Michael Hicks (game designer)

Michael Hicks (born January 3, 1993)[1] is an American game designer, musician, programmer and writer. His most notable works include 2018's The Path of Motus and 2015's Pillar. Described as a "lone auteur",[2] Hicks is noted for his innovative game concepts.[3][4][5] His soundtrack work has also been critically acclaimed.[2]

Michael Hicks
Michael Hicks (2015)
Born (1993-01-03) January 3, 1993
Mt. Vernon, Illinois
OccupationVideo game designer, musician, programmer, writer
Known forThe Path of Motus, Pillar

Early life

Hicks grew up in Mt. Vernon, Illinois and attended Mt. Vernon Township High School.[6] Hicks began programming games at 14 and taught himself the skills he needed by studying examples online. While attending High School he released his first published video game onto Xbox Live Indie Games at 18.[6] After High School he moved to Winter Park, Florida to attend Full Sail University.[7]

Career

After releasing his first published game in 2011, Hicks became active in the Xbox Live Indie Games community. He helped coordinate the third Indie Games Uprising in 2012, an event that included his own game Sententia.[8] After this he signed on with Sony and released Pillar for PlayStation 4 in 2015. Pillar was downloaded by over 320,000 players[9] and was showcased at the Game Developer's Conference.[10] He released The Path of Motus on July 17, 2018.

In 2017, Hicks started a YouTube channel with the goal of sharing knowledge with others wanting to learn game development.[11]

Games
GamePlatformRelease year
The Path of MotusPlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam2018
PillarPlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Steam2015
SententiaXbox 3602012
Honor in Vengeance IIXbox 3602011
Honor in VengeanceXbox 3602011
gollark: I didn't really care either way because clicking "mute" and "unmute" all the time was irritating.
gollark: Well, my thing just detects if a key is held, so sure.
gollark: I mean, you could probably switch to fake camera feeds on demand or something too, but that would produce discontinuities and be hard.
gollark: Huh.
gollark: *Zoom* has PTT?

References
  1. "Michael Hicks on Twitter". Twitter.
  2. "Pillar Review". Game Informer.
  3. Behan, Gary (February 25, 2015). "Pillar PS4 Review – Cult of Personalities". PlayStation LifeStyle.
  4. Couture, Joel. "IndieGames.com Pillar Creates Puzzles With Personality". indiegames.com.
  5. Roberts, David. "Review: Pillar". Ulster Star.
  6. SOUTHERN, ADAM TESTA, THE. "Student from Mount Vernon finding success creating video games". The Southern.
  7. Kantrowitz, Sean. "Game Development Grad Launches Indie Game on PS4 & Xbox 360". Full Sail University Blog.
  8. Rigney, Ryan. "To Survive Microsoft's Apathy, Xbox Indie Developers Band Together". WIRED.
  9. "The Path of Motus Announced". TrueAchievements.
  10. "These 15 games will be in the Indie Megabooth Showcase at GDC – GDC News". GDC News. February 6, 2015.
  11. "Making Video Games From Nothing (2017)". September 19, 2017.
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