Ken Harward

Developer BIO

I was born during a torrential downpour, that started the flood of '67, at around 2am off the side off Interstate 101 somewhere south of Giftwood. My Dad was driving a '66 Chevy and had lost sense of reality trying to get to the hospital in time. The highway troopers told my father he had to have been doing over 100 when the tire blew to have ended up that far on the other side of the highway. We hit the guard-rail head on and my mother flew through the windshield cause she had chosen not to wear a seatbelt. She gave birth in mid-air.

I awoke 7 feet in the air in the freezing rain. Mom and I flew around 300ft before sliding through mud and guck. The cord broke somewhere mid-flight. I don't remember any of this of course, but my father said he can still remember those few seconds he crawled out of the car before the gas tank exploded. I think that would have been the end of it but Mom got bit by a scorpion and my older sister was kidnapped. Mom and Dad stopped smuggling russian peasants that same year.

Anywho, I had a pretty dull childhood.

There is a statue outside the house I grew up in. It isn't very big. It's all I could afford. The owners of the house, who seem rather petty, have threatened a lawsuit if I drag it there again.

From age 5 to 15 things went along smoothly. I still think that girl's arm would have grown back. The only oddity being my left leg was twisted backwards (this is actually true. Heck lets start a trend.) My mother was scared to death I'd be short because when I got diabetes the doctor's told her it would stunt my growth. Went I went home for the summer after my junior year of highschool, I was 5'4". I'm 6'4" now so what did he know.

I left home and joined a small band of aliens. Except it turns out they weren't aliens at all, but rather three runaway nuns from the 'vent. I called it a convent but they always called it the 'vent. I think they smoked a lot. We hijacked four planes that summer, flying all over the world. I'll never forget the time Sister Mary Anne did barrel rolls in the Presidential Jet. Reagan loved it!

We ended up forming a cult and holding a series of mass suicides. 'Cept we didn't drink the cool-aid, you know what I'm saying? I think we got rid of most of rural Iowa that year. I ended up getting bored with the massive parties and went to school at Purdue, getting a degree in Computer Science and following it up with a degree in English.

I headed down to Texas. Stevie Ray and I never met, but I bet we would have gotten along great. Instead, I went to work for a super-computer company and started down the path towards mid-life crisis.

Fortunately, sanity prevailed after 9 years. I joined a small start-up Telecom company and helped build their real-time embedded operating system. That was a blast and if you ever get the chance, take home Swedish twins.

I had a chance once, in a hotel room in Chicago after a night of steak and wine. Well they weren't twins. Nor swedish. Ah nevermind.

From there I joined a game company, having now wasted some 10 years programming professionally without once writing a random number generator. Can't have that. I took a job at Motorsims and co-designed and developed their core architecture while leading a Trans-Am Racing game. But car's aren't my thing, what with the birth incident, and so realized my true calling.

Ritual. I'm excited to be here.

After the departure of Steve Nix, Tom Mustaine and John Schuch, Ken Harward becomes Ritual's new Studio Director.

Ken co-founded a game company with Brian Eiserloh called TrueThought in August 2008.

Websites

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Games Credited

7 Wonders II (2007), MumboJumbo, LLC
Luxor 3 (2007), MumboJumbo, LLC
Medal of Honor: Airborne (2007), Electronic Arts, Inc.
The Office (2007), MumboJumbo, LLC
25 to Life (2006), Eidos Interactive Ltd.
SiN Episodes: Emergence (2006), Valve Corporation
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004), Sierra Entertainment, Inc.
Half-Life: Counter-Strike (2003), Microsoft Games Studios
Star Trek: Elite Force II (2003), Activision Publishing, Inc.