Jeff Minter

Overview

Alternative and independent game developer from England with a fascination for llamas, sheep, and camels. Formed his company, LLamasoft Ltd. in 1982 and still develops games under this name. Creator of the polarizing Space Giraffe, a SHMUP on the PC and Xbox Live Arcade which offered a twist on the familiar Space Invaders format released in 2007. Not so coincidentally, Minter also developed Space Invaders Extreme for the XBLM. Many of his games feature chaotic blends of sound bites, throbbing electronic music, flashy visuals, and bizarre nonsensical humor (often involving inside jokes referencing previous titles of his). LLamasoft is currently developing The Minotaur Project for the iOS systems. Under this title they are going to publish several retro styled games. The first one, Minotaur Rescue, has been published on January 5th 2011.

Bio

Born April 22, 1962 in Reading, England. Began his game design career developing games for the VIC-20 among other early gaming machines such as the Commodore 64, Atari 2600, and Sinclair ZX81. As a child, Minter was afflicted with an illness, limiting him to bed-rest for several months. During this time, Minter formed a deep passion for computer programing. In 1981, Minter began commercially producing games for the ZX Spectrum, Atari 2600, Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX81. One of his first games, Gridrunner for the VIC-20, has been revisited as Gridrunner Revolution.