Ryan C. Gordon (also known as icculus) is a

computer 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 former

Loki Software Loki Software, Inc. (Loki Entertainment) was an American video game developer based in Tustin, California, that porting, ported several video games from Microsoft Windows to Linux. It took its name from the Norse deity Loki. Although successful ...

employee responsible for ''icculus.org'', which hosts many Loki Software projects as well as others. Gordon's site hosts projects with the code from such commercial games as ''

Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem'' and '' Duke Nukem II'', published by 3D Realms. ''Duke Nukem 3D'' features the adventures of the titular Duke N ...

'', ''

Shadow Warrior ''Shadow Warrior'' is a series of first-person shooter video games that focuses on the exploits of Lo Wang, a modern ninja warrior who fights through hordes of demons. The original series is made up of one game, '' Shadow Warrior'' (1997), and t ...

'', ''

Quake III Arena ''Quake III Arena'' is a 1999 multiplayer-focused first-person shooter developed by id Software. The third installment of the ''Quake'' series, ''Arena'' differs from previous games by excluding a story-based single-player mode and focusing prima ...

'' and other

free and open source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

projects for multiple platforms. Gordon created ports of proprietary software products to the

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

and

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

platforms. These include being hired to port most of the ''

Unreal Tournament ''Unreal Tournament'' is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The second installment in the '' Unreal'' series, it was first published by GT Interactive in 1999 for Microsoft Windows, and lat ...

'' series, some of the '' Serious Sam series'', the official '' Postal series'', some

Tripwire Interactive Tripwire Interactive LLC is an American video game developer and publisher based in Roswell, Georgia. History Tripwire was co-founded by John Gibson and Alan Wilson with support by members of the international team that created ''Unreal Tourna ...

and

Coffee Stain Studios Coffee Stain Studios AB is a Swedish video game developer based in Skövde. Founded in 2010 by nine University of Skövde students, the company is best known for '' Goat Simulator,'' which was released in April 2014, and ''Satisfactory'', rele ...

titles, and '' Prey (2006)''. He has also been involved in porting several non-gaming products such as ''

Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...

'' and '' Google Earth''. Some, such as ''Candy Cruncher'' and ''

Postal 2 ''Postal 2'' is a 2003 first-person shooter developed by Running with Scissors. It is the sequel to the 1997 game '' Postal'' and was released for Microsoft Windows in April 2003, macOS in April 2004 and Linux in April 2005. ''Postal 2'', as we ...

'', have been published by

Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing (sometimes also referred to as LGP) was a software company based in Nottingham in England. It ported, published and sold video games running on Linux operating systems. As well as porting games, LGP also sponsored the deve ...

. He was described alongside Edward Rudd as being "instrumental" in ensuring the multi-platform nature of the

Humble Indie Bundle Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and t ...

initiatives.

Biography

Personal life

Gordon grew up just outside

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and attended college in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

, where he resides. On January 3, 2010 he became engaged to Carrie and they were married later that year. On January 31, 2012 his wife gave birth to their first child, Olive Finch Gordon. He is also a founding member of the BareBones Theatre Group in Charlotte.

Loki Software

In 1999

ran a contest called "Loki Hack" at the ''Atlanta Linux Showcase'', with the goal of improving the Linux port of '' Civilization: Call To Power''. Gordon decided to give it a try, driving the four-hour trip from his home to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

. Loki was impressed with his work and decided to offer him a job.Intervju: Porting games to Linux - hardware.no
/ref> Gordon quickly rose to prominence at Loki, working as a developer on the game ports of '' Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns'', ''Quake III Arena'', and ''

Eric's Ultimate Solitaire ''Eric's Ultimate Solitaire'' (also known as Eric's Ultimate Solitaire X) is a commercial solitaire game developed by Delta Tao Software for the Macintosh. The game was later ported to Linux by Loki Software. Apple Computer bundled the game with ...

'', as well as being the lead developer for ''

Descent 3 ''Descent 3'' (stylized as ''Descent³'') is a first-person shooter video game developed by Outrage Entertainment and published by Interplay Entertainment. It was originally released for Microsoft Windows in North America on June 17, 1999. ''Des ...

'' and '' Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²''. In 2000 he also wrote several articles for the online Linux news and information website

Linux.com Linux.com is a website owned by the Linux Foundation. The goal of the site is to provide information about the developments and changes in Linux and related products. Linux.com offers free Linux tutorials, news and blogs, discussion forums and ...

. Around this time he founded ''icculus.org'', made to provide hosting for various

projects, and would later be used to support and continue some of Loki's free software projects and tools. While at Loki Software, Gordon picked his

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

icculus as a reference to the fictional character from Gamehendge in the song "Icculus" by

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band is known for musical improvisation, extended Jam session#Rock, jams, blending of Music genre, genres, and a dedicated Fandom, fan base. The band consists of guitari ...

Independent contracts

The upcoming closure of Loki forced him to seek outside employment. A friend offered him a job at his cybercafe, and he was forced to move in with his parents. Desperate to escape working a

cash register A cash register, sometimes called a till or automated money handling system, is a mechanical or electronic device for registering and calculating transactions at a point of sale. It is usually attached to a drawer for storing cash and other ...

, he found the

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

address of an artist working for the developer

Croteam Croteam is a Croatian video game developer based in Zagreb. The company was established by Davor Hunski, Damir Perović, Roman Ribarić and Dean Sekulić, four former classmates, in late August 1992. Croteam is best known for '' Serious Sam'', ...

. They had recently released the first of their highly successful ''

Serious Sam ''Serious Sam'' is a video game series created and primarily developed by Croteam. It consists predominantly of first-person shooters. The series follows the advances of mercenary Sam "Serious" Stone against Mental, an extraterrestrial overlo ...

'' series, and Gordon asked if they would be interested in him building a Linux port. They agreed, and the port's first

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labi ...

was released on December 5, 2002. From there he gained other contracts such as being hired to port '' Devastation'' and '' Medal of Honor: Allied Assault'' for Linux and ''

America's Army ''America's Army'' is a series of first-person shooter video games developed and published by the U.S. Army, intended to inform, educate, and recruit prospective soldiers. Launched in 2002, the game was branded as a strategic communication devi ...

'' for Linux and Mac OS X. He was also contracted by

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, ...

to port their ''

Unreal Tournament 2003 ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes, and published by Infogrames under the Atari brand name. The game is part of the ''Unreal'' franchise, and is a sequel to 19 ...

'' title to

and Mac OS X, with the port being included with the packaged

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

version. This business relationship continued with the release of ''

Unreal Tournament 2004 ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. Part of the ''Unreal'' franchise, it is the third game in the ''Unreal Tournament'' series and the sequel to ''Unreal Tournament ...

'', and followed from the original ''Unreal Tournament'' which was ported to Linux internally by Epic but was published by Loki. Upon learning about the release of ''Postal 2'' in 2003, Gordon decided to contact the developer behind it wondering if they would be interested in him making a port of the game to Linux and Mac OS X. Loki had previously ported the original ''

Postal Postal may refer to: Places * The Italian name for Burgstall, South Tyrol in northern Italy * Postal, Missouri * Postal Square * Postal Museum (Liechtenstein), a postal museum in Vaduz, Liechtenstein People * Fred Postal, former co-owner of ...

'' to Linux, and he was interested in keeping the franchise compatible. Running with Scissors agreed, and the finished port was shipped on February 14, 2005, with Linux Game Publishing initially handling the publishing of the Linux version. Soon after he was contracted to make a Linux port for the

Wolfire Games Wolfire Games is an American independent video game development company founded by David Rosen. Wolfire Games develops video games for macOS, Windows, and Linux. History David Rosen founded Wolfire Games in 2003 to organize his open source ...

title '' Lugaru: The Rabbit's Foot'', a business relationship that would later prove fruitful for Gordon. Around this time he was also contracted to build a Linux client for the online virtual world ''Second Life''.

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

also utilized his services, with him being contracted to make a native Linux port of their ''Google Earth'' application, with Linux functionality finally becoming available starting with the release of the version 4 beta on June 12, 2006. In 2007 he was once again contracted by Epic Games to port their new ''

Unreal Tournament 3 ''Unreal Tournament 3'' (''UT3'') is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Midway Games. Part of the ''Unreal'' franchise, it is the fourth game in the ''Unreal Tournament'' series, and the eighth g ...

'' title to both Linux and Mac OS X. The Linux game server was released on December 18, 2007, but work was eventually abandoned on the Linux and Mac OS X clients for reasons which remain undisclosed. In October 2008 he made the surprise announcement that he had been working on a Linux client for the

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

game ''

Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

'', after previously porting the game's Linux server in 2006. Although there had been some speculation about a potential Linux release, it had been denied by the developer of the title in the past. The finished port was released on December 7, 2008.

FatELF, Humble Bundle, and Steam

On October 23, 2009 he announced plans to make a

universal binary The universal binary format is, in Apple parlance, a format for executable files that run natively on either PowerPC or Intel-manufactured IA-32 or Intel 64 or ARM64-based Macintosh computers. The format originated on NeXTStep as " Multi-Archit ...

system similar to the one used on Mac OS X for Linux systems called ''

FatELF In computing, the Executable and Linkable FormatTool Interface Standard (TIS) Portable Formats SpecificationVersion 1.1'' (October 1993) (ELF, formerly named Extensible Linking Format), is a common standard file format for executable files, obj ...

''. The project generated considerable controversy, with several

Linux Kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...

developers decrying the effort. Gordon announced that the project was on hold in early November 2009, later stating that he would be willing to work on it again if he receives help from an interested party. Around this time he also started to port the game '' Aquaria'' to Linux for

Bit Blot ''Aquaria'' is a side-scrolling action-adventure game designed by Alec Holowka and Derek Yu, who published the game in 2007 as the independent game company Bit Blot. The game follows Naija, an aquatic humanoid woman, as she explores the underw ...

. On May 11, 2010 he and Wolfire Games released the source code of his code branch of ''

Lugaru ''Lugaru: The Rabbit's Foot'' is the first commercial video game created by indie developer Wolfire Games. It is a cross-platform, open-source 3D action game. The player character is an anthropomorphic rabbit utilizing a wide variety of c ...

'' under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ulti ...

. He was also involved with the source code release of Aquaria, both of which were sold as part of the first

, which was also hosted by Wolfire. He was then contracted to port '' Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45'' to Mac OS X, stating that he could potentially port it to Linux if

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...

ever released a Linux client. Gordon also generated some controversy that summer for his talk at the 2010

SouthEast LinuxFest SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF) is an annual Linux and open source software conference held in the Southeast United States. It is a Friday through Sunday weekend event held in the second or third weekend of June. The event is dedicated to education, ...

titled "Anatomy of a Failure", where he criticized some aspects of the Kernel development process. He then ported ''

Braid A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strande ...

'' to both Linux and Mac OS X to allow it to be a part of

Humble Indie Bundle 2 Humble Bundle, Inc. is a online distribution, digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a Pay what you want, price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of ...

, as well as porting the games '' Cogs'' and ''

Hammerfight ''Hammerfight'', previously known as ''Hammerfall'', is a 2D computer graphics, 2-dimensional Game physics, physics-based video game published by Kranx Productions and 1C Company, 1C for Windows in 2009. It was re-released as a cross-platform g ...

'' for later bundles. As part of this he ported the "

Haaf's Game Engine ''Hammerfight'', previously known as ''Hammerfall'', is a 2-dimensional physics-based video game published by Kranx Productions and 1C for Windows in 2009. It was re-released as a cross-platform game in the third Humble Indie Bundle in 2011, ...

" to Linux and Mac OS X, and released his port under a

free software license A free-software license is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of software extensive rights to modify and software distribution, redistribute that software. These actions are usually prohibited by copyright law, but the rights-holde ...

. He ported '' Frozen Synapse'' to Linux to be included as the primary part of the Frozen Synapse Bundle, as well as ''

Super Meat Boy ''Super Meat Boy'' is a 2010 platform game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes under the collective name of "Team Meat". It was self-published as the successor to ''Meat Boy'', a 2008 flash game designed by McMillen and Jonathan McEn ...

'' and '' Shank'' for Humble Indie Bundle 4. During the rest of 2012 Gordon would work on several more ports for the Humble Bundles, including '' Avadon: The Black Fortress'', ''

Space Pirates and Zombies ''Space Pirates and Zombies'' (''S.P.A.Z.'') is a real-time strategy video game released on August 15, 2011, on the Steam distribution platform. with a top-down perspective based around space combat. The game was developed by a two-man team under ...

'', and ''

Psychonauts ''Psychonauts'' is a 2005 platform video game developed by Double Fine Productions. The game was initially published by Majesco Entertainment and THQ for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2. In 2011, Double Fine acquired the rights f ...

''. He would also be involved in updating old releases as well as porting several new titles to Linux to be included as part of

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...

Linux launch, including creating Linux ports of the games ''Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45'' and '' Killing Floor'' for Tripwire Interactive. As part of the

Humble Indie Bundle 7 Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and t ...

promotion Gordon ported the title ''

Dungeon Defenders ''Dungeon Defenders'' is a hybrid multiplayer video game developed by Trendy Entertainment that combines the genres of tower defense and action role-playing game. It is based on a showcase of Unreal Engine 3 named ''Dungeon Defense''. The g ...

'' to Linux, making it the first Linux native title to utilize

Unreal Engine 3 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres ...

, the engine that debuted with the release of ''Unreal Tournament 3'' back in 2007 which Gordon had unsuccessfully tried to port to the platform. In 2013 he created an unfinished beta port of ''

Dear Esther ''Dear Esther'' is a First-person (video games), first-person exploration and Adventure game, adventure video game developed by The Chinese Room for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Mac OS X, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. First released in 2008 as a free- ...

'' to Linux to be included as part of

Humble Indie Bundle 8 Humble Bundle, Inc. is a online distribution, digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a Pay what you want, price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of ...

. Gordon was one of the speakers at the first ever ''Steam Dev Days'', where he outlined how to port a game to Linux and to

SteamOS SteamOS is a Linux distribution developed by Valve. It is open source with some closed source components and is the primary operating system for Steam Machines and the Steam Deck. The initial versions of SteamOS, versions 1.0 and 2.0, were ba ...

. In 2014 he ported the games ''

Goat Simulator ''Goat Simulator'' is a third-person perspective action video game developed and published by Coffee Stain Studios. It was released for Microsoft Windows in April 2014, and ports for Linux and OS X were released in June 2014. Mobile versions fo ...

'' and ''

Sanctum 2 ''Sanctum 2'' is a first-person shooter tower defense video game, developed by independent developer Coffee Stain Studios for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The successor to ''Sanctum'', ''Sanctum 2'' was annou ...

'' to Linux and Mac OS X for Coffee Stain Studios. On June 19, 2014 he released a new Linux port of ''

LIMBO In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin ''limbus'', edge or boundary, referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of Western Europ ...

'', a game that had previously been released for Linux using a

CrossOver Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

wrapper as part of

Humble Indie Bundle V Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and t ...

, something that proved controversial at the time due to it not being a fully native release. In order to accomplish this Gordon also had to port

Wwise Wwise (Wave Works Interactive Sound Engine) is Audiokinetic Audiokinetic Inc. is a Canadian software company based in Montreal, Quebec that develops audio software for the video game industry. Its main product is Wwise audio authoring software. ...

, the audio middleware that previously prevented a native port from being possible.

icculus.org

icculus.org is Gordon's personal website and a project incubator similar to

SourceForge.net SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, Mirror site ...

Ourproject.org OurProject.org (OP) is a web-based collaborative free content repository. It acts as a central location for the construction and maintenance of social/cultural/artistic projects, providing web space and tools, and focusing in free knowledge. It ...

GNU Savannah GNU Savannah is a project of the Free Software Foundation initiated by Loïc Dachary, which serves as a collaborative software development management system for free Software projects. Savannah currently offers CVS, GNU arch, Subversion, Git, ...

. Gordon is often involved in the projects hosted on his site but not universally. The site hosts port or enhancement projects for games such as ''

Aliens versus Predator ''Alien vs. Predator'' (also known as ''Aliens versus Predator'' and ''AVP'') is a science-fiction action horror media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, the ...

'', '' Jump 'n Bump'', ''

DONKEY.BAS ''Donkey'', often known by its filename ''DONKEY.BAS'', is a video game written in 1981, and included with early versions of the IBM PC DOS operating system distributed with the original IBM PC. It is a top-down driving game in which the player m ...

'', ''Duke Nukem 3D'', ''Shadow Warrior'', ''

Freespace 2 ''FreeSpace 2'' is a 1999 space combat simulation computer game developed by Volition as the sequel to '' Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War''. It was completed ahead of schedule in less than a year, and released to very positive reviews, but ...

'', ''

Descent 2 ''Descent II'' is a 1996 first-person shooter game developed by Parallax Software and first published for DOS by Interplay Productions. For the PlayStation, it is known as ''Descent Maximum''. It is the second installment in the ''Descent'' v ...

'', ''

Black Shades ''Black Shades'' is a free and open-source video game developed by Wolfire Games. Originally released for Mac OS 9 it was ported to other platforms due to the source code availability. The player controls a psychic bodyguard who is tasked with pro ...

'', ''

Ken's Labyrinth ''Ken's Labyrinth'' is a first-person shooter for MS-DOS published in 1993 by Epic MegaGames. It was programmed by Ken Silverman, who later designed the Build engine used for rendering in 3D Realms's ''Duke Nukem 3D'' (1996). Ken's Labyrinth cons ...

'', ''

Rise of the Triad ''Rise of the Triad: Dark War'' is a first-person shooter video game, developed and published by Apogee Software (now 3D Realms) in 1995. The player can choose one of five different characters to play as, each bearing unique attributes such a ...

'', ''

Wolfenstein 3D ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game ''Castle Wolfen ...

'', ''

Heretic Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

'', ''

Hexen Hexen can refer to: * ''N''-Ethylhexedrone, a stimulant drug * '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'', a 1995 dark fantasy video game by id Software and Raven Software * '' Hexen II'', a 1997 video game and sequel to the first Hexen. * Hexen, a thrash metal ...

'', cooperative ''

Rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

'', ''

Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the ''Quake'' series, but not a direct sequel to '' Quake''. The game's storyline is continued in its e ...

'', ''the

Build engine Build Engine is a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman, author of ''Ken's Labyrinth'', for 3D Realms. Like the ''Doom'' engine, the Build Engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sector ...

'', ''

Unreal Unreal may refer to: Books and TV * ''Unreal'' (short story collection), a 1985 book of short stories by Paul Jennings * ''Unreal'' (TV series), a 2015 television drama series on Lifetime Computing and games * ''Unreal'' (video game series), ...

'' (as an ''Unreal Tournament'' mod) and the ''

Chzo Mythos Benjamin Richard "Yahtzee" Croshaw (born 24 May 1983) is a British comedic writer, author, video game journalist, humorist, podcaster, and video game developer. He is best known for his video game review series '' Zero Punctuation'', which he pr ...

''. The site also hosts free software projects such as

Neverball is a 2001 platform party video game developed by Amusement Vision and published by Sega. The game debuted in Japan at the 2001 Amusement Operators Union trade show as ''Monkey Ball'', an arcade cabinet running on Sega's NAOMI hardware and con ...

ioquake3 id Tech 3, popularly known as the ''Quake III Arena'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for their video game ''Quake III Arena''. It has been adopted by numerous games. During its time, it competed with the Unreal Engine; bot ...

and related projects, an attempted

Visual Basic Visual Basic is a name for a family of programming languages from Microsoft. It may refer to: * Visual Basic .NET (now simply referred to as "Visual Basic"), the current version of Visual Basic launched in 2002 which runs on .NET * Visual Basic (c ...

re-implementation,

OpenAL OpenAL (Open Audio Library) is a cross-platform audio application programming interface (API). It is designed for efficient rendering of multichannel three-dimensional positional audio. Its API style and conventions deliberately resemble those ...

for Mac OS X, and a

Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! Messenger (sometimes abbreviated Y!M) was an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo I ...

client. It is also the host of the freeware CodeRED: Alien Arena project and has hosted code from the developers Blazing Games, Piga Software, Wolfire Games, and Bit Blot.

Ported titles

The following is a list of all the software that Gordon has been involved in porting, except for his game server ports. In addition to these, he has also been contracted to provide technical assistance to

Gaslamp Games Gaslamp Games, Inc. was an independent game developer based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada which designed video games for the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems. Their first game, ''Dungeons of Dredmor'', was release ...

, developers of ''

Dungeons of Dredmor ''Dungeons of Dredmor'' is a roguelike indie video game released on July 13, 2011, by Gaslamp Games. A downloadable content (DLC) pack, "Realm of the Diggle Gods", was released later that year. A second DLC, "You Have To Name The Expansion Pack", ...

'' and ''

Clockwork Empires Gaslamp Games, Inc. was an independent game developer based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada which designed video games for the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems. Their first game, '' Dungeons of Dredmor'', was releas ...

'', and helped develop but was not solely responsible for the Linux and OS X ports of

Double Fine Productions Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two game ...

' ''

Costume Quest ''Costume Quest'' is a party-based role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ on October 19, 2010. In the game, the player controls a child who is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when t ...

''.

Humble Bundle

* ''Dungeon Defenders'' (Linux, 2012) * ''Psychonauts'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2012) * ''Space Pirates and Zombies'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2012) * ''Avadon: The Black Fortress'' (Linux, 2012) * ''Super Meat Boy'' (Linux and OS X, 2011) * ''Shank'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2011) * ''Frozen Synapse'' (Linux, 2011) * ''Cogs'' (Linux, 2011) * ''Hammerfight'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2011) * ''Braid'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2010)

Independently contracted

* '' Turok: Dinosaur Hunter'' (Linux, 2018) * ''Goat Simulator'' (Linux and OS X, 2014) * ''Sanctum 2'' (Linux and OS X, 2014) * ''

Left 4 Dead 2 ''Left 4 Dead 2'' is a 2009 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. The sequel to Turtle Rock Studios's ''Left 4 Dead'' (2008) and the second game in the ''Left 4 Dead'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbo ...

