Mason McCuskey

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 m   a   s   o   n   m   c   .   c   o   m
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Red Line to 95th, Edgewater, Chicago.
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[ About ]
I am a software engineer, author, musician, and gamemaker, as well as a horrible web developer (PHP in 2020?!? Don't hit F12).

You can find me on the following:

Steam

Facebook

Github

Spotify

Email

Instagram

If you want to purchase my games and apps, go to Cuttlefish Industries.
(press kits and stuff are over there as well). This is my personal site.

▼ ▼ ▼ Keep scrolling down for more fun stuff.

[ Indie Games and Apps ]
Fun stuff I've made with friends, or alone.

░▒▓ Quaternion (2000 IGF Finalist)

I used to run Spin Studios back when I lived in Portland, OR, and made a game called Quaternion, which was an IGF finalist in 2000. It's kinda like Columns but taken to an extreme - all sorts of powerups and multiplayer and stuff. [ More ]

░▒▓ StoryPops (IndieCade/E3 2014)

A dual-screen interactive storybook! Young kids use a smartphone to "play" with the storybook as their parents read to them. I did the networking code for this project, which was selected as one of IndieCade's 2014 E3 showcase pieces. The apps were written using C#, Amazon Web Services, and Unity. [ More ]

░▒▓ Cuttlefish Engine

When the iPhone and Android first hit, I left my real job and spent a year building a cross-platform, 2D game creator platform, using C# (and WinForms, heh). It didn't really take off, but it was fun code to write. [ More ]

░▒▓ Don't Dial (iPhone, Android)

An app (iPhone and Android) that helped prevent you from making drunk dials (or drunk texts) to people you definitely shouldn't be talking to while inebriated. It was featured on a bunch of sites, and the Today Show! The app temporarily changes phone numbers to (xxx)xxx-xxxx, which sadly is about all you can do under Apple policies (at the end of the day, it's your phone, you can call who you want), but people seemed to like the idea. [ More ]

░▒▓ Treasure Hunter

Find the treasure, before the friend sitting next to you kills you. I worked with several friends to make this for the first DreamBuildPlay contest. Xbox 360 (XNA). [ More ]

I've done a ton more indie stuff; if I worked with you on something that isn't listed here, it isn't a slight, it's missing because I haven't had a chance to make screenshots, write up a description, etc. (Unless you were just an awful person to work with; then it's a slight).

You can also [ watch my demo reel on YouTube ], which showcases more recent projects (mostly professional but also freelance and personal).

[ Books ]
I've written a couple books on video game programming. They're mostly out of date nowadays - the APIs have changed SO MUCH! - but the concepts are solid!

░▒▓ Special Effects Game Programming With DirectX

Teaches you how to create some of the most interesting special effects. Learn how to code 3D water, cartoon renderings, lens flares, image warping and feedback, fire and explosions, and many other effects. [ More ]

░▒▓ Game Audio Programming

Teaches you everything you need to make your games sound as good as they look. [ More ]

░▒▓ Various Articles

These have aged a little better, since they're more about theory and best practices. I used to write for gamedev.net, so you can find more of my stuff there. [ More ]

[ Music ]

░▒▓ Telegon Oscillator - Magnificient Desolation

I make electronic music under the name Telegon Oscillator. Magnificient Desolation is my first album! It's instrumental synthy goodness, and 99% non-verbal... perfect for coding!

You can listen to it by tapping the image over there, or you can click through to: [ Spotify ][ BandCamp ]

[ Photography ]

I gots me a fancy camera and some lenses and sometimes I lug the whole mess around to different cities and photograph things.

I post the best pictures as random backgrounds on this site. One of these days I'll post them all in one of those cool web albums but for now the best you can do is to click here to randomly grab the next one.

[ AAA Games ]

I was a professional game developer for many years, working at various studios on AAA titles, mostly for consoles and PC but with the odd iOS one thrown in too. Here's some of the games I helped to make:

° HomeFront (2011, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
° Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
° CastleCraft (2011, iOS)
° Marc Ecko's Getting Up (2006, PS2, Xbox, PC)
° Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005, PS2, Xbox)

I mostly did AI Programming, Tools Programming, and general gameplay stuff like cameras (ugh!) and UI.

[ Retro ]
And just for fun, here's some crazy old stuff - mostly projects I did when I was a kid. Cause DOS.