DC EXERCISE 5: Find a Job

[Incognita Nom de Plume]

Identify 3 companies that you would like (and realistically COULD!) work for. If someone else has already researched them, then you will have to pick another company!

* 1 local/Melbourne
* 1 national/Australia
* 1 international/anywhere else

Write a profile of each, include:

* Company name, URL and contact details
* CEO and (if available) HR or employment person
* Paragraph that outlines the company's core business and history
* Details of any current and, if possible, future projects.
* Identify a position within each comapny that you would like to have -- and one which you could realistically use as an entry point to get there (eg Level designer -- QA).

Companies already being researched are:
Melb.
Ubisoft
Blue Tongue
Iron Monkey
Epic Games
Tantalus
Torus
Big Ant
Transmission Games
Nintendo (melb)
EA (Aust)

National
2K Aust
Acheron
Konami
Krome (Qld)
THQ (Aust)
Half Brick
Atari (aust)
Team Bondi
Microforte
Twilight Software
Red tribe (aus)
Fox Studios (aus)
Infinityward


International
Playfish
Grasshopper
DoubleFine
Square Enix
Rockstar games
Bioware
Pixar
Valve
Blizzard
Capcom
Codemasters
Starbreeze Studios
EA Games
Eidos
Team Ninja
Realtime Worlds

[Nadav Tossia]

Big Ant Studio (Local)
URL: http://www.bigant.com
Contact: [phone], Level 10, 271 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3000
CEO: Ross Symons.
History: Big Ant Studios is an Australian game development studio founded in 2001 by CEO Ross Symons, a software development pioneer with a professional history that stretches back to the 1970's when he first authored a number of internationally published books on programming and games for platforms including the TRS80 and Commodore PET/VIC20/64 series of personal computers.
Big Ant Studios, one of the largest game developers in Australia, develop premium character action and racing content for platforms that include the Sony PlayStation2, PlayStation3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox360, and PC. Supported by such leading global publishers as THQ, Konami, and Sierra Entertainment, Big Ant Studios have achieved significant market success.
Games: HellBoy, Spyro.
Future Games: AFL, Sprint Cars.
Jobs: Static Mesh modeling, QA.

Tantalus (National)
URL: http://www.tantalus.com.au
Contact: [phone].
CEO: Tom Crago.
History: Tantalus is one of the world’s leading independent development studios. Renowned for hand held work on franchises such as SpongeBob, MX vs ATV, Cars and the million-unit-selling Pony Friends, Tantalus also develops for the current generation of consoles. The next phase of growth and platform diversification will see the release of the company’s first Wii title and the addition of PlayStation 3 and digital distribution projects. Tantalus employs over 80 developers at its Melbourne and Brisbane studios.
Tantalus began life as a conversion house, adapting coin-op titles to console and PC. Despite tough schedules and impossible deadlines, Tantalus soon earned a reputation for consistency and reliability. Manx TT Superbike became a star attraction on the Sega Saturn while Area 51, The House of the Dead and Maximum Force rate among the other critical and commercial successes of those early years. Titles such as Monster Truck Madness helped Tantalus build a reputation as a world-leading developer on Game Boy Advance, culminating in the highly acclaimed Nintendo-published Top Gear Rally winning IGN Game of the Year.
Games: Trick star, MX vs ATV.
Future Games: Cars, Pony Friends.
Jobs: QA, Concept artist, Modeler.

DICE (International)
URL: http://www.dice.se/
Contact: [phone], Sweden.
CEO: John Riccitiello (EA Games)
History: DICE is one of the world’s foremost game studios. What started as a small project in the 1990´s has through creating bestsellers as Rallisport Challenge and the Battlefield series made the company the number one game developer in northern Europe.
Games: Battlefield 1943, Bad Company.
Future Games: Heroes.
Jobs: QA, Design Manager.