'' (Linux, 2013) * ''LIMBO'' (OS X, 2011; Linux, 2014) * ''Killing Floor'' (Mac OS X, 2010 and Linux, 2012) * ''Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45'' (Mac OS X, 2010 and Linux, 2012) * ''Aquaria'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2008-2010) * ''Prey'' (Linux, 2008) * ''Second Life'' (Linux, 2008) * ''Google Earth'' (Linux, 2006) * ''Lugaru: The Rabbit's Foot'' (Linux, 2005; OS X) * ''Postal 2'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2004-2005) * ''Postal'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2005) * ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' (Linux, Mac OS X, and Win64, 2004) * '' Shadow Ops: Red Mercury'' (Win64, 2004) * ''Candy Cruncher'' (Linux, BeOS, and Mac OS, 2003) * ''America's Army'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2002-2006) * ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' (Linux and Mac OS X, 2002) * ''Unrealty'' (Mac OS)

Mac OS X only

* ''

Façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means 'frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

'' (Mac OS X, 2005) * ''Shrek 2'' (Mac OS X, 2004) * ''Spider-Man 2'' (Mac OS X, 2004) * ''

Feeding Frenzy In ecology, a feeding frenzy occurs when predators are overwhelmed by the amount of prey available. The term is also used as an idiom in the English language. Examples in nature For example, a large school of fish can cause nearby sharks, such a ...

'' (Mac OS X, 2005) * '' Iggle Pop'' (Mac OS X) * ''

Pizza Frenzy ''Pizza Frenzy'' is an arcade-style pizza delivery game written by Sprout Games and published by PopCap Games. Gameplay The objective of ''Pizza Frenzy'' is to quickly deliver the correct pizzas to customers. The game levels take place in a n ...

'' (Mac OS X) * '' Candy Crisis'' (Mac OS X) * IMVU client (Mac OS X) * ''Ricochet: Lost Worlds'' (Mac OS X, 2005) * ''

Big Kahuna Reef ''Big Kahuna Reef'' is a tile-matching puzzle video game developed by Reflexive Entertainment Reflexive Entertainment was a video game developer based in Lake Forest, California. The company was cofounded by Lars Brubaker, Ernie Ramirez, James ...

'' (Mac OS X, 2005) * ''

RocketBowl ''RocketBowl'' (also ''RocketBowl Plus'') is a sports game developed by LargeAnimal and published by GarageGames, released November 4, 2004 for Windows. The game features a retro-futuristic 1950s theme. It was also released on the Xbox 360 throu ...

'' (Mac OS X, 2006). * '' Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures'' (Mac OS X, 2006) * ''Hidden Mysteries Civil War'' (Mac OS X, 2008) * ''Magic Match Adventures'' (Mac OS X, 2008) * ''Go-Go Gourmet 2'' (Mac OS X) * ''Go-Go Gourmet'' (Mac OS X, 2008) * ''Super Meat Boy'' (Mac OS X)

Loki Software

* ''Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns'' (Linux, 2001) * ''Eric's Ultimate Solitaire'' (Linux, 2000) * ''Descent 3'' (Linux, 2000) * ''Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²'' (Linux, 2000) * ''Quake III Arena'' (Linux, 1999)

Unfinished ports (beta)

* ''Dear Esther'' (Linux, 2013) * ''Medal of Honor: Allied Assault'' (Linux) * ''Devastation'' (Linux) * ''Serious Sam: The Second Encounter'' (Linux) * ''Serious Sam: The First Encounter'' (Linux)Serious Sam 2nd Encounter Q&A & Linux News - Blue's News
/ref>

Unreleased ports

* ''Unreal Tournament 3'' (Linux / Mac OS X)

References

External links

Ryan C. Gordon's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Ryan C. Video game programmers Free software programmers Linux game porters Linux people Living people People from Charlotte, North Carolina Year of birth missing (living people)

Biography

Personal life

Loki Software

Independent contracts

FatELF, Humble Bundle, and Steam

icculus.org

Ported titles

Humble Bundle

Independently contracted

Mac OS X only

Loki Software

Unfinished ports (beta)

Unreleased ports

See also

References

External links