Mike Booth Explained

Mike Booth
Occupation:Chief Creative Officer at Bad Robot Games
Former founder and CEO of Turtle Rock Studios
Boards:Resolution Games

Michael Booth is an American video game designer and executive and the current chief creative officer of Bad Robot Games.[1] He was also creator and lead designer of Left 4 Dead and founder of Turtle Rock Studios, later acquired by Valve Corporation.[2]

Early career and Nox

Throughout his career, Booth has generally focused on creating cooperative online multiplayer games,[3] a genre for which he continues to advocate as recently as 2022.[4] One of Booth's earliest projects was Nox, which he created in his apartment. He brought a demo to the Game Developers Conference, and ultimately, Nox was published in 2000 through the Westwood Studios division of Electronic Arts,[5] with Booth in the roles of project lead and lead designer. His career at Electronic Arts continued[2] with Booth serving creative roles for 2000's [6] and 2003's .

Turtle Rock Studios

In 2002, Booth founded Turtle Rock Studios,[7] where he served as CEO and game director.[8] In 2003, Booth programmed an official bot that enabled offline multiplayer play in Counter-Strike.[9] He was project lead and lead designer for , released in 2004.[2] In 2004 he began creating cooperative online game Left 4 Dead,[10] for which he was also lead designer.[2] Booth created the AI Director in Left 4 Dead[1] that dynamically adjusted a player's experience of the game during each playthrough.[11]

Booth also was part of the creative teams for other Counter-Strike games and Team Fortress 2.[2] After Valve acquired Turtle Rock Studios in 2008,[12] Booth stayed on with the company until 2012.

Blizzard Entertainment, Facebook, and Resolution Games

Booth departed Valve and joined Blizzard Entertainment as game director[13] on an unannounced project.[14]

From December 2015[15] until December 2019, he was director of social virtual reality (VR) at Facebook,[16] working with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer.[17] In April 2017, Booth led the beta rollout of Facebook Spaces, a social VR product created for Oculus Rift.[18] Prior to the launch, Booth appeared in live VR demonstrations of the product in April[17] and October 2016.[19]

Booth joined the board of directors of Resolution Games in March 2020.[20] He worked with Resolution on Demeo, a 2021 tabletop role-playing game originally created for VR.[1]

Bad Robot Games

Booth joined Bad Robot Games in December 2020, managing the company's newly created in-house development studio. He reports to Anna Sweet, CEO of Bad Robot Games.[21] By February 2022, he had taken on the role of chief creative officer.

Awards and recognition

Notes and References

  1. News: Bell . Alice . Left 4 Dead creator Mike Booth says there still aren't enough co-op games . 27 January 2024 . Rock, Paper, Shotgun . 4 February 2022 . en.
  2. News: Spangler . