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Chris Remo is an American video game designer, composer, writer, podcaster, and former journalist.
Chris Remo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | September 10, 1984 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Video game designer, composer, podcaster, writer |
As a journalist, he cofounded the original Idle Thumbs website as well as its flagship podcast, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Shacknews and Editor at Large for Gamasutra.
He composed the music for Thirty Flights of Loving, Gone Home, Spacebase DF-9 and Firewatch. He co-wrote The Cave with Ron Gilbert at Double Fine Productions. In early 2014, he left Double Fine to join his Idle Thumbs co-hosts Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman at Campo Santo,[1] where he contributed to the studio's narrative adventure game Firewatch as a game and story designer, composer, and audio director.[2]
Career
editChris Remo began his career as a video game journalist, writing for Adventure Gamers. He co-founded Idle Thumbs, a video game culture website, with colleagues from Adventure Gamers and The International House of Mojo in 2004.[3] As a professional journalist, he was Editor-in-Chief of Shacknews and later Gamasutra, becoming Editor at Large.[3] After Idle Thumbs went dark in 2007, Remo revived it as a podcast in late 2008 with other Thumbs writers Nick Breckon (then of Shacknews) and Jake Rodkin (then of Telltale Games).[4] While podcasting for Idle Thumbs, he composed and performed "Space Asshole", a satirical song about the protagonist of Red Faction: Guerrilla, which went viral.[5]
He left his position at Gamasutra in 2010 to work as a community manager and producer for Boston-based Irrational Games, ending the first run of the Idle Thumbs podcast at the same time. The show's then-final episode was recorded live at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo.[6]
In early 2012, Remo returned to San Francisco to start a crowdfunded campaign on Kickstarter to revive the Idle Thumbs podcast with then-co-hosts Rodkin and Sean Vanaman.[7] As part of the Kickstarter campaign, Remo composed the soundtrack for Blendo Games' Thirty Flights of Loving, a video game that would be released to backers of the campaign.[8][9][10]
He also took a job in a multi-faceted role at Double Fine Productions, where he contributed to various games, including as a composer and game designer for Spacebase DF-9, an Amnesia Fortnight project, and as co-writer of The Cave alongside Ron Gilbert.[11]
Remo composed the soundtrack to Gone Home, a game written by former Idle Thumbs co-host Steve Gaynor,[12] and co-wrote Rogue One: X-Wing VR Mission for Star Wars Battlefront, developed by Criterion Games.
As a member of independent game studio Campo Santo, Remo was a game and story designer, composer, and audio director of the BAFTA-winning narrative adventure Firewatch, and has spoken about the game’s design at numerous game development conferences around the world.[13][14]
In 2018, Campo Santo was acquired by Seattle-area game developer Valve.[15]
In 2021, Remo started uploading daily vlogs of himself solving The New York Times crossword on his personal YouTube channel, in a series titled The Daily Solve.[16]
Works
edit- 2005 Psychonauts, tester[17] (Double Fine Productions)
- 2009 Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter Wii, composer (Planet Moon Studios)
- 2012 Unbearable: Or How They Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bear, composer, writer (What Would Molydeux?)[18]
- 2012 Thirty Flights of Loving, composer (Blendo Games)
- 2012 Spacebase DF-9 composer, designer (Double Fine Productions)
- 2013 The Cave, co-writer (Double Fine Productions)
- 2013 Gone Home, composer (The Fullbright Company)
- 2013 Captain Bubblenaut, composer (Pixelsaurus Games)[19]
- 2014 Spacebase DF-9, composer (Double Fine Productions)[20]
- 2015 Wheels of Aurelia, dialogue support (Santa Ragione)[21]
- 2016 Firewatch, game and story designer, composer, audio director (Campo Santo)[2]
- 2016 Star Wars Battlefront – Rogue One: X-Wing VR Mission, writer (Criterion Games)[22]
- 2020 Dota Underlords (Valve)
- 2020 Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
- 2022 Saturnalia, writer (Santa Ragione)[23]
- TBA In the Valley of Gods, game and story designer, composer (Valve)
References
edit- ^ "Idle Thumbs 144". Retrieved February 6, 2014.
- ^ a b Mr Moon (February 9, 2016), Firewatch ending credits, retrieved September 1, 2017
- ^ a b "Chris Remo Author Biography". Gamasutra. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ Tabacco, Doug. "About Us". Idle Thumbs. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
- ^ Good, Owen (October 27, 2009). "Is Your Population Demoralized? Watch "Space A-hole"". Kotaku. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ Idle Thumbs (March 21, 2011). "Idle Thumbs Live at PAX Prime 2010 – Burnin' Down the Wolfman". Vimeo. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
- ^ Caoili, Eric (February 28, 2012). "Kickstarter drive offers exclusive game from Atom Zombie Smasher dev". Gamasutra. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
- ^ Hinkle, David (February 20, 2012). "Idle Thumbs Kickstarter includes exclusive game, neat artwork". Joystiq. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
- ^ Hamilton, Kirk (February 28, 2012). "Indie Darling Gravity Bone Gets a Sequel". Kotaku.com. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
- ^ Smith, Graham (March 6, 2012). "Thirty Flights of Loving tells a better story in 13 minutes than most games do in 13 hours". PC Gamer. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
- ^ Caravella, Vinny (January 21, 2013). "Quick Look EX: The Cave". Giant Bomb. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ Gaynor, Steve (October 23, 2012). "Status Update: IGF, here we come!". The Fullbright Company. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ Interactive Story Without Challenge Mechanics: The Design of Firewatch, March 23, 2021, retrieved November 19, 2021
- ^ Firewatch: Narrative Design is Game Design - Chris Remo & Arthur Protasio - BIG Festival 2018, October 24, 2018, retrieved November 19, 2021
- ^ Alexander, Julia (April 21, 2018). "Valve acquires Firewatch developer, Campo Santo". Polygon. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
- ^ "Chris Remo - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
- ^ Schafer, Tim (April 29, 2004). "SHIFTLESS LONERS, DRIFTERS TORTURED at DF". Double Fine Productions. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
- ^ "Unbearable OHTLTSWALTB trailer". Idle Thumbs. April 3, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
- ^ Priestman, Chris (September 9, 2013). "Destroy all the Erflings in veteran BioShock dev's upcoming Captain Bubblenaut". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
- ^ "Spacebase DF-9 Original Soundtrack". Bandcamp. October 15, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
- ^ Wawro, Alex (December 3, 2015). "Interactive fiction meets arcade racer: Designing Wheels of Aurelia". Gamasutra. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
- ^ Seamster, Jeff (December 7, 2016). "And incredible working with writers @chrisremo and @nickbreckon to bring our characters to life. <3". Twitter. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ^ "Italian Indie Studio Santa Ragione is partnering with The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild to publish 'Saturnalia', a Sardinian survival horror adventure". Gamasutra. July 19, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2020.