Michael Bithell is a British

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

, and

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. ...

best known for his work on '' Thomas Was Alone'' and ''

Volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). Th ...

''. He is a regular host of the ''Play, Watch, Listen'' podcast, along with

Alanah Pearce Alanah Pearce (born 24 August 1993) is an Australian video game writer and former journalist. Since 2020, Pearce has worked for American game developer Santa Monica Studio. Pearce has reported on video games for various news outlets including en ...

Troy Baker Troy Baker (born April 1, 1976) is an American voice actor and musician. Baker is known for his video game roles, including Joel Miller in ''The Last of Us'' (2013) and its sequel (2020), Booker DeWitt in ''BioShock Infinite'' (2013), Samuel ...

, and Austin Wintory.

Career

Bithell credits his high school history teacher for helping him to get into games programming: when their class was given an essay assignment, Bithell asked instead if he could make a point-and-click adventure game about the topic in lieu of an essay. The teacher was impressed with the work and allowed Bithell to continue to present games instead of essays for the class. Bithell independently developed an early version of the '' Thomas Was Alone'' video game in 2010 while working for Blitz Games, where he was a junior designer, and later a level

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

on games such as ''

Tak and the Guardians of Gross ''Tak and the Guardians of Gross'' is a platform video game developed by Blitz Games and published by THQ for Wii and PlayStation 2 in 2008. It is the fourth title in the ''Tak'' series following '' Tak: The Great Juju Challenge''. Plot In the ...

'', '' Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao'', '' iCarly'' and '' Dead to Rights: Retribution'', from 2007 to 2011. He developed the prototype game in 24 hours and released it for free online through the

Kongregate Kongregate is an American web gaming portal and video game publisher. Its website features over 110,000 online games and 30+ mobile games available to the public. The company also publishes games for PC, mobile, and home consoles. It was purchase ...

website, receiving 100,000 'plays' in the first week. He joined

Bossa Studios Bossa Studios Limited is a British video game developer based in London. It is known for its comedic, physics-based games '' Surgeon Simulator'' and '' I Am Bread''. History Bossa was founded in October 2010 by Henrique Olifiers (gamer-in-c ...

in February 2011, working to expand the

flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...

-based ''Thomas'' to a full title and learning how to use the

Unity engine Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X game engine. The engine has since been gradually extended to support a varie ...

in his time there. The full game was released on 30 June 2012 and went on to sell over a million copies, winning a BAFTA at the

9th British Academy Games Awards The 9th British Academy Video Game Awards awarded by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, is an award ceremony that was held on 5 March 2013 in the London Hilton on Park Lane The London Hilton on Park Lane is a hotel situated on Pa ...

in the "Best Performer" category (for narrator Danny Wallace) and receiving a further two nominations ("Best Original Music" and "Best Story"). He left Bossa in January 2013 to "concentrate on indie development". He has since worked on a

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...

-based

stealth game A stealth game is a type of video game in which the player primarily uses ''stealth'' to avoid or overcome opponents. Games in the genre typically allow the player to remain undetected by hiding, sneaking, or using disguises. Some games allow th ...

named ''

'', which was released on 18 August 2015 for Windows, OS X, and PlayStation 4 and Vita platforms. In 2016, Bithell released ''EarthShape'', a

virtual reality game A virtual reality game or VR games is a video game played on virtual reality (VR) hardware. Most VR games are based on player immersion, typically through head-mounted display unit or headset with stereoscopic displays and one or more control ...

for

Google Daydream Daydream is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform which was developed by Google, primarily for use with a headset into which a smartphone is inserted. It is available for select phones running the Android mobile operating system (versio ...

. Bithell collaborated with composer Russell Shaw and animator Tim Borelli on the project. The game featured voice acting from British comedian Sue Perkins. In August 2017, Bithell released a new game '' Subsurface Circular'', a first of what he calls "Bithell Shorts" that are designed as short, narrative focused games. In May 2018, Bithell released another short titled ''Quarantine Circular''. Bithell is the lead developer behind ''

John Wick Hex ''John Wick Hex'' is a 2019 tactical role-playing game developed by Bithell Games and published by Good Shepherd Entertainment based on the ''John Wick'' franchise. It was released on 8 October 2019 for macOS and Windows. The PlayStation 4 port ...

'', a video game based on the ''

John Wick ''John Wick'' is an American action thriller media franchise created by Derek Kolstad and centering around John Wick, a former hitman who is forced back into the criminal underworld he had abandoned. The franchise began with the release of '' ...

'' film series. Bithell has gained significant notability in the

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...

due both to the unexpected success of ''Thomas'' and also for his views on the current industry as a whole. He has outlined the problems for fellow indie developers producing

mobile games A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone ( feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...

, commenting on the suitability of

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

mechanics for indie gaming and other issues.

Games

* '' Thomas Was Alone'' - 2012, self-published * ''

'' - 2015, Bithell Games * '' Subsurface Circular'' - 2017, Bithell Shorts * '' Quarantine Circular'' - 2018, Bithell Shorts * ''

'' - 2019, Bithell Games /

Good Shepherd Entertainment Good Shepherd Entertainment (formerly Gambitious Digital Entertainment) is a Dutch video game publisher based in Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2011 and opened its equity crowdfunding platform in September 2012. Gambitious' publishing la ...

* '' The Solitaire Conspiracy'' - 2020, Bithell Games * ''Arcsmith'' - 2021, Bithell Games * ''TRON: Identity'' - 2023, Bithell Games

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bithell, Mike Living people English computer programmers Place of birth missing (living people) British video game designers British video game programmers 1985 births