About

My name is Richard Davey, and Photon Storm is my place on the web where I publish my games and write about ActionScript3 and game development.

For my day job I’m the Technical Director of Aardman Digital, the online department within Aardman Animations – most famously known for Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Creature Comforts. Part of the work our department does is to create Flash games and online experiences based around our key brands.

Prior to joining Aardman I spent years working in the games industry for a fine company called The Game Creators. They produce software that allows anyone to create decent games on the PC with relative ease. I’m still in close contact with the guys there, and while not AS3 based I’ll be blogging about anything exciting I see on their horizon. They’ve converted a couple of my Flash games to the iPhone so far, and are doing some exciting mobile work. One’s to watch.

I consider myself a hardcore gamer, and have always loved gaming since I saw my first ever Atari 2600. I’m also an Atari otaku. The Atari ST holding a special place in my heart, which is why I built this site dedicated to it. So if my AS3 experiments have a seriously “retro” flavour to them, that is why!

You can read an interview with me over on the excellent 8-bit Rocket web site if you’re dying to know more.

Things I love

All things Atari. Reading Manga (especially Hayate the Combat Butler and Shonen Jump Advance) and anything by Neil Gaiman. Watching Anime (especially Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex). Collecting 1980s/1990s computer gaming magazines, I have a massive collection! and you’ll find my contributions on the Out of Print Archive site. Watching the releases coming from the demo scene (old and new). Listening to electronica / trance / metal / rock / classical and chip music. Playing non-violent two-player games on the 360 with my son. Inviting friends and family to our legendary BBQs

Why Photon Storm?

The name comes from a lesser known Jeff Minter game released for the Atari ST. I thought it was a great game. Very few magazines agreed. Even Jeff himself doesn’t rate it too highly. But it had a wonderful name, which I’ve stolen for this blog!

The game was a 2D shooter. You viewed your ship from above and flew around with a combination of the mouse and keyboard. The control system was very Geometry Wars in style. You used the mouse to aim and the keyboard to move. It took some getting used to, but was well worth the effort. Truly innovative for 1990, and not really repeated again until everyone was using dual analog sticks.

FlashGameLicense.com

I’m a big advocate of FlashGameLicense.com and truly appreciate what they’ve done for me: finding great sponsors for most of my games, and providing a virtual home from home. You’ll find me hanging out in their forums and chat rooms when time allows.

Who designed your site?

The artwork adorning my site comes from a variety of sources:

1) The insect flying above the logo is from Insects in Space by Hewson, drawn by Mark K. Jones.
2) Photon Storm logo created by the excellent concept artist Arthur Wang.
3) Predator is from the Atari ST Pompey Pirates crack disk 95, drawn by Sid B.
4) Small purple aliens from Bellum Internecinum, an Atari ST PD game by Paul Bocij.
5) Footer space ship from the game Outzone, drawn by Stephane Bellin.
6) Footer shooting buggy from the game SWIV, drawn by Ned Langman.