Michael Hicks (born January 3, 1993) is an American

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

, musician,

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

and writer. His most notable works include 2018's ''

The Path of Motus ''The Path of Motus'' is a puzzle-platform game designed by Michael Hicks for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. The game follows a goblin named Motus who is trapped inside a mysterious forest. He plans to escape by building bridge ...

'' and 2015's ''

Pillar A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

''. Described as a " lone auteur", Hicks is noted for his innovative game concepts. His soundtrack work has also been critically acclaimed.

Early life

Hicks grew up in

Mt. Vernon, Illinois Mount Vernon is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 14,600 at the 2020 census. Mount Vernon is the principal city of the Mount Vernon Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all ...

and attended Mt. Vernon Township High School. Hicks began programming games at 14 and taught himself the skills he needed by studying examples online. While attending High School he released his first published video game onto

Xbox Live Indie Games Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG; previously called Xbox Live Community Games; XBLCG) are video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were develope ...

at 18. After High School he moved to

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Greater Orlando, Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolit ...

to attend

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center ...

Career

After releasing his first published game in 2011, Hicks became active in the Xbox Live Indie Games community. He helped coordinate the third

Indie Games Uprising The Indie Games Uprising is a developer led event designed to promote the "best of the best" Xbox Live Indie Games. The promotion was originally conceived by Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games and Ian Stocker of MagicalTimeBean, when they noticed that t ...

in 2012, an event that included his own game ''Sententia''. After this he signed on with

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and released ''Pillar'' for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

in 2015. ''Pillar'' was downloaded by over 320,000 players and was showcased at the

Game Developer's Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tuto ...

. He released

on July 17, 2018. In 2017, Hicks started a YouTube channel with the goal of sharing knowledge with others wanting to learn game development.

Games

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Michael American computer programmers American video game designers American male musicians 1993 births Full Sail University alumni Living people Video game developers Indie video game developers