- Rich Whitehouse
Infobox Person
name = Rich Whitehouse
image_size = 200px
birth_date = Birth date and age|1982|09|20
birth_place =Harvard, Illinois
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Video game designerRich Whitehouse is a game designer and
programmer . He is well-known for several famousgame mod ifications, [Mods of notoriety: [http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/old/jumblow.shtml Jumbot] , [http://www.moddb.com/mods/2485/scientist-hunt Scientist Hunt] , [http://www.moddb.com/mods/3189/ninja-mod Ninja Mod] , [http://jediknight3.filefront.com/file/;69338 Hydroball] ] including theJumbot andScientist Hunt mods for Half-Life. Rich is also well-known in thevideo game industry for work on titles in the Jedi Knight series (such as , in cooperation withLucasArts ) and Soldier of Fortune series, as well as, most recently, Prey. [ [http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/resume.htm Rich Whitehouse's resumé] , [http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/by_genre/developerId,59779/ Rich Whitehouse] onMobyGames , [http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/data/516547.html Jedi Knight II credits] onGameFAQs , [http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/data/914574.html Jedi Academy credits] onGameFAQs , [http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/data/477504.html Soldier of Fortune II credits] onGameFAQs , [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/data/928189.html Prey credits] onGameFAQs , [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/data/914645.html X-Men Legends credits] onGameFAQs ]Development History
Game Modding
Rich first became publicly involved in
game development in December of 1997, with hisFamkebot mod, the first bot forQuake 2 . [ [http://www.bluesnews.com/archives/dec97-2.html Blue's News Archives] , "It sounds like there are still a lot of kinks in it, but it is still first, I'm talking about The Famkebot, which is the first bot for Quake II that I've heard of."] Rich continued periodic development of theFamkebot for several years, eventually offering a complete rewrite of the source code, and aCapture the Flag version of the bot.After work on the
Famkebot , Rich continued on to work with Half-Life to create theJumbot andScientist Hunt . Rich continued development of these projects for roughly 2 years, offering a variety of improvements and new features in each release of the software.In May of 2000, Rich contacted
Raven Software about writing a bot for Soldier of Fortune. Studio head Brian Raffel requested that Rich come to the studio to meet the developers of the game and look at the preliminary game source code distribution, and development was underway shortly thereafter. Development of the bot, named hidebot (after Japanese rock starHideto Matsumoto ), eventually led to its distribution at retail, with the release of Soldier of Fortune Gold. Rich began fulltime work atRaven Software shortly after the release of Soldier of Fortune Gold.During his career in game modding, Rich also contributed to other community efforts, such as
Action Half-Life , and did several community interviews. [ [http://www.soldier-of-fortune.com/twisted2.shtml Rich Whitehouse Interview] with soldier-of-fortune.com, [http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/11461 Rich Whitehouse Interview] with Bot Epidemic, [http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=7757 Rich Whitehouse Interview] with Stomped, [http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/fullstory.php?id=91025 Rich Whitehouse Interview] with Sniper's Alley]Raven Software
Rich started working full-time in the
video game industry atRaven Software , at only 18 years of age, with no formal training or experience beyond his history ingame mod ifications. Rich first worked onSoldier of Fortune 2 under the supervision of game programmer Keith Fuller, and moved on to theStar Wars game, , shortly after. In addition to handlingmultiplayer game logic, networking, and integrating single player technology features into themultiplayer code-base, Rich also focussed a great deal on keeping the game code mod-friendly, and creating simplistic and easy-to-work-with interfaces, which contributed to the game's extreme longevity in support from its mod community. [ [http://jediknight3.filefront.com/ Jedi Knight Files] ] Rich was also responsible for the unauthorized inclusion of a secretDarth Maul -style double-endedlightsaber in the game, an act which nearly led to an early termination of his employment.Fact|date=May 2008Following the success of , Rich continued on to serve as the
multiplayer programmer on . Rich continued his focus on mod-friendliness, and worked closely with programmer Mike Gummelt and designer Mike Majernik in conceptualizing and implementing new gameplay elements.Rich moved on to
X-Men Legends after the successful completion of Jedi Academy. However, citing the desire to move more into technology and expand his knowledge, he resigned from his position atRaven Software before the completion ofX-Men Legends . In the time following this period, Rich dabbled in development for theGameboy Advance , as well as development of an OpenGL-based game engine. [ [http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/resume.htm Rich Whitehouse's Resumé] , see History, 2004-2005]Human Head Studios
Rich began working at
Human Head Studios in 2005, where he served as network and general technology programmer on Prey. Rich once again served a design role in multiplayer development, in addition to his technological duties, organizing in-house testing and feedback sessions. [ [http://www.3drealms.com/news/2006/04/prey_weekly_dev_14.html Prey Weekly Development Update #14] ] After the completion of Prey, Rich left his full-time position atHuman Head Studios , to once again pursue personal interests and further development of his own technology. However, he remained on the3D Realms forums, where he was often seen assisting users with technical problems. [ [http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/member.php?u=8471 Rich Whitehouse] on the3D Realms Forums]After his departure, Rich returned to
Human Head Studios the following year to assist in the development of technology for an unannounced title. Rich writes that his contributions to this title include robusttexture streaming (with real-time texel area determination), hardwarevertex blending /animation, and shadowmaps with dynamic frustum grouping/LOD. [ [http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/resume.htm Rich Whitehouse's Resumé] , see History, 2007-2008] Following the completion of this technology, Rich leftHuman Head Studios again.Industry Interim
During his professional career in the
video game industry , Rich has continued to producefreeware and games in his spare time. Especially notable among these projects areHydroball ,Ninja Mod ,Dixerius , andQuake Royale . [ [http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/ Rich's Project Warehouse] ]Additionally, Rich is known for having created
Nintendo DS ports ofHexen and aNES emulator . [ [http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/09/nes-and-snes-emulators-for-the-nintendo-ds/ engadget reports on NesterDS] ]Personal life
Rich began game development at a very early age, and was involved in a
Duke Nukem 3D Total Conversion called Unleashed in his very early teen years. Rich washomeschooled through the majority of middleschool and highschool, and has stated that he believes the resulting extreme social isolation and lack of formal teaching is a primary cause of his unusual personality.Fact|date=May 2008Rich was involved in the foundation of a superficial
Skull and Bones organization, known only as "#mm", before his professional career began. This group consisted of some 30 or so social miscreantsFact|date=August 2008, and was abandoned by Rich during a struggle with depression and transition in his personal ideology. The group continues to operate in varying forms. [ [http://johnnythemidget.com/hateportal.php #mm Cam Portal] ]Since the
GPL release of theQuake 3 source code, Rich has been on a personal crusade to see the engine source released underGPL . However, his attempts to reach through toLucasArts have not yielded success, in part due to a lack of community support. [ [http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/ Rich's Project Warehouse] , news posting on 04-17-07]References
External links
* [http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/ Rich's Project Warehouse]
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