with the day-to-day operations of GameDev.net, this team of staff members have all been involved with the website since its inception in the late 90's / early 21st century. Following the direction of the founders and using their own visions to help shape the site, they all work hard each and every day, striving to bring GameDev.net up out of its hobbyist roots and into the mainstream game development community.
GameDev.net Staff The hard working staff members dedicate many hours of their own time towards the success of the site. Working under the Operations Team, they carry out many of the specific tasks required for GameDev.net to function properly and efficiently in every way. In addition, many contributors also lend their time and expertise in order to make this site the great resource that it is.
Past Contributors Nick Murphy - Founder, inactive
Why was GameDev.net created? GameDev.net was created with the sole purpose of providing a public site where game developers could freely exchange information. This site isn't powered by a large corporation. It is powered by game developers, real people with real experience and education in their fields. And lastly, it is powered by you the viewer, who may some day find a topic you'd be interested in sharing with the rest of us.
What kind of information can I expect? This site contains technical articles that have been written by literally hundreds of people across the world on various topics and varying skill levels. Chances are, if you're looking for it, we have it. If we don't have it, let us know and we'll try to find someone knowledgeable in that area to write about it. This site contains news. We keep you updated on the latest happenings in the game development world. If a game development team creates a break-through technique in the far off nether regions of Siberia, disconnected from the world and surrounded by miles of nothing but ice and snow, with the only mode of travel being a pack of trained Yetti's pulling a broken-down Florida oranges crate with two brooms attached as skiis, we'll find some way to get that info to you! (okay, okay.. perhaps that's pushing it slightly, we may have trouble finding more than one Yeti). Let us put it in a different way, if it matters to you.. you'll hear about it from us. 'Nuff said. This site is about community. We do our best to make the environment friendly to all walks of life in the game development world. We're all game developers in some form.. is there anything easier to get together behind than the pursuit of creating the ultimate game? We look forward to talking with you all out in the discussion forums.
How did you create the site?
After contacting John Munsch of DevGames, the possibilities were blown into the stratosphere. Not wanting to create merely a portal page, Munsch insisted that our sites join forces to create one large site. Discussion between the people behind the sites began, quickly leading to an agreement to launch a game development site which would come to make even so-called 'mega-sites' look small. Realizing the potential of an existing Affiliate group created by Michael Tanczos, which consisted of the three previous sites and the Game Development Search Engine, Wotsit's Format, and Demonews, discussion further escalated to include those sites. This resulted in an agreement on varying levels between all the sites to assist each other in the creation of the new site, which we dubbed "GameDev.net". The domain was snatched up, and design and layout discussions began in early April. By the beginning of May, development on the site would begin at a feverish pace. Slating our original launch at June 1st, we realized that an effort of this magnitude would be impossible to achieve in that short of a time. Development would continue up to our finalized June 15th launch date. GameDev.net would undergo many changes over the next few years. We soon added several major sites to our family as hostees, including NeHe Productions, the best place on the web to learn about OpenGL, and Wotsit's File Formats. The original design, shown above, was replaced in January 2000 with GameDev.net v2. At the same time, to meet the growing popularity of our forums, we launched new forum software which we had developed in-house to be more tightly integrated with the rest of the site. A year later, the forums were updated, with a new look, new features, and numerous bug fixes. With the launch of the new forums, the staff began to look at other areas of the site that could be improved, and it became clear that a complete redesign was in order. On June 20, 2001, 5 days after our second birthday, GameDev.net v3 launched, with a new, sleeker design, featuring tight integration of all our content. What else do we have in store? You'll have to wait and see. |