Michael "Mike" Stout (born 1980) is an American

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

best-known for his work on '' Resistance: Fall of Man'', as the lead multiplayer designer. ''Resistance: Fall of Man'' received significant critical praise, much of which focused on its multiplayer content. From November 2007 to July 2009, he was the Creative Director at Bionic Games working on

Spyborgs ''Spyborgs'' is a beat 'em up video game for the Wii developed by American studio Bionic Games and published by Capcom. It was released in September 2009. Gameplay ''Spyborgs'' sees players controlling a member of a team of cyborg secret agent ...

, an

action game An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, and platform ...

for the Nintendo Wii. According to a post on his blog on November 13, 2009, he was employed by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

in their Central Design group to design several games in the

Skylanders ''Skylanders'' is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game series published by Activision. ''Skylanders'' games are played by placing character figures called the Skylanders on the "Portal of Power", a device that reads the figures' tags thro ...

franchise.

Education

Stout graduated from Loyola High School of Los Angeles in 1998. He went on to Holy Names University in Oakland, California, where he earned a BA in English, with a minor in Computer Science in 2001.

Career

Stout got his start in the

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the Video game development, development, marketing, and Video game monetization, monetization of video games. The industry (economics), industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs wor ...

Insomniac Games Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Burbank, California and a studio of PlayStation Studios. It was founded in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software, and was renamed Insomniac Games a year later. The company is mo ...

as a QA Tester on ''

Ratchet & Clank ''Ratchet & Clank'' is a series of action platformer and third-person shooter video games. The franchise was created and developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation consoles, such as PlayStation ...

''. During that project he was promoted to Junior Designer. He continued to work on the Ratchet & Clank (series) for three years, rising to Designer and Senior Designer in the process. After his fourth ''Ratchet & Clank'' game, Stout was moved to the new ''Resistance'' project, as the Lead Multiplayer Designer. Two years later, ''Resistance: Fall of Man'' became his last title at Insomniac Games. In March 2007 Stout accepted the Lead Level Design position at

Obsidian Entertainment Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California. It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Pa ...

for ''Aliens RPG''. There he worked with

Chris Avellone Chris Avellone is an American video game designer and comic book writer. He worked for Interplay and Obsidian Entertainment before working as a freelancer. He is best known for his work on role-playing video games such as '' Planescape: Tormen ...

and several other industry veterans. Before shipping a game, however, he left to become the

Creative Director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

of Bionic Games. Creative Director is the highest position within the field of video game design, and thus presented an important opportunity. Almost four months after Bionic Games imploded in 2009, Mike accepted a position at

as a Design Specialist in their Central Design group, where he helped design several very successful

games. In 2013, Mike Stout left Activision to form his own company, Interactive Axis. According to the company website, he currently offers Design Consulting services to video game developers and publishers. In December 2016, Mike Stout joined the Interactive Media department of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, in Harrisburg PA, as the 'Game Designer in Residence'. During his time at HU, Mike will mentor students, collaborate with faculty members, work on client projects and co-teach game design courses. In June 2020, Mike announced in

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that he is currently working on '' Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time'', as a Principal Designer. In June 2021, Mike started to work as a Principal Game Designer for

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, ...

Uselessopinions

The humor site "Uselessopinions.com" was co-created by Michael Stout and Anthony Garcia in 2002. The site focuses on joke articles and maintains a juvenile tone. The format mimics a piece of homework, with author, teacher's name, and date at the top. The teacher's name is always "Mr. Lew", a reference to Michael Lew, Stout and Garcia's high school Computer Science teacher. Later Uselessopinions grew to include a forum community and Stout's blog (''"On Game Design"''), but the humor articles became infrequent and as of August 14, 2007 the site is undergoing a redesign. On Uselessopinions, Stout wrote under the pseudonym, "Dodger". He has continued to use "Dodger" as an alias in his career at Insomniac Games and on various websites. The nickname is a reference to

Artful Dodger Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver Twist''. The Dodger is a pickpocket, so called for his skill and cunning in that occupation. He is the leader of the gang of child criminals ...

from the

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', Charles Dickens's second novel, was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Born in a workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist is bound into apprenticeship with ...

''.

Credits

* ''Ratchet & Clank'' series ** ''Ratchet & Clank'' (2002) - QA Lead / Junior Designer *** ''Ratchet & Clank'' (2016) **''

Going Commando Undergarments, underclothing, or underwear are items of clothing worn beneath outer clothes, usually in direct contact with the skin, although they may comprise more than a single layer. They serve to keep outer garments from being soiled o ...

'' (2003) - Junior Designer **'' Up Your Arsenal'' (2004) - Designer **'' Deadlocked'' (2005) - Senior Designer **'' Into the Nexus'' (2013) *'' Resistance: Fall of Man'' (2006) - Lead Multiplayer Designer *''

Resistance 2 ''Resistance 2'' is a 2008 science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. The game was released in North America on November 4, 2008, in Australia ...

'' (2008) *''Aliens: Crucible'' (Cancelled) *''

'' (2009) - Creative Director *'' Transformers: War for Cybertron'' (2010) *'' Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure'' (2011) *'' Skylanders: Giants'' (2012) *'' Skylanders: Swap Force'' (2013) *'' Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (2020)''

References

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Interview
with

All Games Interactive All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stout, Michael American video game designers Living people 1980 births Holy Names University alumni

Education

Career

Uselessopinions

Credits

References

External links