Welcome

Mjolnir Studios originally was a shareware game company with the tag line "Modern Technology, Classic Gameplay." The company didn't do well, having no products to speak of, so it's web site went dormant. The sole proprietor of the company (me) finally decided to use the web site for something and the only thing he could think of was a personal web site. It should now be obvious why the company failed before it started.

Honestly, after years of research on starting a company and trying to come up with game designs I found out that I did not want to be a shareware game developer. I was able to give up on that dream to prevent it from becoming a nightmare. I was unable to relinquish the domain mjolnirstudios.com because it handles my personal email.

After years of learning so much from others via the internet I feel obligated to give back as best I can. Mjolnir Studios is reborn as my personal web site and blog towards that end.

If this is your first visit, please read the Disclaimer.

Who

My name is Ian C. Bullard. I started programming on a Timex Sinclair 1000 sometime in the early to mid eighties making animated text pictures using it's built-in version of BASIC. After upgrading to a Commodore 64 I became obsessed with programming, pouring over documentation trying to figuring out how everything works in a computer. Once I managed to get a PC running DOS I scoured the documents made available via the Demo scene and started getting into graphics programming.

Since graduating with a bachelor of arts in computer science and a minor in mathematics from SUNY Plattsburgh in 1996 I have worked as a software engineer in the game industry. Initially my main focus was computer graphics but since then I've tried to have less of a specialty and more of a general knowledge so I can fill whatever engineering role is needed.

At the moment I work for a game company in Austin, TX. You will not find my résumé nor will you find mention of my current or past employers on this web site. My employment history isn't a secret, anyone could find that information, but this site has nothing to do with my employers past or present. I am not authorized to speak for them or in most cases about them so I will not.

Topics

Aside from the regular blog personal stuff, I plan on concentrating on four main topics:

Game Programming - I'll focus on the things that other game programming articles don't cover.
Game Playing - Games of all types.
Game Design - Games of all types.
Other - Just so I can ramble on about everything else without people saying I would only cover three things.

I have learned a significant amount of what I know about these topics from people who published to web and FTP sites. My goal is to give back to the communities that have helped me to where I am today.