Jake Rodkin

Jake Rodkin
Rodkin in 2007
Born
Petaluma, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Game designer, graphic designer

Jake Rodkin is an American video game designer, writer, graphic designer, and podcaster. He was the co-project leader of Tales of Monkey Island and the co-project leader and co-writer of The Walking Dead,[1] Poker Night at the Inventory, and Puzzle Agent 2.[2] He was also the director of the fifth episode of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, and designer and writer of Firewatch.

Rodkin co-founded the video game developer Campo Santo with Sean Vanaman, Nels Anderson and Olly Moss, and joined Valve when Campo Santo was acquired by the company in 2018. Outside the video game industry, Rodkin also co-founded the Idle Thumbs podcast network and its flagship podcast, which he co-hosted alongside Chris Remo, Nick Breckon and Sean Vanaman.

Career

Jake Rodkin began his career writing for the gaming websites The International House of Mojo and Adventure Gamers, and co-founded Idle Thumbs.[3] He joined Telltale Games as a graphic designer. He eventually became a game designer, director, writer, and project leader at Telltale. In September 2013, he and Sean Vanaman left Telltale and joined with Olly Moss and Mark of the Ninja lead designer Nels Anderson to found their own studio, Campo Santo.[4] In April 2018, Rodkin joined Valve when the company acquired Campo Santo.[5] Rodkin is also part of Skunkape Games, a studio currently developing remasters of Telltale's Sam & Max games.[6]

Recognition

The re-issue of the comic collection Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway, which Jake Rodkin co-designed with franchise creator Steve Purcell, was nominated for the Eisner Award for "Best Graphic Album-Reprint" in 2009.[7]

Tales of Monkey Island, for which Jake Rodkin was the season co-director, was nominated for "best artistic design" and won for the award for "biggest surprise" at IGN's Best of E3 2009 Awards.[8] After release, it won the PC Gamer 2009 adventure game of the year,[9] was nominated for the IGN best adventure game of the year for PC and Wii,[10][11] won the Adventure Gamers Best Adventure of 2009,[12] and was named the "Best Series Revival" by OC Weekly.[13]

Puzzle Agent 2, which was co-written by Jake Rodkin, was nominated for IGN's Best of E3 2011 Awards for "Best iPhone/iPad Game".[14]

The 2012 episodic game series The Walking Dead, in which Jake Rodkin was the season co-designer, won over 80 game of the year awards.[15]

Rodkin won Writing in a Drama at the 2017 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards for his work on Firewatch.[16]

Credited works

Bibliography

Video games

Year Title Role Developer
2006 CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder Graphic design Telltale Games
Bone: The Great Cow Race
2007 Sam & Max Save the World
CSI: Hard Evidence
2008 Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
2009 Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures
Tales of Monkey Island Co-project leader
2010 Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent Writer
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Graphic design, director of "The City that Dares Not Sleep"
2011 Hector: Badge of Carnage Additional art
Jurassic Park: The Game Artist (user interface)
Puzzle Agent 2 Co-writer, co-project leader
2012 The Walking Dead Co-project leader
2016 Firewatch Director Campo Santo
2020 Half-Life: Alyx Unspecified role Valve Corporation
Sam & Max Save the World Remastered Interface design Skunkape Games

References

  1. ^ "PAX East 2011: Telltale Talks Puzzle Agent 2". Inside Gaming Daily. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
  2. ^ "Puzzle Agent 2 hands-on archived preview". Adventure Gamers. June 10, 2011. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  3. ^ "Adventure Gamers: Staff bio". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
  4. ^ "New studio formed by Walking Dead, Mark of the Ninja devs – Destructoid". Destructoid. September 19, 2013. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  5. ^ Walker, John (May 9, 2018). "Interview: Campo Santo talk to us about moving to Valve". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  6. ^ Klepek, Patrick (November 9, 2020). "Why a Group of Ex-Telltale Developers Are Bringing Back Sam & Max". Vice. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  7. ^ "Surfin the Highway Nominated!". Steve Purcell. April 21, 2009. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  8. ^ "Best of PC E3 2009 Awards". IGN. June 11, 2009. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  9. ^ "PC Gamer Game of the Year Awards". PC Gamer. January 2010.
  10. ^ "Wii Best Adventure Game 2009". IGN. 2009. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012. Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  11. ^ "PC Best Adventure Game 2009". IGN. 2009. Archived from the original on December 18, 2009. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
  12. ^ "Best Adventure of 2009". Adventure Gamers. 2009. Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  13. ^ Mai, Peter (December 22, 2009). "Best and Worst Video Games of 2009". OC Weekly. Village Voice Media. Archived from the original on January 12, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  14. ^ "E3 2011: Best of E3 Awards". IGN. June 6, 2011. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  15. ^ "The Walking Dead from Telltale Games Now Available at Retail in the UK". Just Adventure. May 10, 2013. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  16. ^ "NAVGTR Awards (2016)". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers.
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