Ken Demarest
Kenneth Llewellyn Demarest III is a computer game programmer, business person, and artist.
As a technical innovator, he worked on Wing Commander and helped advance the state of the art in video games by developing the first 3D, texture-mapped characters ever seen in a computer game with BioForge. As a Director of Technology at Origin Systems, Demarest recognized the potential for graphic massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and developed the technical prototype for Ultima Online using Ultima VI as a code base.[1] His later work would result in the first attempt at a persistent-world real-time strategy game, NetStorm: Islands At War,[2] which as of March 2016 is being re-made in 3D as Disciples of the Storm funding through KickStarter.
In social gaming, Demarest was part of the early work blending 3D MMOs and social game play both stand-alone and on networks such as Facebook and MySpace.[3]
As an artist for Shadow Garden he wrote 'Sand',[4] the most popular and frequently sold work on the platform developed by Zack Simpson. Sand is in the permanent collections of numerous museums world-wide including the Discovery Science Center and Sony Wonder Technology Lab. Demarest's later work supported technology that benefits humanity including MorSand, a 2006 Tech Award Laureate,[5] and CellBazaar, a 2007 Laureate.[6]
Demarest is now a founder of Appsoma, a PaaS for scientific analysis.
References
- ↑ "Netstorm Postmortem", Experimental Game Play, July 2006
- ↑ "Interview with Ken Demarest", Coming Soon Magazine], July 1997
- ↑ "Arcadia Management", Arcadia Entertainment, July 2009
- ↑ "Explore the Museum", Sony Wonder Lab, July 2008
- ↑ "Technology Benefiting Humanity", The Tech Awards, September 2006
- ↑ "Technology Benefiting Humanity", The Tech Awards, September 2007
External links
- Mine-Control Home Page
- Ken Demarest profile on MobyGames
- Sand Exhibit at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, CA
- Sand Exhibit at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab in New York City