People
Nicholas Clark
Lead Designer
Nick Clark began gaming and programming before his 12th birthday, but despite Sonic the Hedgehog and his VB debugger running side by side, it never occurred to him that his two hobbies were complimentary until high school. He was given an optional assignment to make a C++ game and it turned out those 10,000 hours of Quake, Diablo, and Counterstrike had paid off. Somewhere amidst the late-night demon slaying the fundamentals of game design had taken root in his brain.
He decided to study computer science at USC which had a promising game design and interactive media program in the works. There he teamed up with Jenova Chen to engineer flOw for Chen's thesis. Something about the soothing game inspired him to shift his focus from demanding strategy and shooting games to games people of any age and background can enjoy.
A little bit about us…
thatgamecompany was founded in the Spring of 2006 by Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, two graduates of the University Southern California Interactive Media MFA program. They had worked on several projects together, including the multi-award winning student game, “Cloud,” and decided to continue working together on small, experimental games by forming a game studio that would focus on these projects.
thatgamecompany designs and develops artistically crafted, broadly accessible video games that push the boundaries of interactive entertainment. We respect our players and want to contribute meaningful, enriching experiences that touch and inspire them.We seek talent that values integrity and personal growth within an environment of intense collaboration and experimentation.
We call our games “core games.” Core games appeal not only to existing hardcore and casual gaming markets, but also to dormant gamers and even non-gamers. Core games reach these new markets because they are easier and less time consuming, yet possess emotionally rich and powerful interactive experiences.