PETER JOHNSON
Profile Update, June 2001
For the past six years I have been Studio Head for Rage Software's Newcastle offices, being entirely responsible for the setting up and running of the site. I am charge of a team which has grown from 3 people to its current total of 16, comprising 5 programmers, 8 artists, a game designer and a musician.
During my tenure we have produced "Expendable" for PC (Rage) and "Millennium Soldier: Expendable" for Playstation (Infogrames), "RevolutionX" for Megadrive (Acclaim), "Power Drive Rally" for the Atari Jaguar (Time Warner), converted PC "Striker" into "AYSO Soccer" for the US market (Gametek). We have also produced music and or FMV sequences for a further 6 or 7 projects within the Rage group.
My job has at various times involved creative overseeing of the projects, technical problem solving, staff recruitment and training, scheduling, writing manuals, designing missions, level editing, video scriptwriting, motion capture and everything else right through to the boring stuff like petty cash and ordering supplies.
In my time with Rage it has grown from around 18 people at their Liverpool office, with a few people working remotely from home, to a publically-listed company with over 200 development staff across 8 sites around the country and one of the largest independent software houses in Europe. "Expendable" accounted for a major part of the company profits in the 99/00 financial year due to its very healthy OEM sales (which is where a game is bundled with a hot new video card or sound card to show off its features).
We are currently working on a 3D boxing game based on the Oscar-winning "Rocky" series of movies on Xbox and PS2 platforms, which will include Stallone himself and all the recognisable characters from the films such as Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago.
List of published works as a coder: (most recent first)
AYSO SOCCER (USA adaptation of PC game)
GAMETEK (PC)
POWER DRIVE RALLY
RAGE/TIME WARNER (Atari Jaguar)
MORPH
MAXIS (Megadrive)
MORPH
MILLENNIUM (CD32 / A1200 / Amiga)
WINTER SUPERSPORTS (3 events)
FLAIR (Amiga / Atari ST)
ROBOCOP
OCEAN (Amiga / Atari ST)
DALEY'S OLYMPIC CHALLENGE (3 events)
OCEAN (Amiga / Atari ST)
ARKANOID 2: REVENGE OF DOH
IMAGINE (Amiga/Atari ST)
WIZBALL
OCEAN (Amiga / Atari ST)
ARKANOID
IMAGINE (BBC Micro)
ARKANOID
IMAGINE (Atari ST)
YIE AR KUNG FU II
IMAGINE (BBC Micro / Electron)
IMPOSSIBLE MISSION
US GOLD (BBC Micro / Electron)
CRYSTAL CASTLES
US GOLD (BBC Micro / Electron)
MIKIE
IMAGINE (BBC Micro / Electron)
YIE AR KUNG FU
IMAGINE (BBC Micro / Electron)
BEACH HEAD
US GOLD (BBC Micro / Electron)
DEATHSTAR
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro / Electron)
SPITFIRE COMMAND
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro)
STAR BATTLE
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro)
AIRLIFT
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro)
SPACE PILOT
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro)
STAR WARP
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro)
WALLABY
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro)
OVERDRIVE
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro / Electron)
Q*BERT
SUPERIOR (BBC Micro)
LIGHT CYCLES
BYTEWARE (BBC Micro)
As a musician:
UP COUNTRY
Beginning and end title music and stings for a programme which ran for three 17-week series for Tyne Tees TV.
THE SPIRAL CAGE
Soundtrack for a 30 minute documentary for Tyne Tees TV.
<UNTITLED>
Title music for Sky Sport's judo world championships coverage for Sky Television/Eurosport.
NORTH BY NORTH WEST
9 minutes of soundtrack music and title graphics for a broadcast documentary for the Discovery Channel.
THE POWER AND THE CHOICE
For Christian Aid/Jean Hicks Associates. 12 minutes of soundtrack music for a film used to highlight the plight of third world economies.
DORADO
For Fred Bear Productions. Soundtrack and dialogue for a 9 minute feature film pilot (which was used as a calling card to get several of the directors mentioned above their break).
I also did music for a number of sell-through videos: "Adonis - the Men of Hollywood" (a "Chippendales"-type video), "Ghosts" presented by Christopher Lee, a pair of exercise videos presented by Maggie Philbin, and an exercise program presented by Gina Bellman (from "Blackeyes" and "Coupling".)
http://www.stairwaytohell.com