Uptown/Lyn Lake : Innovation + Job News

A Minneapolis video game developer scored second place last week in a Boing Boing Arcade contest for a game called Infiltration at Dusk.

Creating video games is actually a hobby of Zachary Johnson, whose day job is working as a user experience developer at Worrell, Inc.

The Boing Boing contest asked developers to build a game inspired by a piece of chip music, the chimey tunes used in old-school video games.

Johnson guesses he's made about a dozen video games since the mid-90s. This one took about 30 hours to create and incorporates unique controls. No memorizing buttons. Just mash your keyboard in the direction you want to shoot.

The premise: you're the last gunman protecting a village from a "horde of biomechanical abominations" trying to rid Earth of all humans.

Sound pretty dark? Well, things are looking brighter for indie video game makers.

"The indie game market is big right now," says Johnson. The cost and accessibility of computing power have given hobbyists tools that professionals could have only dreamed about two decades ago.

Meanwhile, indie video game developers have open markets to sell and distribute their creations via mobile devices or web browsers. That said, Johnson has no plans for quitting his day job.

"It's still a hobby for me. For me, it would be more exciting if I made a game that resonated with thousands of people," says Johnson. "It might earn me enough money that I could pour into another game."

Source: Zach Johnson
Writer: Dan Haugen

 

An ad agency whose clients range from Sesame Street to Steve Jobs is growing to keep up with new business.

Minneapolis-based mono announced last week that it's made two new hires, a designer and a project leader, to keep up with recent client growth. They follow three previous hires announced in April and bring its employee count up to 43.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad at Apple's annual winter gala earlier this year, the giant graphic on stage behind him was designed by mono.

The six-year-old branding and advertising firm is also responsible for producing back-to-school and other seasonal in-store displays for Apple Stores.

Other clients include Macy's, Rolaids, Herman Miller, General Mills, Sesame Street, and Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day.

The most recent hires by mono were in preparation for another large client that's expected to be announced soon.

James Scott, a co-founder and managing partner, said the company is as busy as it's ever been. It grew last year despite the recession, and it expects to grow more this year.

"I think it was because we were able to retain and maintain a really, really smart and talented bunch of people," Scott said.

While others were downsizing, mono manged to avoid layoffs, and that's helped it win new clients, such as Macy's and Rolaids, which it might have missed had the company scaled back, he said.

"We were able to capitalize in a very tough year on opportunities that came our way, and we grew."

Source: James Scott, managing partner, mono
Writer: Dan Haugen