Michael Bacon (artist)
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Michael Bacon is an American 3D artist/animator/designer/musician who has been working in the video game industry since 1996. He has worked on an array of large scale production game titles as Art Director/Lead Artist or Senior Artist with such companies as THQ, Sony Online Entertainment, Boss Game Studios, n-Space, Jaleco Inc, Volition Inc, Hasbro Toy Company, and Aramat Productions.[1]
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[edit] Game industry
Bacon is currently part of Sony Online Entertainment in San Diego, California working on the popular EverQuest 2 MMORPG franchise for the PC. Projects there include the international release of EverQuest II: Desert of Flames, EverQuest II: Kingdom of Sky, EverQuest II: Echoes of Faydwer,[2] and EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark.
Bacon also worked with Volition Inc contributing significantly to the Xbox 360 title Saints Row and has work in the coming Saints Row 2 sequel that is scheduled for release late summer of 2008 from publisher THQ.
In 2006, Bacon started his company, 3 Gunmen Games, developing casual game titles for the PC and console markets. They completed their first title VectorBlast for the Hasbro toy company in 2007 and their proprietary NetJet controller system and are presently in production working on Pirate's Gold, an action puzzle title to be released some time in summer of 2008. Other products in production include a series of Dice and other board style games that will introduced summer of 2008.
[edit] In the past
In 1996, Aramat Productions based in Wilsonville, Oregon was looking for a concept staff artist for the sci-fi project Dead Unity which at the time was being published by THQ and was slated to be released on the PlayStation and PC-Rom. Being his first job in the video game entertainment industry, Bacon spent countless late hours and weekends learning as much as he could about all aspects of game development. Bacon took to 3d and animation quickly and worked his way up to lead artist and eventually art director for the project.
He also did significant redesign work on core game play as well as story and dialog better suited for the title. Not having a dedicated sound studio or audio engineer, Bacon took on the role to create soundtrack, sound effects and record dialog for the title as well as press videos presentations for E3 while in production.
THQ on a regular visit to the facility were impressed with Bacon's musical talents and enlisted him to contribute title theme tracks for their PlayStation fighting game "VS" as well as their ultra popular wrestling franchise "WCW vs. nWo".
At Aramat, Bacon was also producer and co-designer for the ambitious prototype project Arch Gothic co-designing with long time friend and colleague John Mulkey (who went on to work with Monolith Entertainment and was a significant contributor to the No one lives forever and F.E.A.R franchise).
In mid 1999, Bacon was hired on at n-Space located in Orlando, Florida as art director for their Sony PlayStation title Danger Girl,[3] based on the successful comic book license created by J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell. While at n-Space, Bacon was asked to record and perform the Duke Nukem theme song for the PlayStation title Duke Nukem: Land of the babes published by GT Interactive. He was then brought on to the team to lend a hand on the PlayStation 2 title Duke Nukem: D-Day published at the time by RockStar Games in New York City. That title was plagued with internal troubles and was eventually cancelled but not before Bacon had moved on to take a lead artist position with Boss Game Studios in Seattle.
In 2001, Bacon was brought on board as project art director at Boss Game Studios. There he worked on different game prototypes including projects based on licenses for the animated television series ReBoot, Sitting Ducks, the IRX international Racing Extreme franchise, and most significantly to a project called Film@11 using the Nintendo GameCube platform.
Bacon accepted a position at Jaleco Entertainment as lead artist working on the PC-Rom title Trailer Park Tycoon, and later lending a hand as environment lead on Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde where he worked alongside of Chris and Ron Millar from Blizzard/WarCraft/StarCraft fame. After Goblin Commander was released Bacon accepted the position of project Art Director for the sequel Goblin Commander 2 which he had put in place a production power house that well exceeded the production of the previous title and well on its way to being a much refined and visually stunning version of its predecessor, however Jaleco was owned by PCCW Japan a large cell phone conglomerate who decided to dissolve its console game operation in the U.S. and closed the company down in April 2003.
Bacon has since worked at Volition Inc in Champaign, Illinois working on the Saints Row franchise before accepting a position with Sony Online Entertainment and permanent home in San Diego, California.
[edit] Music endeavors
He is also a rock guitar player/producer/musician contributing tracks to the WCW vs. nWo wrestling game franchise, Duke Nukem - Land of the Babes for GT Interactive, and the THQ fighting game "VS". Bacon has independent CD releases which including work with the 80s metal band Havuk, the 2006 release contributing tracks to the Madd Krakker "Saltine Dream" CD currently available at ITunes and other on-line distribution networks and is currently finishing up an EP for his new band "The Texas Doom Machine".
Bacon is also featured on Karlton Coffin's up and coming release "Ghost in the Glass".
[edit] Production releases
[edit] Discography
| Title | Release Date | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Madd Krakker 2: TBA | TBD | Liquid Reality Studios |
| Kalrton Coffin: Ghost in the Glass | In Production | Liquid Reality Studios |
| The Texas Doom Machine: Here Comes Trouble | In production | Reactor Records |
| Madd Krakker: Saltine Dream | 2006 | Reactor Records |
| Michael Bacon: Engraved Invitation (EP) | 2003 | Reactor Records |
| Michael Bacon: Unrequested Fission Surplus (EP) | 1997 | Reactor Records |
| Coffin: Hell in a Half Rack | 1996 | Zood Cru Records |
| Havuk: Twisted Aggression | 1992 | Zood Cru Records |
| Havuk: Zeud Brewzer | 1990 | Zood Cru Records |
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Moby Games Developer Listing
- ^ QJ.net MMORPG Online News Article "Michael Bacon's redesign of Castle Mistmoore"
- ^ IMDb "Danger Girl VG credits"
