James Fristrom

Developer BIO

Jamie Fristrom has a history with the industry dating back to 1991, when he graduated from UCSD with a degree in psychology and got his first job at Mindcraft working on the Magic Candle series. He has done programming, design, and management. (He even did some art for the Siege 2 game - to the chagrin of the art director.)

Jamie was creator of Schizoid along with Richard Garfield, Skaff Elias, and James Chao, and he was a technical director and designer on Spider-Man 2, his biggest claim to fame being that he invented its dynamic, physical swinging system. Other games he's worked on include Spider-Man: The Movie for PS2, Xbox, and GameCube, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the Dreamcast and Die by the Sword for Windows.

He has written about game development for almost as long as he's been doing it, for Game Developer, Gamasutra, and GameDevBlog. He also spent some time as a consultant

He co-founded development studio Torpex Games in 2005 and currently acts as Technical Director at the company.

Also Known As

• Jamie Fristrom

Websites

• Interview: Jamie Fristrom -- by Lars Doucet on TIGSource (25th January 2008)
• Dionysus Logged Out -- A novel Jamie wrote under a pen-name; video games play a small role.
• GameDevBlog -- Jamie's thoughts on game development: design, management, coding, marketing.

Games Credited

Rise of the Argonauts (2008), Codemasters Software Company Limited, The
Schizoid (2008), Torpex Games, LLC.
Spider-Man 3 (2007), Activision Deutschland GmbH
Psychonauts (2005), Majesco Entertainment Company
Ultimate Spider-Man (2005), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Ultimate Spider-Man (Limited Edition) (2005), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Spider-Man 2 (2004), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Minority Report: Everybody Runs (2002), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Spider-Man: The Movie (2002), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Spider-Man (2001), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x (2001), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm (2000), Interplay Productions Ltd.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (2000), Crave Entertainment, Inc.
Die by the Sword (1998), Interplay Productions, Inc.
Die by the Sword: Limb from Limb (1998), Interplay Entertainment Corp.
Beat the House (1995), Interplay Entertainment Corp.
Ambush at Sorinor (1993), Mindcraft Software, Inc.
Bloodstone: An Epic Dwarven Tale (1993), Mindcraft Software, Inc.
Strike Squad (1993), Mindcraft Software, Inc.
Walls of Rome (1993), Mindcraft Software, Inc.
The Magic Candle III (1992), Electronic Arts, Inc.
Siege (1992), Mindcraft Software, Inc.
Star Legions (1992), Mindcraft Software, Inc.
Tegel's Mercenaries (1992), Mindcraft Software, Inc.
The Magic Candle II: The Four and Forty (1991), Electronic Arts, Inc.
The Magic Candle (1989), Mindcraft Software, Inc.