SIAT student Evan Miller recognized by TIME Magazine for video game

posted: december 16. 2008

When Evan Miller discovered his videogame, Hunted Forever, had been named one of the top games of 2008 by Time Magazine, he thought it was a mistake.

Miller, a fourth-year interactive arts and technology student, has been playing games since he was 2 years old and first knew he wanted to make games of his own when he was 6. But he never thought one of his games would be ranked alongside multimillion dollar productions such as Grand Theft Auto and Gears of War. He says that when he learned the news, “I spent the next couple of hours in a state of shock, pretty much -- not being able to believe it. I was so dazed I didn't even tell my parents until the next day,” he told the Vancouver Province.

Hunted Forever is just one of four games Miller has published through his company, Pixelante Game Studios. The graphics, story and instructions are all minimal, with the emphasis on compelling gameplay. Miller designed Hunted Forever and the other games in his spare time on his home computer. They earn money through sponsorship and embedded advertising. ”I’m certainly not getting rich but so far I've been able to bring in enough money to justify development as a full time job.”

Miller came to the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) to gain experience in all aspects of game development and hone his existing skills, he says. “I entered SIAT with a lot more experience than the typical student so the courses here have helped me practice and expand on skills more than learn new ones. I like it best when I have big projects with a lot of freedom to pursue what I want.”

For the future, he wants to keep Pixelante Studios going as a career. “It’s a great job with tons of freedom, and I can sleep in!” He would like to see his games adapted for playing on consoles such as the PlayStation or Xbox, or to have enough capital to fund more ambitious projects with a larger team, but “on the whole I’m already very happy and mostly just want to continue making these sorts of games.”

Links to all of Miller’s games can be found at www.pgstudios.org.

http://www.surrey.sfu.ca/news/huntedforever.html
Interview by Terry Lavender, SFU Surrey

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The Province
14 Dec 2008

A 21-year-old computer whiz who created an on-the-cheap Flash video game on his home PC in Delta has hit the big time in the gaming world — the No. 8 spot on Time magazine’s top 10 releases of 2008. That puts Evan Millar in such blockbuster company as... read more ...