[Hamish Lockwood]

Local:

Tantalus
CEO: Tom Crago
http://www.tantalus.com.au/
Ph: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

With fifteen years in the business and a portfolio of over thirty titles on most major platforms, Tantalus is one of the world’s leading independent development studios. Renowned for handheld work on franchises such as SpongeBob, MX vs ATV, Cars and the million-unit-selling Pony Friends, Tantalus also develops for the current generation of consoles. The next phase of growth and platform diversification will see the release of the company’s first Wii title and the addition of PlayStation 3 and digital distribution projects. Tantalus employs over 80 developers at its Melbourne and Brisbane studios.

Coming Soon:
-Cars: Race-O-Rama (PSP, DS)
-Pony Friends 2 (DS, Wii, Windows PC)
-MX vs ATV: Reflex (PSP, DS)

Ideal Position: Level Design/Environment Artist


National:

2K Australia
CEO: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey and Robert Fermier
http://www.2kaustralia.com/
Email: [e-mail]

Irrational Games Australia and Boston, was founded in 1997 by Jonathan Chey and Ken Levine, and was the multi award winning developer of titles such as System Shock II, Swat 4 and Freedom Force. In October 2005, Irrational Games became part of the 2K family, being bought out by Take 2 Interactive.
We recently underwent a rebranding and became 2K Australia and 2K Boston with the launch of the critically acclaimed BioShock.

Coming Soon:
-Bioshock 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

Ideal Position: Level Design/Environment Artist
Realistic Position: Quality Assurance/Game Tester


International:

Double Fine
CEO: Tim Shafer
http://www.doublefine.com/
Email: [e-mail]

Double Fine Productions is an award-winning, independent game development studio founded in 2000 by games industry veteran Tim Schafer. Located in San Francisco’s South of Market district, Double Fine is committed to making high-quality games with an emphasis on originality, story, characters, and fun.
In 2005, Double Fine released the critically-acclaimed Psychonauts, which won several awards including “Best Action / Adventure Game” from Official XBOX Magazine and “Game of the Year” from Eurogamer. G4TV and X-PLAY recently declared Psychonauts to be the #6 XBOX game of all time.
At the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Double Fine itself was awarded the title of “Best New Studio” by their fellow developers.

Coming Soon:
-Brütal Legend (Xbox 360, PS3)

Ideal Position: Level Design/Environment Artist
Realistic Position: Janitor

[Christopher Gan]

Company Name Firemint (Local)
Company URL http://www.firemint.com/index.htm
CEORobert Murray
Contact Level 3, 534 Church St, Richmond Vic 3121, Australia
Who are they? Firemint is a game development studio in Melbourne started in 1999. They mainly develop games for mobile phones. They work with other publishers as well as creating their own ideas and they strongly believe that their games sell well as digital distribution.

Games: Flight Control (iPhone), Real Racing (iPhone)
Currently Developing: Mega Monsters
Job Position: Level Designer, 3d modeller

Company Name Wicked Witch Software (National)
Company URL http://www.wicked-witch.com.au/
CEO Daniel Visser
Contact [e-mail]
Who are they? Wicked Witch is a Melbourne videogame development studio founded in 1999. The company has worked with many local and international developers and publishers. The senior staff is comprised of industry veterans. Wicked Witch Software has released around 50 titles on PC, handheld and mobile platforms and worked on dozens of other projects across most major consoles including Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and Wii.

Games: AFL’s Mascot Manor (DS)
Currently Developing: AFL Challenge(DS)
Job Position: Q&A, Game Tester

Company Name Grasshopper Manufacture (International)
Company URL http://www.grasshopper.co.jp/
CEO Goichi Suda AKA Suda51
Contact: 1-7-7, Umezato, Suginami-ku, Tokyo, 166-0011 Japan Ph:[phone]
Who are they? Grasshopper Manufacture, Inc. is a Japanese video game development house founded on March 30, 1998 in Suginami, Japan. Grasshopper gained mainstream notoriety in 2005 for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 game killer7. In addition to killer7, they have developed Michigan (released in Japan and Europe) and a number of Japan-only titles. Grasshopper Manufacture was also recently responsible for the Nintendo DS game Contact and the Wii game No More Heroes. The company is headed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, and is noted for its original and imaginative titles - ones that are also fraught with financial risk. Potential losses are often made up by the development of games based on popular anime franchises, such as Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked

