Brian Beuken

Current

• Lecturer in Computer Gaming at NHTV Breda
• supreme overlord of my own destiny at Freelance Programmer (Sole Proprietorship)

Past

• Head of Dev at Rockpool Games Ltd
• MD at Virtucraft Studios
• MD at Virtucraft

• Programmer at Software creations
• Programmer/Team Leader at Icon Design Ltd
• lowley minion, quickly disposed off at Ocean Software

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3 more...

Education

• St Kentigerns Acadamy

Recommended

3 people have recommended Brian

Connections

217 connections

Industry

Computer Games

Brian Beuken’s Summary

I'm a long standing (over 25 years) games developer with experience as a programmer, producer, project and a studio manager, giving me an insight into both the artistic and commercial needs of the games industry and the need to balance seeming incompatible requirements.

I've made an extensive study of Project Management in relation to games development and maintained an interest while taking on other roles in an effort to reduce some of the well known bottle necks in the development progress...there is however no easy answer and solutions generally need to be tailored to the projects.

After a prolonged and sometimes turbulent period in senior management, I became dissatisfied with my lack of hands-on activity and decided to return to my 1st love of games programming. I am one of a few individuals listed as approved Nintendo developers. Though capable of working on most platforms on small-medium sized project I am now working mainly on DS projects which I am finding very fulfilling and enjoyable.

Brian Beuken’s Specialties:

Programming on most current systems, but specialising in handhelds.
Project Managment
Studio Managment

Brian Beuken’s Experience

• Lecturer in Computer Gaming

  NHTV Breda

  (Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Higher Education industry)

  August 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

  A new job, and a new challenge, teaching game programming to 1st year students and artists. As well as hopefully developing their skills in console coding on PSP and Xbox so that we can address the poor standard of games students I've seen in the past.
  
  Still freelancing on DS and some other consoles and setting up a new Studio in the Netherlands about to start on a major new project which will hopefully lead to bigger and better things.

• supreme overlord of my own destiny

  Freelance Programmer (Sole Proprietorship)

  (Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Computer Games industry)

  September 2006 — Present (3 years 4 months)

  During my time at Rockpool I was asked to put my coding head on again to produce a small project on J2me. Frankly, I hated it and made a total pigs ear of it.
  
  Having not coded for so long, my coding skills had lapsed quite a bit.
  But despite that, I started to re-develop an interest in coding, and began to dabble again at home.
  
  By the time I eventually left Rockpool, having tired of the daily commute along the M62, I had the coding bug again and got back up to my previous level.
  I decided to set up again as a freelance coder doing what I enjoy most, working on handheld platforms..
  
  As a fully approved Nintendo Developer on DS I'm able to offer a highly competitive development service on that platform and get to have fun doing what I enjoy most from the relative comfort of my home office.
  I’ve also worked on PSP and PC and can offer a range of development services including Production, Project Management and my primary interest, Game Coding.

• Head of Dev

  Rockpool Games Ltd

  (Computer Games industry)

  September 2005 — November 2006 (1 year 3 months)

  As Head of Dev I was responsible for project management of all the company's projects, and was the front line development contact for all it's clients....fun fun fun

• MD

  Virtucraft Studios

  (Computer Games industry)

  2002 — 2003 (1 year )

• MD

  Virtucraft

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Games industry)

  1999 — 2003 (4 years )

  I was co-owner and MD of Virtucraft, later Virtucraft Studios, a developer of computer games specializing mostly in GBA.
  
  The company was founded using funds from one of my final freelance Projects Micro Machines Twin Turbo.
  
  Soon after formation I stepped down from the coding role and operated as a producer and formed an interest in Project Management which has stayed with me to this day. Later as staffing increased I took a more executive role and concentrated on Biz Dev and operations.
  
  Though Virtucraft was a steady reliable company which eventually grew to 30+ people, it never scored a major hit to propel it to major success, and was always financially vunerable. When a major client began to have financial problems these impacted on Virtucraft and the company was forced to close.

• Programmer

  Software creations

  (Computer Games industry)

  1997 — 1999 (2 years )

  Working as a Freelance Coder I was charged with developing a number of Leading GB and GBC titles during my time with Creations.
  I developed Ken Griffeys MLB, one of the best selling sports titles on the GB and its sequel on GBC, Ken Griffey's Slugfest, also a best seller and praised for its innovative use of colour
  
  I also worked on an abortive but interesting attempt to do a Wolfenstein style of 3D game on the GB.
  Later I worked on a Rugrats title and developed a game framework that was the basis of most of Creations subsequence GB and GBC titles.

• Programmer/Team Leader

  Icon Design Ltd

  (Computer Games industry)

  1982 — 1985 (3 years )

  Icon Design later Lothlorian, was a typical 1980's code sweatshop, where I specialised in Amstrad and Spectrum game development. In the 3 years or so I was there, I pushed out too many titles to remember, averaging one every 8-10 weeks.
  
  Good times and a lot of good friends made.
  
  When Lothlorian eventually went into liquidation I decided to become a freelance coder and continued to specialise in Z80 based platforms for the next 10-12 years, producing over 50 titles on various platforms.

• lowley minion, quickly disposed off

  Ocean Software

  (Computer Games industry)

  1982 — 1983 (1 year )

  I had a small hobby company in Scotland producing games, and came to the attention of Ocean when we produced 2 versions of their million selling Yi Ar Kung Fu. I was asked to come down to Manchester to work on a version for the Spectrum 128K and seeing a chance to work for a company I greatly admired I jumped at it.
  However, I'm afraid my dry sense of humour didn't sit well with my boss, and after making a harmless (I thought) flippant remark, my time there was limited to the time it took to complete the project.
  To this day, I am however intensely grateful to Mr Colin Stokes, who brought me down to Ocean, gave me the chance to learn from so many fantastic people, and who fired me :)
  Had he not done that I think today I'd be a self important shop assistant in a small Scottish Village. Thanks Col.

Brian Beuken’s Education

• St Kentigerns Acadamy

  Activities and Societies:

  what does alpha phi omega mean anyway?

Additional Information

Brian Beuken’s Groups:

•    Game Developers
•    Nintendo DS Developers
•    NHTV IGAD

Brian Beuken’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• consulting offers
• reference requests
• getting back in touch