Derek Yu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Derek Yu | |
 Derek Yu at GDC 2007
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| Born | 1982 Pasadena, California |
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| Occupation | Artist and Designer, Bit Blot Editor, TIGSource |
Derek Yu (born 1982 in Pasadena, California[1]) is an independent game developer and artist, co-founder of an independent game company Bit Blot,[2] where he works as an illustrator and game designer. He worked with Alec Holowka to create the award-winning game Aquaria. He runs TIGSource,[3] a well-known independent gaming news portal. He is also known for his freeware games Eternal Daughter and I'm O.K - A Murder Simulator. One of his early influences is Shigeru Miyamoto.[4]
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[edit] Education
He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.[5]
[edit] Games
His early work dates back to 1996, where he and Jon Perry founded Blackeye software,[6][7] a freeware game company, where he produced games like Diabolika 2, Mean Cuisine, or, more famously, Eternal Daughter.
[edit] Eternal Daughter
Eternal Daughter is an epic action-adventure game, a homage to classic NES/SNES platformers like Metroid or Castlevania. Mia, the main protagonist of the game, is a gifted child with ability to cast magic spells. She is on the quest for saving her homeworld, which is occupied by Dungaga, an imperial industrialized race.
[edit] Diabolika II
Diabolika II is a small simple puzzle game, where the player has to set up various explosive traps and use chain reaction in order to blow up demons. It is a remake of Yu's previous game, Diabolika, with new graphics, music, and slightly modified gameplay.
[edit] Mean Cuisine
A simple arcade game slightly resembling Pac-Man, the Mean Cuisine is a simple, amusing game with nice retro graphics. The player is in the role of a small hungry alien, whose objective is to eat as much food as possible while avoiding detection by humans.
[edit] I'm O.K.
I'm O.K. is a side-scrolling satirical platform shoot-em-up, which was created by Derek Yu (art), Alec Holowka (sound), and Chris Hanson (code) as a response to Jack Thompson's open letter, "A Modest Video Game Proposal." It is a "retro" style arcade game, which parodies various famous games, game companies, and game developers. The main protagonist of the game is Osaki Kim, who blames the video game industry for the death of his child. The player takes the role of the Osaki Kim as he shoots his way up to the E3 Media and Business Summit, killing game developers along the way.
[edit] Aquaria
Aquaria is an action adventure game, based heavily on exploration. It is an epic story about adventures of Naija, an amnesiac underwater creature, who is in search of information about her family and her past. She explores many ancient ruins of Aquaria, an underwater world created by a mysterious creator. Created by Derek Yu and Alec Holowka, Aquaria is their first commercial game and the winner of the Independent Games Festival's 2007 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.[8]
[edit] Art
In addition to illustrating all his games, Derek Yu has created several works of art for various game magazines and web pages.[5] He is also the author of several online drawing tutorials [9][10] and a pixel artist. His major work to date is the hand-drawn art featured in Aquaria.
