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Blogs

Tom Newman's Blog

I started gaming at the age of 5 with my dad's Sears Telecom Pong. The christmas I opened my Atari2600 is the best in memory, and I continued on with an interest in gaming through jr. high, where I learned BASIC and made some really simple and dumb games using Activision Game Maker on the C64. I also spent a ton of time with tabletop rpg's - everything from Car Wars to Star Frontiers. My high school had no computer program, so I focused my energy on music, writing original tunes, and performing in nightclubs I'd otherwise be too young to get in to. Throughout the 90's I became a prominent figure in Detroit's electronic music scene, releasing over 12 records, and performing internationally. I did end up going to school for electronics, with the selfish motivation of wanting to be able to build/modify my own analog synthesizer modules. I currently still produce/compose/perform, along with event promotion, and a hold management position at Detroit's electronic music festival, the largest of it's kind here in the US. My passion for gaming and game design has never diminished. I find myself more interested in the design process than I do actually playing the games that I love, which brings me to this site nearly every day. I would love to work full time as a composer or audio designer in the game industry, but for numerous reasons have not ben able to relocate to where the market is. Also I feel the game industry has a lot of room to grow as far as audio is concerned, and if I were to relocate, I would like to work directly on the design process, implementing in-game variables to the music/audio itself - going way beyond the sample/loop based system that is most used today. I personally know multiple producers who have been composers on games, when they have zero interest in the actual game itself. My top 10 list of games is in no order, and reflects games that were important to me, not necessarily the industry as a whole. 1) Donkey Kong (Arcade) 2) Joust (Arcade) 3) Adventure (2600) 4) Earthworm Jim (Genesis) 5) Resident Evil (PS1) 6) FFVII (PS1) 7) Disgaea (PS2) 8) Quake 1 (PC) 9) Diablo 1 (PC) 10) World of Warcraft (PC)

Member Blogs

Why Games Are Not Art  Featured Blogs
Posted by Tom Newman on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:18:00 EDT in Game Design
Art is overrated. I present a very brief art-history lesson, and describe why video games hoping to achieve the status of art is a low-ball goal.
Read More... | 30 Comments

   

Tom Newman's Comments

Comment In: Opinion: Rethinking Player Death [News - 11/20/2009 - 05:55]

Baroque - very underrated Atlus ...

Baroque - very underrated Atlus rpg, and what I feel may have influenced Demon's Souls - very great point

Comment In: Sony: 'All PS3 Units Will Be Firmware-Upgradeable To 3D' [News - 11/19/2009 - 06:48]

I'm excited to see a ...

I'm excited to see a fully 3D game, it looks like it's on the horizon. I don't think 3D will be the norm of the future, but there is room for some successful titles for sure.

Comment In: Analyst: Over 60 Percent Of All iPhone Apps Have Been Pirated [News - 11/18/2009 - 06:49]

That number seems low, and ...

That number seems low, and can be said about ANY software.

Comment In: Critical Reception: Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii [News - 11/18/2009 - 05:12]

I have bittersweet feelings about ...

I have bittersweet feelings about this title. The game itself is top-notch, and I applaud the return to 2D, but this game served as a harsh reminder of how terrible the graphics on Wii really are. I'm not a graphics snob either. I still play Atari 2600 games. When the ...

Comment In: Japanese Hardware: PlayStation 3 Outsells All Hardware, Including DSi [News - 11/16/2009 - 11:09]

Sweet. Hopefully we will start ...

Sweet. Hopefully we will start to see some more of those Japanese niche PS exclusives that made PSX and PS2's library so interesting, the ones we seem to be lacking with the PS3.

Comment In: Wada: Too Much Diversification Will Confuse Game Consumers [News - 11/16/2009 - 07:16]

Disagree whole heartedly. No surprise ...

Disagree whole heartedly. No surprise this is coming from Square.

[More Tom Newman Comments]