Games: Killer7 (NGC), No More Heroes (Wii), Flower Sun and Rain (DS)
Currently Developing: No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle (Wii)
Job Position: International Promotional Speaker, Q&A

[Felicity Trembath]

Millipede Creative Development- (Local)
Company Name/ URL:
millipede creative entertainment www.millipede.com.au

Contact info:
[phone]

[e-mail]

Millipede Creative Development Pty Ltd
126 Walnut St
Cremorne VIC 3121, Australia

CEO:
Wil Monte

What they are about:

“The talented multimedia designers and developers at Millipede have many years collective experience in eLearning and innovative multimedia development.

Millipede has established a reputation as one of Melbourne’s leading Adobe Flash development and interactive design teams and is receiving positive attention and recognition on a national and international level. We are constantly adding to our capabilities and are always on the look out for fresh challenges and collaborative opportunities.

We have an active research and development program devoted to exploring emerging technologies and concepts related to gaming and education, multi-user experiences and multimedia installation.

Our R&D program is currently investigating handheld interaction and site-specific gaming.

The doors are always open here at Millipede — we look forward to working with you on your next project.” – quoted from millipede.com

Current Projects:
Shopping Scramble
SuperMonster CamSmash 3001
Shaolin Striker
and others….

Future Projects:
???

Position of Interest:
Q/A
Web design
Flash Artist

AURAN – (National)

Company name/ URL:
Auran www.Auran.com

Contact info:
www.auran.com/helpdesk

Auran
P.O. Box 1026
New Farm 4005
QLD
Australia

CEO:
Graham Edelsten

What they are about:
Auran Develops educational and simulator games mostly.

Current Projects:
Dark Reign: The Future of War
The Trainz series
Bridge It
Fury

Future Projects:
Unnamed educational writing game

Position of Interest:
Testing
Q/A

Playfish - (International)

Company name/ URL:
Playfish, www.playfish.com,

Contact Info:
[e-mail]

Playfish Ltd
125 Kensington High Street
London W8 5SF
United Kingdom (contact info)

CEO:
Kristian Segerstråle

What they are about:
“Playfish is one of the world's largest and fastest growing social games companies. The company combines creativity, innovation and originality to create games for friends to play together over social and mobile platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Google, Bebo, iPhone and Android. Playfish's mission is to change the way people play games by providing more social and connected experiences. Each of the company's seven games has been a top 10 hit on Facebook, including Pet Society, which is the platform's most popular game and enjoyed by more than 11 million people every month. Playfish is backed by Accel Partners and Index Ventures, and has offices in London, San Francisco, Beijing and Tromso, Norway.” – quoted from Playfish.com

Current Projects:
Restaurant City
Pet society
Country Story
Crazy Planets
Quiztastic
Geo Challenge
Minigolf Party
Word Challenge
Bowling Buddies
Who has the Biggest Brain

Future Projects
Who has the biggest brain for iphone
Country story for iphone

Position of Interest:
Games Artist

[Dimitra Lainas]

Local: Infinite Interactive
URL: http://www.infinite-interactive.com/index.php
Contact Details: 3/201 Fitzroy St, Vic 3182, Australia
Email: [e-mail]
Infinite Interactive was founded in January 2003 by Steve Fawkner (CEO), creator and lead designer of the critically acclaimed Warlords series of PC games.The Warlords franchise has always been developed on PC, and will continue to be, but Infinite is also expanding to consoles and handhelds. Warlords II is currently available on PocketPC, and a Warlords game is soon to come on NintendoDS, and mobile phone. Infinite’s future plans include continuing to develop and improve its long-running Warlords series as well as developing new games that fuse genres and attempt to capture the imagination of new players.
Position: Concept Artist / 3D Modeler

