Ah, another visitor! Stay awhile … staaaaaay FOREVER! Hahahaaaa!!!
My name is Steffen Itterheim, i’m a professional computer game developer since 1999. I live in Ingelheim near Mainz, Germany, Europe, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Cluster, Universe. I was born in 1975 and I’m still alive.
In September 2009 my 7 year long employment at Electronic Arts Phenomic came to an end. I am now working as a freelancer and with a focus on iPhone game development. If you might have work for me or are generally curious, please visit my professional application sites on GameToolDeveloper.com and its german version at SteffenItterheim.de to learn more about my services, skills and references.
At EA Phenomic i worked on all SpellForce titles and BattleForge – a Trading Card Realtime Strategy game.
In my previous job at NEON Studios (re-founded as keen games) i worked on a series of Gameboy titles. My most beloved project to date is still Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX – it’s the only title i’m credited as Game Designer. During production i also scripted the frontend and ingame menus.
Before my professional career i have been a hobby developer since around 1993, creating FAQs, Tools and Levels for FPS games beginning with DooM. Some might still remember me as “DooM Addict” or “Duke Addict” (with weird characters – of course!) on Compuserve where i’ve been with Action Games and later as SysOp in the Apogee/3D Realms forum. I’ve also done beta-testing on Shadow Warrior and Balls of Steel for them – for the latter title i held the worldwide highscore in the Shareware table for around 6 months after it came out. My first experiences in Level Design and modding go back even further to Emerald Mine (Amiga) Level Design and Railroad Tycoon (Amiga) modding.
My main interest is, of course, games. Both developing and playing them. I consider myself a maturing hardcore gamer, i am obsessionate about some games but also generally trying out a lot of different titles I can get my hands on. While at heart still looking for that deep hardcore experience i more and more appreciate accessible games and there’s really not much of those that blend hardcore game mechanics with accessibility and immediate fun, so most of the time i just stick to FPS and soccer games as preferred time-wasters errr … entertainment.
If you’d ask me what interests me besides the obvious (Games, Programming) and the normal (TV, Books, Sports) i would have to say that i’m pretty much fascinated by anything that is beyond our Earth (aka Astronomy), especially Black Holes are intriguing. I admire Steven Hawkings and the Ice Road Truckers – a great show for hot summer days!
Occassionally i also write what i would call “Crapoetry”. Crappy Poetry. In german. Don’t bother telling me that my poetry sucks. I know it! I’ve been told. Still, ocassionally i write crappy poetry about … love, life and crap. Now leave me alone!
Why Gaming Horror?
This blog isn’t so much about horror games but rather the horrors in game making and playing. That and of course the affiliation (if only in name) with my role-model blog from Jeff Atwood: Coding Horror. The Coding Horror logo is an illustration in Steve McConnell‘s book Code Complete, to warn about dangerous coding practices or mistakes. Applying this to games and game development the Gaming Horror blog should be about dangerous gaming or game development practices, and obvious design mistakes. But of course my blog deviates from that just as much as Jeff’s blog deviates from terrible coding practices – heck, he even throws in good advice here and there – for example how to achieve ultimate blog success – which got mine started in the first place.
The usual disclaimer:
All views and opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect the views and opinions of the company i currently work for, or any company i have worked for in the past. If you ever quote me and making it sound like “Company X says so”, you are hereby legally obliged to install the following virus on every computer you own now and in the future:
Of course you’ll have to program it first.
[...] About Me [...]
Hi Steffen,
I was hoping to get a company listed in your http://www.gaminghorror.net/indie-game-developer-resources/ page under E-Commerce & Software Submission & Sponsorship, Marketing.
The website is http://www.firstatlanticcommerce.com/
If you could get back to me and let me know if this is possible it would be very much appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Neil