Alexander Winn (born September 24, 1986) is an American writer, producer, and director of mobile games, live-action and

machinima Machinima, originally machinema () is the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation. The word "machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''ma ...

films. Winn is best known as one of the two founding members of Edgeworks Entertainment, and as the creator of ''TerraGenesis'', one of the top ten science fiction games for mobile in 2020, according to App Annie mobile data and analytics. He is also known as the writer, director, co-producer and composer of the award-winning ''

Halo Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to: * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Video games * ''Halo'' (franch ...

'' machinima series '' The Codex Series'', which consists of ''The Codex'', released in 2005, and its prequel, '' The Heretic'', released in 2007. He was a Presidential Scholar at the

University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

, majoring in

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and minoring in

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, and is listed as one of the film school's Notable Alumni.

Background

Winn gained recognition as a young filmmaker while still a senior in high school when two of his student films, ''Baggage Claim'' and ''Jack O'Neill - Private Detective'', won a total of 14 film festival awards including a

CINE Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer ...

Golden Eagle Award for ''Jack O'Neill - Private Detective'', making him the only high school student in the world to be awarded the

Golden Eagle for an individually produced project that year.

Machinima

In late 2004, Winn, along with Ryan Luther, co-founded Edgeworks Entertainment to produce a new ''

Halo 2 ''Halo 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox console. ''Halo 2'' is the second installment in the ''Halo'' franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed '' ...

series called ''The Codex''. Episode 1 of this series was released on February 9, 2005, a date previously rumored to be the release date of an unknown

Bungie Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington. It is a studio owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones (progr ...

project. Winn acted as writer, director, editor and composer, and reprised these roles during production of the prequel series, '' The Heretic''. Winn and his machinima series have been featured in national and international media including the biography segment "Machinima Master" on

mtvU MTVU (formerly stylized as MtvU and mtvU) is an American digital cable TV channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group, a unit of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel was first known as VH1 Uno from 2000 to ...

, the front covers of the ''

Dallas Observer ''Dallas Observer'' is a free digital and print publication based in Dallas, Texas. The ''Observer'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circ ...

'' and ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

'', and a full chapter in ''Halo Effect'', a published collection of essays and articles about the impact of the ''

'' video game series on popular culture. Most recently, he was interviewed as an expert on machinima in a piece for

Marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

in April 2008.

''TerraGenesis''

On July 6, 2016, Winn released his 25th app, ''TerraGenesis'', on the iOS App store. Based on real science and data from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

, the game lets players terraform planets across the solar system, far-flung systems like TRAPPIST-1, and even journey through time to explore various stages of the Earth's history. As players terraform, they cultivate entire civilizations through emergent gameplay, tackling societal, economical, ecologic, cultural, and political evolution and issues as they work to create habitable worlds for people to live on. Winn always thought someone should make a game based on terraforming and had only spent a month building the game upon the initial release. At the same time, the public's interest in space entertainment was increasing due to the release of Ridley Scott's ''The Martian'' starring

Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon (; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North Americ ...

. Winn was able to create what he calls a “little version” of ''TerraGenesis'' in time for the film's launch. Winn quickly moved on to creating his next app and did not originally think much of ''TerraGenesis release. When the app started to pick up, Winn and his wife were actually living in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at the time and were road tripping around for seven months. Winn says, "She was driving and I was on my little MacBook Air in the passenger seat doing bug fixes, pushing out updates on hotel Wi-Fi and stuff.” In June 2017, ''TerraGenesis'' took the top prize at the Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco. On October 4, 2017, Edgeworks signed with publishing company

Tilting Point Tilting Point is a free-to-play (F2P) games publisher founded in 2012. In the years since, Tilting Point has grown to include over 200 staff members and office locations in New York, Boston, Barcelona, Kyiv, Seoul, and San Diego. Further partners ...

for ''TerraGenesis'', which market and distribute the title on iOS and Android. On April 4, 2018 Edgeworks Entertainment and publisher Tilting Point announced launching ''TerraGenesis'' on the Google Play store, making it available for Android users. In May 2019, the 5.0 version update of ''TerraGenesis'' was launched, adding a whole host of new features to the game, as well as a completely revamped graphical engine. Two months later on July 20 a "flat planet mode" was added to the game as well as moon landing inspired events in the game to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the

Moon Landing A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959. The United St ...

. On July 31, 2019, Edgeworks and Tilting Point announced their plans to release ''TerraGenesis'' to the

Microsoft Store Microsoft Store (formerly known as Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It started as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps ...

in the fall. To showcase the upcoming Microsoft Store launch, Tilting Point and Edgeworks partnered with filmmaker and composer John D. Boswell on a cinematic video for ''TerraGenesis,'' showcasing the possibilities of space exploration, depicting a sense of wonder and curiosity. ''TerraGenesis'' currently has over 22 million downloads and is available in 12 different languages.

Personal life

On April 9, 2016, Alexander Winn married Edgeworks cofounder Lacey Hannan.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winn, Alexander 1986 births Living people Machinima USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni