Johannes 'johno' Norneby's
Curriculum Vitae

email: contact(at)nornware(dot)com
cell: +46 (0) 733 686950

Too much info at once? Try the paginated version.

Skill Summary

Game Design & Development

I run my own miniscule (currently just employing myself) game development studio nornware AB, and my main claim to fame is my game Space Beast Terror Fright which has proven popular in the neo-retro / arcadey / multiplayer co-op / first person shooter space. The game was in Steam Early Access far longer than I initially intended (2015-2022) but I think that kind of "public" development with constant feedback from actual players ultimately forged it into a much better product than it would have been otherwise.

Post-release development on Space Beast Terror Fright has been focused on increasing the appeal of the game (which is fundamentally quite niche) to a wider / less hardcore market, and I'm currently exploring various high-level player incentivization and progression mechanics for use both in Space Beast Terror Fright and future projects. Development news is here.

I have a passion for teaching, and throughout my entire career I've lectured at a great many vocational schools in the game development space. I sincerely hope to continue this trend in the future.

Programming

I am very proficient in C/C++ and have been programming seriously since 1994. I initially became very enamoured of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and Design Patterns (the original Gang of Four book), but have since come become very sceptical as to whether OOP actually added any value, especially in the field of game development, so I am currently tending to program much closer to straight procedural C in most cases.

As a programmer I tend towards simplicity and minimalism, probably stemming from the fact that my interest in programming is largely based upon an interest in game design on a practical level. I am not a technology-fetischist, but rather thrive on creativity and the satisfaction of project completion.

I view myself as a highly competent programmer in all areas of game development, and have extensive programming and architectural experience in:

I also have some experience in the following fields:

Music & Audio

Besides my interesting in games, gaming and programming, I spend a large part of my free time working on various musical pursuits both as a player and a writer. I sing and have played guitar and piano for about 30 years, have played in many bands and Broadway-musical-style contexts, and have written a great deal of music in a number of genres.

My instrumental / musical / audio production experience includes:

nornware AB 2018 - present

Since May of 2018 I'm back fulltime at nornware AB. I finally got Space Beast Terror Fright out of Steam Early Access in June of 2022, and have since updated it with the addition of a new game mode called Grind Mode.

Since the release of SBTF Grind Mode I've been hard at work on various research and development tasks that have resulted in numerous new techniques and prototypes for future commercial game projects. Very cool things to come!

Nordisk Games 2017 - 2022

I've done numerous instances of Technical Due Diligence work for Nordisk Games, which entailed interviewing (both on-site and remotely) various companies that Nordisk were looking at either buying into or acquiring outright, helping them get a sense of general technical proficiency. I talked with a lot of interesting companies across Europe and acquired a lot of insight into the current state of the large-scale gaming industry.

WaVR Tech AB / nornware AB 2016 - 2018

I joined WaVR Tech AB in late 2016 to work on the latest wave of Virtual Reality technology. I wrote the foundation for a completely bespoke C/C++/OpenGL codebase targeting Android, OpenVR, and Windows desktop, and that stuff powers AVEM33 and AVEM888. I also continued work at nornware AB on development of Space Beast Terror Fright.

Zimpler AB / nornware AB 2016

I worked as a developer at Zimpler AB. I also continued running nornware AB working on Space Beast Terror Fright.

nornware AB 2015 - 2016

I switched to full time development in my own company nornware AB at the beginning of 2015, due to the greenlighting of my game Space Beast Terror Fright. Development continues in Steam Early Access.

Dreamler AB / nornware AB 2013 - 2015

In mid 2013 I switched from part time teaching to part time software development as part of new startup called Dreamler AB. Dreamler is building a speculative planning tool based on what is basically gaming technology. The rest of my time was game development with my company nornware AB.

NTI-Gymnasiet / nornware AB 2012 - 2013

In 2012 I adjusted my commitment to NTI-Gymnasiet in Goteborg to be a 40% gig for the schoolyear of 2012-2013, switching to teaching programming courses (Web Server Programming in PHP / Programming in Flash AS3). The remaing 60% was all game development in my company nornware AB, releasing an updated version of Bloom in July of 2012.

NTI-Gymnasiet / Freelance Consulting 2011 - 2012

During this period I worked part time (60%) as a high school teacher in the fields of Database Programming and Multimedia / Desktop at NTI-Gymnasiet in Goteborg. As a first time teacher at this level of education I found this kind of work both challenging and rewarding as it is largely a social / motivational undertaking. I am happy to say that this job has made me realize that I truly "like people" and especially working with developing the potential of young people.

As part of my school work I spent a lot more time programming Flash / AS3; I worked on a small game together with two talented students during the first weeks of 2012 called TP-Man Nightmare. This in turn has allowed me to pursue further consultancy work for clients like Pet Factory.

Independent Game Development / nornware AB 2010 - 2011

2010 saw the beginning of development of my first "professional grade" indie game UfoPilot : Astro-Creeps Elite in collaboration with artist Jonas Dahlin. We published UfoPilot : Astro-Creeps Elite on BeamDog on the 8th of March 2011 (it was later released on Steam).

I started my games company nornware AB in early 2011 as a platform for all my current and future games. In addition to UfoPilot : Astro-Creeps Elite I released a new and improved version of UfoPilot : The Phadt Menace - Special Edition in August of 2011.

Freelance Work 2008 - 2009

I have been self-employed since April of 2008, and have done consultancy work for game industry clients such as (the now defunct) Jungle Peak Studios and StarVault, as well as audio-design work and software coaching for Pet Factory. I have lectured several times on the topics of game design and programming at both the Kalmar University and School of Future Entertainment in Karlshamn.

During the autumn of 2008 I held courses in both network / multiplayer programming and agile development technologies at GameMaker in Arvika, Sweden. I also developed Java based web games for Jungle Peak Studios during that period, as well as visual effects plugins for FilmGate.

2009 saw development of tools for Resolution Interactive (now Level Eight)'s iPhone games, as well as design and implementation work on StarVault's deployment software for Mortal Online.

2009 also saw my continued involvement in Spell of Play Studios, furthering development on collaborative and personal game projects, as well as doing audio and music production (among other things the song Bärs é Livet). Some work was also done on a book in the field of software engineering / game development.

Spell of Play Studios / hUb 2005 - 2010

I was involved in the company Spell of Play Studios in my spare time from late 2005 to early 2010. Spell of Play is a small gaming studio that develops games for the Windows platform, run as an informal design collective. We developed a digital distribution platform called hUb based entirely on open-source software, offering a growing number of both free and commercial games.

Spell of Play is interested in what we call "collaborative game development", a process in which the actual customers are heavily involved in the continued development of the games. We released our games early and updated them often, a process made completely seamless and transparent to the end user via the auto-update functionality offered by the hUb platform.

While being involved in many aspects of programming, game and audio design on hUb, I am the sole creator of the games in the UfoPilot series (UfoPilot - The Phadt Menace and UfoPilot : Astro-Creeps Elite). I have also collaborated with Madeleine Bengtsson on Bloom.

The developers at Spell of Play use primarily C++ and immediate mode techniques as our main client/games-side development tools, as well as utilising PHP/MySQL on cheap commercially available web-hotel backends, a combination that we found to be extremely productive. An interesting detail is that all development has to date been done in a distributed fashion, with team members collaborating from all over Sweden using open-source software (notably SubVersion and Trac).

While I am still active in the forums at Spell of Play, my current indie game development work is outside the scope of this collaboration.

MindArk 2008

I joined MindArk in January of 2008 as a programmer on the Entropia Universe project. While working on what is essentially an MMORPG with a unique real-world cash economy was certainly educational in many ways, I quickly began to feel stifled by the inflexibility of the company structure (and technology). I began having serious thoughts about starting my own business, which I finally did in April of 2008.

