Multiwinia

Introversion Software is a video game company based out of England that has won multiple awards for their innovative and enjoyable games. A couple years back they released a game called Defcon which I was quite good at, and resulted in me becoming one of the better known fans in their gaming circles.

Why am I telling you this? Because as a result of that connection I was given an opportunity to do some work for them last spring. Video games have what's called "beta testers", they are given advance copies of the game prior to it's release in public, as well as inside access to the designers, and tasked with trying to find every fault with the game they can. The idea is that by identifying these faults early, the company can fix them before the game goes on sale, and thus have a better product.

So last spring I, as well as a number of other persons who had gained the company's trust (a Non-Disclosure Agreement must be signed since early copies/pictures/videos/info on the game being released by testers can result in a massive loss of revenue by the company) were asked to beta test their latest game. I didn't expect much out of it, since such jobs aren't usually paid, but I thought it might be fun so I went ahead with it.

The game is called Multiwinia, and it went on sale today. Much to my delight I found a name vaguely familiar in the credits:
Even though mine was a small part, getting to see my name in the published version, which will be sold in stores in at least Europe and North America, as well as distributed on the Microsoft X-Box Live network, has really made my day!