Michael Stout

Developer BIO

Mike Stout began his humble career in the video games industry as a single-celled organism. After a laborious process of evolution over billions of years he got a job at Insomniac Games as its first in-house Game Tester on it's first Playstation 2 game Ratchet & Clank.

Evolving quickly to "Lead Tester," a grand feat given that he was the ONLY tester, he was soon given design-related "opportunity assignments" that allowed him to evolve further into a role as a Junior Designer. From there evolution proceeded rather rapidly, as over the course of 3 sequels (Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, and Ratchet: Deadlocked) he got the coveted position of "Lead Multiplayer Designer" on Insomniac Games' Playstation 3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man.

After completing Resistance. Mike said his fond farewells to Insomniac and accepted a position and Obsidian Entertainment as Lead Level Designer on their upcoming RPG in the Aliens franchise.

In late 2007, Mike was offered (and accepted) the position of Creative Director at startup developer Bionic Games on an unannounced title.

Mike enjoys long walks on the beach, video games, and incredibly long design documents.

Also Known As

• Mike Stout

Websites

• On Game Design -- Mike Stout's blog, "On Game Design." Content includes periodic articles about his musings on game design, as well as a weekly interactive story.

Games Credited

Gears of War 2 (2008), Microsoft Games Studios
Gears of War 2 (Limited Edition) (2008), Microsoft Games Studios
Resistance: Fall of Man (2006), Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated
Ratchet: Deadlocked (2005), Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (2004), Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.
America's Army: Special Forces (2003), U.S. Army
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (2003), Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.
Ratchet & Clank (2002), SCEE