Jon Dean - Notes from a Video game Career

Hello!

These pages are a collection of notes about my career in the video game industry including the projects I have contributed to and/or been responsible for, to add to the video game historical record. Well, mostly. There are some other random thoughts, ramblings and rants too.

It’s not especially well organized but when I get a spare 5 mins here and there, I’m rewriting, trying to make less wordy. A good challenge for me.

I have been fortunate to have been making videogames my entire career, starting out with (the original) Atari in the early 80's in England, relocating to the USA in 1999. I have worked as a senior executive with leading publishers and developers, including Electronic Arts, Activision, Atari, Midway and most recently, Monumental. I have also been an independent developer and consultant. I have produced or otherwise contributed to more than 300 games, as well as a handful of interesting other game-adjacent activities.

Some of these games you have heard of, some were never released.  Some were truly great, and others, let's face it were turkeys.  But you know what?  I loved EVERY one of them.  You know it takes just as much effort to make a B game as a AAA, and you never start out with the intent to fail or produce something that will be just "blaaah".  

My career has been varied and fascinating, and I'm indebted to the brilliant people I have had the fortune to work with on the products that are detailed in these pages. I hope you find something useful here.

• Jon Dean