Wireless Car 2007 - 2008

In June of 2007 Jungle Peak chose to cancel all game related development, and I left the company to start working as System Engineer at Wireless Car, a telematics service provider. At Wireless Car I was involved in maintenance of the Java EE based software that supports the services provided by the company. However, due to my passion for games programming and need for creativity I chose to leave the company in January of 2008 to once again try my hand at game development.

During my time at Wireless Car, I have gained deeper insight into the Java EE platform and web applications in general, and have been able to feed this knowledge back into betterment of both tools and community features used in the continued development of the hUb platform at Spell of Play Studios. I believe diversification of this kind has enabled me to make better choices when it comes to choice of technology for various software tasks (for example, using PHP and IMGUI techniques to implement this website).

Jungle Peak Studios 2006 - 2007

In early 2006 I accepted the job of Senior Lead Programmer at the now defunct Jungle Peak Studios. During the year that followed I led the development of a game prototype (Jungle Bowl) based on Epic Games Unreal 2 technology (a "mod"), worked on the design and implementation of proprietary game engine based on Microsoft DirectX 9 / HLSL / C++, and also a number of small web games and applications in Java.

DICE 2004 - 2005

In October of 2004 I was recruited by DICE in Stockholm for the role of Programming Development / Technical Director. This involved leading the programming effort on a next-generation game project for PC / XBox 360 / Playstation 3. However, I soon found that my own experience and views on game development were incompatible with those of DICE as a company (this was during the corporate takeover by Electronic Arts), and I chose to leave the company in May of 2005.

During the remainder of 2005 I indulged in my another personal passion, namely music. I started the band UP which played various venues in and around the Gothenburg area with good success.

Massive Entertainment 1997 - 2004

At Massive Entertainment I started out as one of the key programmers on the company's first Real-Time-Strategy (RTS) game Ground Control, from the start of the project in 1997 until completion in June of 2000. Thereafter Massive moved to Malmö, Sweden, and I was promoted to the position of Technical Director. In that role I was responsible for the design and maintenance of the company software framework/toolkit, the basis of all software projects within the company, as well as the company code standard. In 2000 I led the team that aided an external developer in the implementation of Ground Control : Dark Conspiracy. During 2001-2002 I was Lead Programmer on the project Dromjobbet i Rosemond Valley, a shopping-mall simulator that was localized to several european languages.

In early 2002 Massive was purchased by Vivendi Universal Games International, and the development of Ground Control 2 commenced in earnest. I was involved in the design and implementation of the project's world/mission editor (XED), further developed the company codebase and proprietary scripting/data language Juice/Ice (previously designed by me during the Rosemond Valley project), designed and implemented a system for build automation / content management, as well as designing the initial version of MassGate, a system of online services for use in Ground Control 2 as well as in future projects.

In the spring of 2003 I was asked to take over the role of Lead Programmer on Ground Control 2, which involved managing the programming team (10 programmers). The project was completed in June of 2004. Thereafter I resumed my earlier role of Technical Director, further developing the company's internal processes and doing research into various object-oriented database and persistence solutions.

Education 1975 - present

While I was born in Sweden in 1975, my family moved to Alberta, Canada in 1977 and remained there until 1989. Hence my native tongue could be said to be English, but I am equally fluent in both English and Swedish.

My higher educational background is 3-year Technical High School (1991-1994, third year specialization in Computer Science), with an additional year of Computer Science / Graphic Design (1994-1995). After Swedish military duty (1995-1996) I enrolled in the Software Engineering program at Blekinge Institute Of Technology and completed the first year of the 4 year masters program (1996-1997). At that time I left school and joined the newly started Massive Entertainment, at that time situated in Ronneby, Sweden.

Even though my formal studies have come to an end, I am something of a knowledge junkie who is always interested in learning new things. I consider my education to be a constant process.