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About Us
We are a UK based Flash games development team specialising in producing quality 2D games - kind of like the Three Stooges, but with joypads. We primarily develop for Flash, but have experience with iPhone and XBLA dev.
As three refugees from the mobile and handheld gaming industry, meeting during the halcyon days of IOMO (a developer held in high regard), we quickly formed a mutal dislike and distrust of each other. This formed the basis of our working relationship, and assured us that we would be bitter enemies in the years to come.
Armed only with a determination that we could do better than most of what was around, Megadev was formed in August 2008, after layoffs left us staring the dole in the face. So, now we've put our bank balances, reputations, and sanity on the line, come walk with we three fools...
The Team
Mike Tucker
Principal design and programming
Influential Games:
This is so difficult for me - I couldn't possibly pick a top 10 as I've played so many fantastic games over the years across just about every format, so here's a few of my favourites although I've no doubt missed out a few.Initial D Arcade Stage, version 3 (Sega, ARC) Street Fighter II Champion Edition (Capcom, ARC) Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting (Capcom, Super Famicom) Starflight (Binary Systems / EA, PC) The Bard's Tale (Interplay, PC) DND (RO Software, PC) Rogue (Ken Arnold, PC) Do Don Pachi (Cave, ARC) Circuit's Edge (Westwood Studios, PC) Biohazard (Capcom, PSX) Daytona (Sega, ARC) Sega Rally 1 and 2 (Sega, ARC) Ridge Racer (Namco, PSX) Pilot Wings (Nintendo, Super Famicom) Virtua Fighter 2 (Sega, Saturn) Tatsujin (Toaplan, Megadrive) Tatsujin Oh (Toaplan, FM Towns) Thunderforce III (Technosoft, Megadrive) Castlevania, Symphony Of The Night (Konami, PSX) Super Metroid (Nintendo, Super Famicom) Elite (Firebird, PC) Star Control 2 (Toys for Bob / Accolade, PC) Pool Of Radiance (SSI, PC) Eye Of The Beholder (SSI, PC) Dungeon Master (FTL, Atari ST) Driller (Freescape, PC) King Of Fighters '96 (SNK, Neo Geo) Ghostbusters (Activision, C64) Descent (Parallax, PC) Unreal Tournament (Epic Games / Digital Extremes, PC) Ultima V (Origin Systems, PC) Psi-5 Trading Company (Accolade, PC)
Other stuff I does:
Five-a-side football, bird spotting, Japan.More stuff about me:
My earliest memory of video games was playing classics like Xevious, Nemesis and Sinistar on family holidays in Cornwall - the golden era! I'm not so keen on playing games these days but really enjoy making them - I blame that on having spent several years employed as a games tester!Nick Parton
Music/SFX and additional design
Influential Games:
Whether they are influences on the art I do, or the music I do, one thread ties them together - they are all bloody great. The End.
Creatures 1+2 (Thalamus, C64) Paradroid (Hewson, C64) Silent Hill 2+3 (Konami, PS2) Zelda III: A Link To The Past/Zelda IV: Link's Awakening(Nintendo, SNES) Exile (Superior, BBC) Zork I (Infocom, C64) Streets of Rage 2 (SEGA, Megadrive) Turrican 1+2 (Rainbow Arts, C64) Okami (Capcom, PS2) Micro Machines V3 (Codemasters, PS1) Resident Evil 2 (Sony, PS1) Ico (Sony, PS2) Shadow of the Colossus (Sony, PS2) The Sentinel (Firebird, C64) Super Mario Kart (Nintendo, SNES) Head Over Heels (Ocean, C64) Bubble Bobble (Taito, C64) Sonic 2 (Sega, Megadrive) R-Type (Irem, Arcade) Gynoug (Sega, Megadrive) Deus Ex (Eidos, Mac) Strider (Capcom, Arcade) Flashback (US Gold, Megadrive) Street Fighter 2 Turbo (Capcom, SNES) StarFox (Nintendo, SNES) Monty On The Run (Gremlin, C64) Golden Axe (Sega, Arcade) Ecco The Dolphin (Sega, Megadrive) Starfox (Nintendo, SNES) Resident Evil 2 (Capcom, PSX) Final Fight (Capcom, Arcade)
Other stuff I does:
My band Fine Excuses, producing other people's stuff, the solitude of the Great Outdoors, Ultimate Frisbee, reading books I barely understand, swearing, utter clumsiness.Oh cashew nuts, how do I love thee?
Let me count the extra kilograms on the scale.Jon Davies
Art and additional design
Influential Games:
Lots of games influence the stuff I do in different ways - whether they are primarily cutscene-driven, edge-of-your-seat storytelling or played purely to be ripped apart for their succulent gameplay, we can learn a lot about games we've all grown up with.It's no secret I'm a Nintendo nut, and the Mario and Zelda series have been especially influential to me both graphically and gameplay-wise (particularly Yoshi's Island, Ocarina of Time/Link To The Past, and Mario Galaxy). I am also a big fan of Capcom's Mega Man series, especially the original series (MM1-9) and the "X" series up to X4 (X5, X6, and X7 were big piles of poo-poo). Pokemon is a guilty pleasure of mine and if nothing else they are excellent examples of how a game can have nearly infinite replay value long, long, LONG after the main quest has been finished, with a deceptively well-designed battle system customized to the player's likes and dislikes. Square-Enix's 16-bit games provide amazing examples of pixel art from which I have taken inspiration, with additional mention to the utterly beautiful Playstation game Legend of Mana. The Castlevania series, House of the Dead series, Metroid series, Monkey Island 1 & 2, Resident Evil... the list goes on.
Other stuff I does:
Drawing/3D modelling for my own pursuits, swimming, long walks, funding a pinball and arcade addiction, reading Terry Pratchett books, playing games most people finished years ago.If you wanted to fight anyone in the world right now who would it be and would you win?
Matt Bishop from my old uni course, and probably not. I hope he doesn't read this though.Extra Bits
THE ROUNDTABLE
Bored of us yet? Me too. But still, here's a roundtable recording we did back in October 2008, discussing games that had a big effect on the way we make them nowadays. The recording quality is awful, and so is the conversation, but on the upside, it's overlong! Enjoy.