This month the PushButton Labs team has grown again with the recent addition of Paul deGrandis. Paul is a web engineer with a focus on system architecture and research. He joins PushButton Labs after successfully founding the startup OurShelf. Previously, he was an early hire at Etsy and a Junior Engineer at Silver Cloud Software. In college, Paul worked with DARPA (aliens) but he is sworn to secrecy in regards to what he did there (aliens) because he might go to jail (aliens) if he does (aliens). Paul is currently working on awesome new web and social interaction technology. Welcome aboard!
Founded in 2008 by veteran independent game developers Jeff Tunnell and Rick Overman, PushButton Labs is “a company by us and for us”. The mission behind PushButton Labs is refreshingly simple; “Make great products with people that we want to work with, and have fun doing it.” PushButton Labs is committed to developing the highest quality web and game technologies, communities, and most importantly great games.
July 8, 2010
Two new faces around the lab
As of July 1st, PushButton welcomes two new full-time employees to help around the lab. Keith Johnston, a veteran game developer, joins us as our newest in-house Flash Developer. Keith has also recently relocated to Eugene after leaving his last gig at VM Ware in Menlo Park. Keith is no stranger to PBL as the designer and lead programmer of the GarageGames published puzzle title Tube Twist in addition to being an “old school” GarageGames community member.
In addition, Jon Tunnell also joins PushButton as our newest Game Designer. Jon is a recent graduate of the University of Oregon with a BS in Graphic Arts. Jon is already a familiar face around PBL as he interned for several months as a game designer on Social City, The Incredible Machine, Grunt: Skirmish, and a unannounced social game.
June 30, 2010
Social City #2 Facebook game for 2010
Today InsideSocialGames.com, one of the leading websites that exclusively covers Facebook games & Social Gaming, listed their top 10 Facebook games for 2010. PushButton Labs was very proud to see the PushButton Engine based Social City awarded the #2 spot for 2010! PushButton Labs consulted heavily on Playdom’s hit title for Facebook and we were happy to see all the hard work put in by PushButton and the Playdom team paying off over the last few months. Here is a quote from the full article, which can be found here.
Like any quality city-builder, Playdom’s title also looks wonderful,providing a substantial aesthetic reward for building a great city. However, what did, and still does, stand out for the game is its attention to detail. Most of the city-builders we’ve seen have streets devoid of life. Sometimes there’s a guy chopping wood or a lone car, but that’s not what cities are like! Social City has people flying kites, mowing lawns, playing sports, and everything else under the sun. It actually feels like a living, breathing metropolis.