National: Ubisoft
URL: http://www.ubi.com/AU/default.aspx
Contact Details: UBISOFT P/L, PO Box 1749, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012, Australia
CEO: Yves Guillemot
The five brothers of the Guillemot family founded Ubisoft as a computer game publisher in 1986 in France (Brittany).In the early 1990s, Ubisoft initiated its in-house game development program which led to the 1994 opening of a studio in Montreuil, France. Ubisoft became a publicly traded company in 1996 and continued to expand to offices around the globe.The company has facilities in over 20 countries.
Popular Game titles include: Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell Conviction.
Position: Concept Artist / 3D Modeler / Storyboard / Storyline

International: Epic Games
URL:http://www.epicgames.com/
CEO: Tim Sweeney
Epic Games was initially founded under the name of 'Potomac Computer Systems' in 1991 by Tim Sweeney. Epic Games, also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology.Epic is the proprietor of three successful game engines in the video game industry.
Popular Titles include: Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War 2
Position: Concept Artist / 3D Modeler/ Storyboard / Storyline

[Anthony Pietrosanto]

Blue Tongue Entertainment (Local)

URL: http://www.bluetongue.com
Contact: [phone], Level 3, 606 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, VIC, 3004
CEO: Steven Spagnolo
History: Founded in 1995, Blue Tongue Entertainment as grown to become one of Australia’s premier game developers. In Novemeber 2004, Blue Tongue was acquired by major developer THQ, and remains one of the 10 developmental studios under the company.
When Blue Tongue originated, they were highly involved in web development services, but gradually steered into game development, releasing there first project, ‘AFL Finals Fever’. It was a success. There more recent releases have received positive reviews and holds Blue Tongue as one of the premier developers.
Games: AFL Finals Fever, Riding Star, de Blob.
Coming Soon: Marvel Super Hero Squad (MSHS).
Jobs: Game Designer, Environment Artist

FUZZYEYES (National)

URL: http://www.fuzzyeyes.com
Contact: Fuzzyeyes Studio Pty Ltd PO BOX 3281 Sunnybank South Brisbane, Queensland 4109, Australia
CEO: Wei-Yao Lu
History: Founded in Brisbane in 2001, the company also has studios in southern Asia. Fuzzyeyes like to be seen as a company that “creates fun”, and they pride themselves on there creativity. This is evident in the upcoming title ‘Edge of Twilight’, which simply looks stunning.
Games: Edge of Twilight, Hot Dog King
Coming Soon: Edge Of Twilight
Jobs: Animator, Environment Artist

Square Enix (International)

URL: www.square-enix.com
Contact: Shinjuku Bunka Quint Bldg. 3-22-7 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku,Tokyo 151-8544, Japan.
CEO: Yōichi Wada
History: Originally, the Enix Corporation founded in 1975, merged with Square Co. in 2003 to become Square Enix. Square Enix is massively respected around the world because of it’s role playing title’s. Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts and of course the Final Fantasy series, are titles which made names for themselves, purely based on amazing game design produced by the company.
Square Enix is a well organized business, owning Taito Corporation and Square Enix Europe, which owns Eidos Interactive, a well respected development company.
Square Enix has worked across numerous platforms including; NES, SNES, Playstation, Playstation 2, Gameboy Adavance, Nintendo DS and the list goes on.
Games: Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy
Coming Soon: Final Fantasy XIII
Jobs: Testing/Q&A

[Martin Au]

Torus Games (Local)

Contact
52-62 Stud Road, Bayswater
Victoria
Australia 3153
A.B.N. 51 069 420 613
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Info: [e-mail]
Careers: [e-mail]
URL: http://www.torus.com.au/


Managing Director: Bill McIntosh

History: Torus Games began in 1994 with the intention of creating great video games. Over 15 years on, the same passion and focus continues to drive us, no matter which platform we're working with. Torus has completed games and content for the Game Boy, Game Gear, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, LMAX, N-Gage, Xbox, Leapster, Leapster 2, Roadrunner and GameCube.
Games: Scooby Doo! First Frights (Warner Bros Interactive) (Wii, Ps2), Monster Jam: Urban Assault (Activision) (Wii, PSP, Ps2, PC)
Coming Soon: Little Monsters (Self funded) and two secret projects.
Jobs: Concept Artist, Modeller

