Gregory Avery-Weir

Gregory Avery-Weir[1]
Gregory Avery-Weir
Photo of Gregory Avery-Weir
Residence Charlotte, North Carolina
Nationality United States
Occupation Game developer, writer
Known for Developer of Flash Games / writer for GameSetWatch

Gregory Avery-Weir is an American game designer and writer. They are known for creating short Flash games. They live in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States.[2]

Early life and education

Avery-Weir received little formal art training, other than occasional art and cartooning classes while growing up.[3]

At college they produced a weekly comic in their college newspaper called “The Absolute Sum of All Evil”.[3]

Career

Up until 2008, Avery-Weir worked as a web developer for RealEstate.com.[2] Prior to their fully released games, Avery-Weir developed hobby game projects in Logowriter, Hypercard, DOS batch scripts, Megazeux, and Inform 6 and 7.[2]

Avery-Weir writes most of their games in a language called ActionScript 3 for the Flash platform, with the intent that they be played in a web browser.[3] Avery-Weir takes responsibility for the graphics, the programming, and the design of the games.[3]

Avery-Weir funds their work through a bid-based model, where casual gaming portals such as Kongregate or Armor Games bid to sponsor Flash projects in exchange for privileges such as their logo appearing in the final game, site exclusivity, or other benefits. Avery-Weir's games are developed start to finish, and then offered up for sponsorship as a complete product. Says Avery-Weir, "That means that I get to maintain creative freedom, although it does introduce uncertainty. I’m never quite sure if a game is going to get sponsors interested at all."[3]

The advertising and sponsorship money Avery-Weir receives from their games, in combination with their work writing for website GameSetWatch, is enough to fully financially support them.[4]

Influences

Among the games that Avery-Weir has suggested influence their work is Shadow of the Colossus, which they praise as "an incredibly emotional work", drawing attention to that game's schism between the goal of killing huge creatures while at the same time feeling ambivalent about the morality of those actions.[3]

They also speak fondly of Planescape: Torment, which they say "continually asks the question, 'What can change the nature of a man?'" They add, "It gives a lot of answers over the course of the game, but never holds one up as the correct one."[3]

They have commented on Knytt, saying, "It manages to create better atmosphere with a few hundred pixels and some sound loops than any multi-million-dollar triple-A video game title."[3]

Avery-Weir has mentioned H. P. Lovecraft as an influence, specifically for The Majesty of Colours but also in general, saying, "He wasn’t the best writer, but his ideas are amazing. He’s the first fiction writer I know of to focus on the idea that humans are not the most powerful beings in the world, and that there are things out there that we can’t understand."[4]

Writing

During 2008 and 2009, Avery-Weir undertook paid work writing for game website GameSetWatch, an opportunity which came about after they wrote an article about the videogame Phyta on their blog Ludus Novus. [4]

Games

  • Necropolis
  • The Majesty of Colors
  • Bars of Black and White
  • Exploit
  • Sugarcore
  • How to Raise a Dragon
  • Silent Conversation
  • The Mold Fairy
  • The Bryant Collection
  • Backup
  • Looming
  • The Day
  • A Ride Home
  • Beneath the Waves
  • Passing the Ball
  • "The Whispering Thing"
  • FutureProof[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The 004 Show: Show -001: "Episode: IV The Revival"". Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved May 22, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 Hall, Taylor (July 21, 2009). "Q. & A. Gregory Weir". Dudgy.com - Pixel Culture on the Internet. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bernardi, Joe (March 18, 2009). "Gregory Weir". Whose Fault Is That: Interviews With Wonderful People. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 Citro, Angelantonio (July 6, 2009). "Intervista a Gregory Weir" [Interview with Gregory Weir]. Indie Vault (in Italian). Archived from the original on September 25, 2009. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  5. ↑ "IndieGames.com PC Pick: Gregory Weir's first paid foray is Ossuary, the puzzling place of bones". IndieGames.com. February 5, 2015. Archived from the original on February 15, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
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