Who am I?
I’m Alex Amsel and newretro.org is the home for my articles about social media, indie game development, and any other rants. At least that was the original plan; these days I generally mini-blog on Twitter instead.
I’m a digital media, social media, and games consultant; producer, BAFTA member and sometime software engineer. I also continue to run Tuna, an independent game developer I opened back in 1996 when the Internet was 33k baud if you were lucky.
The CV
I’ve worked on over 70 titles across mobile, on-line and console platforms. I’ve produced products based upon several major international brands, from the world famous Family Guy to indie hit Alien Hominid, worked with TV commissioners on both games and social media, and spoken at many events.
My clients, publishers, and partners include many of the major companies within the game industry as well as in the wider media community.
I focus on innovation and collaboration, particularly in a cross platform sense where Technology meets Media meets Art meets Users. Emphasis on the latter; take note please media producers, distributors, and technology companies.
History
I’ve been developing games commercially since 1995, but I’ve been writing them since I was an ickle 9 year old with a BBC Model B. I started independent developer Tuna in 1996 soon after leaving university with an AI degree. Tuna are still going to this day. So are my two Amiga computers.
The Future
My wish is to help designers and developers innovate in a commercially viable way, without having to sell their soul or seeing their dreams dashed. Not everyone can succeed, but much can be learned and enjoyed simply by making the journey.
Why newretro.org?
There is something interesting about taking old ideas and finding new ways to explore them. That could be anything from porting retro games to new hardware, or creating a fully fledged console game where all the artwork is physically modeled and animated using classic stop motion techniques. Whatever it is, there is always something to be learned about the future from the past. If only my history teacher had explained this then I wouldn’t have come bottom in my history classes due to utter disinterest!
New Retro™ – the reworking of old concepts within a contemporary context. Sort of.
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