Michael Stout

Michael Stout (born 1980) is an American video game designer 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.[1][2][3] From November 2007 to July 2009, he was the Creative Director at Bionic Games working on Spyborgs, an action game for the Nintendo Wii.[4] According to a post on his blog on November 13, 2009, he was employed by Activision in their Central Design group to design several games in the Skylanders franchise.[5]

For the American activist and musician, see Mike Stout.
Not to be confused with Michael Stoute.
Michael James Stout
Mike Stout in 2011.
Born1980 (age 40–41)
OccupationVideo Game Designer

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.[6]

Career

Stout got his start in the video game industry at Insomniac Games as a QA Tester on Ratchet & Clank.[6] 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 for Aliens RPG. There he worked with Chris Avellone and several other industry veterans. Before shipping a game, however, he left to become the Creative Director of Bionic Games.[7] 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 Activision as a Design Specialist in their Central Design group, where he helped design several very successful Skylanders games.[5]

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.[8]

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.[9]

Uselessopinions

The humor site "Uselessopinions.com" was co-created by Michael Stout and Anthony Garcia in 2002.[10] 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.[11]

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 from the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist [12]

Credits

References
  1. Dunham, Jeremy (2006-11-10). "The Chimera has won… and so have we". IGN. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 2007-09-14. But above all else, it's the multiplayer elements that truly ascend this one to the next level.
  2. Wharmby, Martin (2007-06-07). "Has Sony managed to finally conjure up a killer FPS?". Jolt Online Gaming. Archived from the original on 2007-11-10. Retrieved 2007-09-14. At least Resistance’s multiplayer kicks arse.
  3. Schiesel, Seth (2006-11-20). "A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-14. The multi-player battles in Resistance: Fall of Man are excellent.
  4. McElroy, Justin (2008-06-03). "Capcom announces Wii exclusive 'Spyborgs'". Joystiq. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  5. Stout, Michael (2009-10-13). "New Job!". Blog. Retrieved 2009-12-29.
  6. Stout, Michael. "Michael Stout's Profile at LinkedIn". Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  7. Hatfield, Daemon (2008-04-30). "Bionic Start-Up Developing for Wii". IGN. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  8. "Interactive Axis". 2013-03-01. Retrieved 2013-06-04.
  9. "Harrisburg University". 2016-12-27. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
  10. "Wayback Machine's Records for Uselessopinions.com". Archived from the original on 2002-08-09. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  11. Stout, Michael. "Redesign". Retrieved 2007-09-28.
  12. Stout, Michael. "Nickname". Video. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
  13. "We actually both worked on the PS4 game. We did some level and boss designs. So we're both excited about it". 2015-03-13. Retrieved 2015-03-13.
  14. "I contracted a bit on Ratchet: Nexus, and then when they moved on to RC PS4 they had both Tony and me come back to do designs." 2015-03-13. Retrieved 2015-03-13.
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