Kevin has been enthusiastically developing games with his brother since early childhood. With a degree in computer science at the University of Colorado, he got a job with Iguana Entertainment in Austin in the early 90s as an engineer. He has filled various technical and management roles such as Tech Producer, Senior Lead Engineer, and Technical Director at studios such as Iguana, Acclaim, and Electronic Arts.
After Acclaim's demise, Kevin and his brother Charles spent 6 months working to open Midnight Studios before deciding that the time wasn't right for what they wanted to do. Kevin then put Midnight Studios on hold to accept a Job working for the Sims division at EA. While at EA as a Senior Lead Engineer and Technical Director, Kevin received much praise as a leader and for his role in teaching new hires about the EA game development process. Recent games include The Sims: Pets (console), The Sims: Castaway, and The Sims 3.
At Midnight Studios, Kevin continues to seek to develop the highest quality software by creating a fun and exciting work environment centered on creativity and teamwork.
Charles has been making games of all kinds his entire life. He entered the video game industry in the early 90s as an engineer but soon changed his focus to video game Production.
Before founding Midnight Studios, Charles' most recent job was as a producer at Electronic Arts developing new IP and organizing EA's involvement with OLPC (One Laptop Per Child).
Charles has produced sports titles (QB Club Football), real time strategy (SimCity DS, SimCity Societies), Sims like simulation games (Sims Pets), and third person shooters (The Godfather). Also, SimCity DS was EA's very first game title to ever hit #1 in Japan!
At Midnight, Charles is focused on establishing the most creative and exciting brands on the market and continuing to manage them for the greatest long term success.
Jim has worked in the video game industry for 20 years for multi-national software publishers, with over 50 retail products released. Production experience of both internal and externally
developed products as Vice President of Product Development, Director of Product Development, Executive Producer, Senior Producer, Producer for various companies such as Midway Games, Interplay Entertainment Corp., Engineering Animation, and Mindscape Inc.
John Paul Sommer is a self-taught studio art director in the video game industry. His keen eye for quality and excellence helped set him apart early on in his career converting sixteen color graphics to 256 color graphics.
With a firm understanding and almost 20 years of industry experience, John Sommer is well versed in all aspects of creating art for video games, including character creation/rigging/animation, lighting, materials and texturing, high and low poly modeling, environment/level creation, visual effects, cinematics, and user interface design. John Sommer has proven his leadership and art direction skills working for industry leaders by building and managing art teams of more than 30 and as small as three for companies such as: Midway, Digital Anvil, Wizards of the Coast, Gizmondo, Warthog, and Feverpitch Studios.
In addition to his industry experience, John Sommer is also well versed in film, TV, commercials, print, motion graphics, animation and is an accomplished photographer. Given John Sommer's multi-faceted experience and strong production sense, he is best known for his unique ability to schedule tasks very accurately and help remove roadblocks and problem solve on a ground level while still promoting leadership through reviews and feedback from his team.
John Sommer operates under the philosophy, "if you provide clear direction, an open forum for collaboration with other departments, and give ownership to your artists so they are excited about what they are working on and a voice in the creative process, you are well on the path to creating a successful and visually exciting game".