Shawn Stone

In the twilight age of the company once known as Microprose, Shawn Stone rose through the ranks of Quality Assurance like a gladiator with some greater destiny. When the studio closed its doors on his birthday, a scant two weeks before Christmas, he pushed on, unassailable. They must have thought they had finally found a way to stop Shawn's rise through the ranks. With the destruction of the entire company, they must have thought, surely he would be thwarted.

They were wrong. Undaunted, Shawn moved to the company formerly known as Strategic Simulations, Inc. or "SSI". Now using the moniker "Mindscape", Shawn joined former comrades in quality assurance in the trenches. Gradually gaining greater interaction with the design team, the apparition of a better future loomed ahead of Shawn. That apparition was soon revealed to be a howling ghoul though, as Shawn soon realized that the same omens were appearing as he had seen at Microprose. With a keen battle sense, he knew the time to move to a new arena was now.

Mere months before the crumbling of SSI née Mindscape née Mattel Interactive, Shawn joined forces with the quality assurance house Beta Breakers. Sensing a larger change, biding his time, Shawn tested many products, including several games. When his true love crossed the country for education, Shawn blindly followed, without a definite plan of where his employment would come from.

After several months of quality assurance and data management work for a variety of fledgling companies, Shawn gained contact with a producer who was familiar with a new team making a Zoo Tycoon game. With a predisposition for such a game, Shawn submitted himself to the rulers of this company and offered his skills.

As small a company as it was, Shawn had to wear several hats while working on the original Zoo Tycoon. Some of those hats were uncomfortable, but some fit as if they were made for Shawn. Those were designer hats.

Shawn continued working as a game designer on every juggernaut that Blue Fang created until the time was ripe to return to the West. Squaring his shoulders and setting his jaw, Shawn walked into the sunset with the hope of a new beginning in an old haunt.

Shawn worked in a small company trying to leverage stories and humor in a world that is more interested in face shooting and explosions, toiling for over a year, producing frustration but also skills and experience. Shawn decided that the time was right to make games for people who do not normally have games made for them.

With the disintegration of another young, small company with lofty goals, Shawn moved to work with a slightly larger company that has already seen some success entertaining people on the Internet, in particular, on Facebook. There he joined many other designers who have decided that they would rather make games that their friends who do not subscribe to Game Developer magazine would enjoy playing, games that would be played by millions of people. He continues to work hard at doing this every day.