Archeron Design (National)

Contact
Acheron Design
Ground Floor
The Tea House
28 Clarendon St
Southbank 3006
Victoria, Australia

Telephone
[phone]
[phone]

Corporate Email
lewis (at) acheron-design.net
URL: http://www.acheron-design.net/

Board of directors
Lewis Strudwick (managing director)
Michael de Graaf (executive director)
Athol Birtley (non-executive director)

Current Vacancies
Programmers
Artists

History: Acheron Design is a video game developer based in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 2004, the company has developed a number of hits across various platforms. Our development culture encourages us to go one step beyond and deliver games of the highest quality.

As a mid-sized developer, Acheron Design is ideally placed to tackle handheld development and porting, while at the same time creating world-class original titles.
Games: WW2 Trivia Challenge (PC), Cricket Trivia Championship (PC), Brian Lara 2007: Pressure Play (PC)
Jobs: Programmers, Artists

Rockstar Games (International)

Rockstar Japan - Japanese localization studio.
Rockstar Leeds - Previously known as Mobius Entertainment. Based in Lower Wortley, Leeds. They created Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories for the PlayStation Portable. They recently finished developing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and are currently developing the music game, Beaterator.
Rockstar Lincoln - Based in Lincoln, England. Quality assurance and localization studio. Previously known as Tarantula Studios.
Rockstar London - Formed in November 2005. Took over development of Manhunt 2 after Rockstar Vienna had been closed. They recently developed the portable adaptation of Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
Rockstar New England - Previously known as Mad Doc Software. Based in Andover, Massachusetts. Acquired on April 4, 2008.[3]
Rockstar North - Based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Previously known as DMA Design (founded 1988). They are famous for the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt franchises, as well as the original Lemmings games.
Rockstar San Diego - Previously known as Angel Studios. Developed Red Dead Revolver, the Smuggler's Run series, the first two Midtown Madness games and the Midnight Club series. They are currently responsible for the RAGE game engine.
Rockstar Toronto - Take Two's in-house development team, previously known as Rockstar Canada. Their most well-known work is their adaptation of the cult classic film The Warriors.
Rockstar Vancouver - Previously known as Barking Dog Studios. They created the PlayStation 2 title Bully and are currently developing the third game in the Max Payne series, Max Payne 3.
Rockstar Vienna - Previously known as neo Software; closed on May 11, 2006 [4]. Ported the Max Payne series to consoles. Created most of Manhunt 2 before being closed down.

URL: http://www.rockstargames.com/

Public Relations: [e-mail]
Key people: Sam Houser, Terry Donovan, Dan Houser, Jamie King and Gary Foreman
Headquarters: New York City, New York, USA

History: The Rockstar Games label was founded in 1998 to create the most innovative and progressive interactive entertainment. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Games: Grand Theft Auto Series, Midnight Club Series
Coming Soon: Max Payne 3, Red Dead Redemption
Jobs: Artist, Game Content Creator (Rockstar Leeds)

[Jonathan Gibbs]

Transmission games (Local)
URL- http://www.transmissiongames.com/

History- Transmission games is a multi-award winning platform game company that has been around for 11 years. They have become by picking particular game types that are unique to the country and otheres such as their AFL, The Ashes series and Gaelic Football games which hwere a huge succes. They have also created other games like heatseeker and the WWII award winning Heroes of the Pacific. They create games for PS2, Xbox 360, PC and Wii.
CEO- Mike Fegan

Location- Level 3, 355 Spencer St
West Melbourne VIC 3003
Australia, [phone].
Games-- AFL 2009, Ashes 2009, Gaelic Football, heroes of Pacific, Heatseeker.
Future Projects- - heroes of Europe (WWII plane game)
Job- Testing, level design, storyboarding

[Jonathan Gibbs]

Bigworld Technology (National)

History- big World is one of the leading companies for creating massive multi-player games including game spaces and virtual worlds. It all began in 2002 but the original intence R&D started in 1999. Big World now has offices in Australia, Europe, USA and China. They also create software for other games and their own to use and continue to grow in reputation.
CEO-- John De Margheriti

Location-- Level 2 Wentworth Park Grandstand
Wentworth Park Road Glebe 2037
AUSTRALIA, [phone]
Games-- Twin Skies, Genisis, Grandis on-line, Navy legend.
Future games-- Kingdom Heroes 2, Stragate worlds.
jobs-- Q&A, level design, concept, testing.

