Giles Goddard (born 30 March 1971) is an English video game programmer. He was one of the first Western employees at

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

, programming the Mario face in ''

Super Mario 64 is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combining traditional ''Su ...

'', and working on titles such as '' Star Fox'', ''

1080° Snowboarding is a snowboarding video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. In the game, the player controls one of five snowboarders from a Virtual camera system#Third-person view, third-person perspective, using a combinati ...

'', and ''

Steel Diver ''Steel Diver'' is a submarine simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo, with assistance by Vitei, for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was released in March 2011 as a launch title for the 3DS in North America, with releases in Europe, ...

''. In 2002, he founded Vitei, a video game developer based in Kyoto,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, for which he serves as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Career

Argonaut Games

Giles Goddard's interest in computers began when he was a teenager, when he used his ZX Spectrum, and later his Commodore Amiga, to create demoscene works in his spare time. In his Amiga demos, he experimented with 3D wireframe graphics with filled

polygons In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

. During this time, Argonaut Software released ''

Starglider 2 ''Starglider 2'' is a 3D space combat simulator published in 1988 by Rainbird as the sequel to 1986's ''Starglider''. It was released for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and ZX Spectrum. Instead of the wireframe graphics of the original, ...

'', one of the first computer games to use filled polygons. Goddard soon left school before finishing his

A-level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

s and joined Argonaut Games, where his first task was porting ''Starglider 2'' to the

Macintosh SE The Macintosh SE is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, from March 1987 to October 1990. It marked a significant improvement on the Macintosh Plus design and was introduced by Apple at the same time as the Mac ...

. Argonaut would develop a reputation for creating cutting-edge, 3D games. They produced a 3D graphics demo for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

and collaborated with

to produce the Game Boy title '' X'', one of the few Game Boy games to feature 3D graphics.

Nintendo

When Goddard was 18 or 19, he moved to Kyoto to work for Nintendo, where he, alongside fellow Argonaut employee

Dylan Cuthbert Q-Games, Limited is a video game developer based in Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto, Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan which works closely with both Nintendo and Sony. Foundation Q-Games was founded by Dylan Cuthbert, who previously worked at Argonaut Software and ...

, helped develop '' Star Fox'' and ''

Stunt Race FX ''Stunt Race FX'', known in Japan as , is a cartoon-style, 3D computer graphics, 3D-Racing video game, racing video game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development, Nintendo EAD with the assistance of Argonaut Software and publis ...

''. Goddard remained with Nintendo during the Nintendo 64 era. He assisted with the demo of Link fighting an enemy, which would be shown at the Shoshinkai 1995 trade show. To show off skinning, he programmed the interactive Mario face in ''

'' by attaching painted ping-pong balls to his face and using an

Indy Indy may refer to: Computing and technology *Indy (software), used for Internet access to music *Internet Direct, or "Indy", a software library *SGI Indy, a computer workstation Periodicals *''The Indy'', shorthand for newspapers that include " ...

camera to track movement. His next project, ''

'', saw him as one of the two lead programmers, alongside fellow Argonaut colleague Collin Reed. This game used frame interpolation and

inverse kinematics In computer animation and robotics, inverse kinematics is the mathematical process of calculating the variable joint parameters needed to place the end of a kinematic chain, such as a robot manipulator or animation character's skeleton, in a g ...

to make character movement feel more realistic.

VITEI BACKROOM, Inc / Chuhai Labs

Afterwards, Goddard left Nintendo and became a freelancer, porting ''

Doshin the Giant ''Doshin the Giant'' is a god simulation game developed by Param and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. It was originally released in Japan on December 1, 1999, as a launch game disk for the 64DD peripheral for Nintendo 64. ...

'' from the Nintendo 64DD to the

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

. In 2002, Goddard founded the Japanese video game developer Vitei, Inc. as a Nintendo second party studio. Vitei produced its first game, the Japan-exclusive

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

title ''Theta'', in 2007, and the WiiWare title ''Rock N' Roll Climber'' in 2009. He served as the head programmer for ''

'', and Vitei would also develop its sequel, '' Steel Diver: Sub Wars'', as well as '' Tank Troopers.'' In 2020, Vitei Backroom was rebranded as Chuhai Labs to expand into micro-publishing and to position the company to be more forward facing. Chuhai Labs developed ''Carve Snowboarding'', which launched on 27 May 2021. ''Carve Snowboarding'' is a virtual reality-focused spiritual successor to ''1080° Snowboarding'' for Oculus Quest.

References

External links

Twitter profileVitei official websiteChuhai Labs official websiteReddit AMAEntry
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goddard, Giles 1971 births Living people British video game programmers Amiga people Nintendo people