This week we’re proud to introduce Jason Spangler, Cloud Imperium’s Chief Technical Officer. Jason is based in Austin and is responsible for overseeing the technical side of Star Citizen’s development. Like our other leads, he’s an industry veteran with roots at Origin Systems!
How did you get started in the game industry? I was a huge fan of Origin games when growing up – including the Wing Commander and Ultima series. I even entered a poem in Computer Gaming World’s game poetry contest about Wing Commander and Ultima – and it was published! I even wrote to the studio asking them how I could get a job there and got a great letter from Dallas Snell in response. After college I submitted my resume to Origin, which had just started development on Ultima Online, and was hired as a programmer on the project. What projects have you worked on?
Ultima Online, many Ultima Online expansions and live releases, Star Trek: Klingon Academy, Ultima X: Odyssey (cancelled), Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Ville, and now Star Citizen and Squadron 42. Were you familiar with Chris Roberts’ games before Star Citizen?
Oh yes – I was a huge Wing Commander fan. My favorites were Wing Commander 1 and 2 plus expansions, and Wing Commander Privateer. I even have a Bad Blood box here at my desk. What will you be doing for Cloud Imperium?
I’m the Chief Technical Officer (aka CTO) responsible for all technology development at the company, including games the company creates. That involves a lot of different things, including evaluating tech, working with other engineers on tech design of features and systems, helping designers and artists get what they need from engineering, working with leads to schedule development, and even getting to code myself sometimes! :) Those things will change as the development team grows. What are you most excited to see in Star Citizen/Squadron 42?
Everything! It is hard to narrow it down to one thing… I especially like my character actually being in the cockpit, able to walk around with friends in larger ships, and the Oculus Rift support (I’ve been into stereoscopic gaming for a while). What are you playing right now? I’m playing Minecraft with my nephew who lives in a different state.