[Dat Do]

Iron Monkey Studios (Local)

URL: http://www.ironmonkeystudios.com

Contact: 278 City Road Southbank, Victoria, 3006 Australia. PH: [phone]

CEO: Tony Lay (co-founder & managing director)

History: Iron Monkey Studios was co-founded by Tony Lay, who had studied Industrial Design here at RMIT before starting the company in 2003. Since then they have risen to being a key developer for EA Mobile and are producing a range of games across many different platforms, from mobile to the latest console. Their project Darken Light had been awarded the best unsigned game at the Australian Games development Conference in 2006. The company is comprised of a team of highly experienced staff members currently 20 strong and growing.

Games: Need For Speed: Undercover and Sims 3 (iPhone). Draken Light

Job: Digital Graphics Designer

Half Brick (National)

URL: http://www.halfbrick.com

Contact: Level 1, 190 Kelvin Grove Rd, Kelvin Grove, QLD 4059 Australia. PH: [phone]

CEO: Shainiel Deo

History: Established in 2001, the company specialises in developing games for handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS and the PSP. Aside from that, Halfbrick is also currently working on a range of titles for other platforms such as XBox Live Arcade, PSN and WiiWare. The company is promising the release of some interesting titles in 2009.

Games: Avatar: Into the Inferno, Raskulls.

Job: 3D artist, Designer

Konami (International)

URL: http://www.konami.com/games/kpgamescom2009/

Contact: Konami Australia Pty Ltd. 28 Lord Street, Botany, NSW, Australia 2019. PH: 61-2-9666-5731

CEO: Kagemasa Kouzuki

History: In 1973, Konami Corporation was created by Kagemasa Kouzuki in Japan, under the name of Konami Industry Co. Ltd. Later, in 1982, Konami Corporation first began operating in North America and since then the company has branched out to an international scale, with many subsidiaries in many different countries including Europe, Asia and even Australia. Specializing in publishing and manufacturing video games Konami has risen to a powerful position in the games industry, having developed some of the most popular games of our time.

Games: Metal Gear Solid Series, Zone of Enders Series, Lunar Knights

Job: Concept Artist, 3D artist

[Felix Serrano]

N/A (Local)

HalfBrick (National)
URL:
http://www.Halfbrick.com

Contact:
Phone - [phone], Fax - [phone]

CEO:
Shainiel Deo

History:
Halfbrick is a growing Australian game development company, established in 2001. We are dedicated to providing a rewarding working experience, building games with innovative gameplay while using quality development practices to make sure that everything is done on time with high production values.
Our primary focus is developing games for handheld consoles including the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. We are also currently developing for other digital platforms including XBox Live Arcade, PSN and WiiWare.
Halfbrick always looks to build long term relationships with our partners. We are sensitive to the needs of publishers and developers and pride ourselves on exceeding expectations while maintaining our Vision and Values.
Halfbrick has a constantly evolving environment where we strive to achieve excellence every day; this passion for personal improvement also impacts the way that we reach out to the community.

Games:
- Raskulls
- Avatar – Into the Infernal
- Echoes
- Heatseeker

Future Games:
TBA

Jobs:
Although no specific positions are being advertised at present, Halfbrick is always on the lookout for talented people to join our dynamic group.
If you believe you fit the Halfbrick mould, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Designer Position Application.

Blizzard Entertainment (International)
URL:
http://www.blizzard.com/us/

Contact:
P.O. Box 18979
Irvine, CA 92623

CEO:
Michael Morhaime

History:
Blizzard Entertainment® is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software. After establishing the Blizzard Entertainment label in 1994, the company quickly became one of the most popular and well-respected makers of computer games. By focusing on creating well-designed, highly enjoyable entertainment experiences, Blizzard Entertainment has maintained an unparalleled reputation for quality since its inception.

Blizzard Entertainment's track record of back-to-back #1-selling games spans more than a decade, and with blockbuster hits such as World of Warcraft®, Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos®, Diablo® II, and StarCraft®, the company has earned several consecutive Game of the Year awards. In addition, Blizzard Entertainment's online-game service, Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.

Games:
- Warcraft – Orcs and Humans
- Warcraft 2 – Tides of Darkness/ Expansion – Beyond the Dark Portal
- Warcraft 3 – Reign of chaos/ Expansion – The Frozen Throne
- Starcraft/ Expansion – Brood War
- Diablo
- Diablo 2/ Expansion – Lord of Destruction
- World of Warcraft/ Expansion 1 – The Burning Crusade/ Expansion 2 – Wrath of the Lich King

Future Games:
- Diablo 3
- Starcraft 2
- World of Warcraft Expansion 3 - Cataclysm

Jobs:
Diablo 3
- 3D Level Designer
- Senior Game Designer

World of Warcraft
- Mid to Senior Level 3d Character Animator
- Senior Game Designer
- Game Designer

Next Gen MMO
- 3d Character Animator

[Mohd Shazwan Noorazman]

Firemint (Local)
URL: http://www.firemint.com/contactus.htm
Contact: 3/534 Church St, Richmond VIC 3121. [phone].
CEO: Robert Murray
History: Firemint was founded in 1999. In the last few years, mobile gaming has really kicked off and the Firemint studio in Melbourne is considered one of the world’s leading independent developers. They’ve won the GDAA Best Mobile Title three years in a row with Star Trek: The Cold Enemy (2005) Madden NFL 07 (2006) and The Fast and The Furious: Fugitive 3D (2007) each appearing on various mobile platforms. Fugitive 3D was described as “as close to a console racer as mobile has right now” by IGN Wireless.
Games: Flight Control, Real Razing and Ratatouille for Iphone.
Games in Development: Mega Monsters
Job Positions Interested In: Static Mesh modeling, Animating, QA.

Wicked Witch (National)
URL: http://www.wicked-witch.com.au/
Contact 1/1 James Street, Bayswater, Victoria Australia 3153. [phone].
CEO: Daniel Visser
History: Wicked Witch Software is set up in a small office in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne Australia. Founded in 1999 Wicked Witch funded, designed and worked on many original game concepts while developing games under contract for other developers and publishers. Acquiring talented people, Wicked Witch has successfully created its own development pipelines and environment using all the latest PC and game console technology. Senior staffs have years of game experience with all major consoles. Wicked Witch has developed many game engine technologies and original game concepts that are all documented and added to our intellectual property archives. A strong love of game development inspires a strong work ethic and positive mindset within the company.
Games: AFL Challenge, AFL Mascot Manor
Games in Development: Spacechimps, Ned Kelly
Job Positions Interested In: Static Mesh modeling, Animating, QA.

Level-5 (International)
URL: http://www.level5.co.jp/
Contact: Kyukan Daimyo Bldg. 6F 2-6-28, Daimyo Chuo-ku Fukuoka, 810-0041 Japan
CEO: Akihiro Hino
History: Level-5 Inc. is a Japanese development studio, founded in October 1998. Employing a staff of around 40, the company made its debut with the PlayStation 2 RPG, Dark Cloud in December 2000.The game was an immediate success for the company, selling just under a million units worldwide. Work immediately began on a pseudo-sequel titled Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2 in North America), that, while not as successful as the first, still gained critical acclaim and sold over half a million units worldwide.
Games: Dark Cloud, Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Games in Development: Mystery Room, Fantasy Life
Job Positions Interested In: Static Mesh modeling, Animating, QA.