Michael Lawrence McShaffry
Born(1966-03-26)26 March 1966
Fort Worth, Texas
Other namesMr. Mike
Alma materUniversity of Houston
Occupation(s)Video game director, producer, and programmer, author
Notable workGame Coding Complete, Ultima VIII
SpouseRobin Chenowith McShaffry

Mike McShaffry , a.k.a. "Mr. Mike," is a video game programmer,[1] entrepreneur and author. He is known as the director of Ultima VIII: Pagan. He graduated from the University of Houston and began his video game industry career working for Origin Systems in 1990. He worked on titles such as Martian Dreams, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Ultima VIII: Pagan, Ultima IX: Ascension and Ultima Online. In 1997 he formed his own company Tornado Alley. After that, he worked at Glass Eye Games for a while on Casino games, which were notable for being the first games he worked on that his mom enjoyed playing.[2]

Mike McShaffrey got his start as a video game programmer when he saw the new Austin, Texas address of Origin Systems on the back of the Ultima VI box, and sent them his resume.[3] The first game he worked on was Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams. In addition to developing and managing many games, Mike did the voice acting for Nicola Tesla in Martian Dreams, and a character named Gordo in Ultima VII.

Since 2003, his book, Game Coding Complete, a comprehensive hands-on guide to developing commercial quality games has been updated and reprinted four times, expanding with each iteration.

After spending seven years at ArtCraft working on CrowFall, as of 2020, he now works as a Cloud Architect at Wave on the servers for Wave's live, virtual concerts.[4]

Charity Work

Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Texas - Mike benefitted as a "Little" in 1979, and reengaged with the Austin chapter of the group in 2000 as a fundraiser, recruiting teams for an annual event called Bowl for Kids. “No matter how you choose to use your time,” Mike is quoted as saying, “try allocating a little bit to making the world a better place than you found it.”[5][6]

Game Contributions

(List from Moby Games developer sheet)

  • Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams (1991) - Programmer
  • Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992) - Programmer
  • Ultima VII: Part Two - The Silver Seed (1993) - Programmer
  • Ultima VII: Part Two - Serpent Isle (1993) - Programmer
  • Pagan: Ultima VIII (1994) - Programmer, Design team, Director
  • Ultima Online (1997) - Programmer
  • Bicycle Casino Games (2001) - Technology Director
  • Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004) - Programmer
  • Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (2008) - Producer
  • Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009) - Executive Producer
  • Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked! (2009) - Executive Producer
  • Age of Booty: Tactics (2014) - Programmer

Bibliography

  • McShaffry, Mike (2003). Game Coding Complete. Paraglyph Press. ISBN 978-1-93211-175-0. (600 pages)
  • McShaffry, Mike (2005). Game Coding Complete, 2nd Edition. Paraglyph Press. ISBN 978-1-93211-191-0. (850 pages)
  • McShaffry, Mike (2009). Game Coding Complete, 3rd Edition. Charles River Media. ISBN 978-1-58450-680-5. (908 pages)
  • McShaffry, Mike (2012). Game Coding Complete, 4th Edition. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-13377-657-4. (960 pages) co-authored with David "Rez" Graham

References

  1. ↑ Michael, David R.; Chen, Sande (2006). Serious games: games that educate, train and inform. Thomson Course Technology. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-59200-622-9. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  2. ↑ "Crowfall - A Murder of Crows: "MrMike"". YouTube.com. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  3. ↑ ""Oh No, Not Moonglow Again!" – An Interview With Mike Mcshaffry". Ultima Codex.com. 10 April 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  4. ↑ "Crowfall - A Murder of Crows: "MrMike"". YouTube.com. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "A Real "Roll" Model". Big Mentoring.org. 19 February 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  6. ↑ "Bowl for Kids Anniversary Edition Fundraiser". Classy.org. Retrieved 7 January 2022.


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