About
(The next part should probably be first, not because it’s significant for you to read, but because it becomes significant if the appropriate people do not read it…)
(Non-)Standard Boilerplate Disclaimer
I’m part of a team, and it’s a great team. One of the things that makes it a great team is that there are so many wildly divergent viewpoints and ideas, and rather than being forced to accept the ideas of a few, everyone is encouraged to share their unique visions and feedback, and each person’s ideas are valued pretty much equally. Sometimes this can feel like a 50-way tug-of-war, but ultimately it helps us explore the space of game design to find the best design possible.
So it should follow that the opinions expressed on this website are purely my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my team or my employer, any of its subsidiary or affiliated companies, or its employees, officers, directors, or shareholders.
About Me
Where do I start? Figuring out which events of one’s life are worth noting is not an easy task. I could just write a CV, but I don’t believe that people should be defined solely by what they do for work. Let’s see…
When I was 6, I sold lemonade on the corner of my street so that I could buy a videogame system. Now I make videogames so that I can buy lemonade. And because I like games. Mostly.
I studied Computer Science (among other things) at the University Michigan. While I was there, I was the president of Wolverine Soft, a student game-development group that I helped build into the organized, active group it is today.
I worked breifly at Image Space Inc, a small, independent game studio in Ann Arbor, doing some programming on their self-published racing simulation game, rFactor, before moving out to San Francisco to work at EA/Maxis. Thus far I have worked on several The Sims titles for PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. I am currently working on a little game called Spore.
About My Interests
I like many different types of games, but especially those that are particularly experimental or exhibit emergent behavior. “Emergent” in this case indicates “interesting, unexpected behavior, resulting from a complex system of simple rules”. It is important to note the difference between this, and “irritating, unexpected behavior, resulting from a complex system of simple rules”, which are normally referred to as “bugs”.
I also enjoy exploring the boundaries of art, music, and games. That, to some extent, is the purpose of this site–to share my random, marginally-related musings on such topics with the random, marginally-related people that populate the internet. Namely, you.
I listen to a lot of music. Mostly punk, metal, jazz, indie, electronic, hip hip, and folk. Mostly…
About You
Now that I’ve told you something about myself, you should tell me something about you. This will help us, if we ever meet in real life, to avoid the usual awkward social situation that accompanies a one-way flow of personal information to anonymous parties. You know the one. It happens to me all the time when I meet game designers, writers, musicians, artists, bloggers, etc.
me: “I feel like I’ve known you for years.”
them: “Who are you and what have you done with my bodyguard?”
Okay, maybe I made that last part up. But you know what I’m talking about. So go on, send me an email. Tell me what you’ve been playing or listening to, or what your favorite color is, or about the time you rode your bike cross-country to return the love/sentimental trinket/small kitten of your (non-gender-specific) crush. I’ve got a pretty good memory; I’ll remember it. Here’s my address:
akerfoot@boxbe.com
(don’t be surprised if it asks you something to verify that you are not the wife of a deposed Nigerian dictator.)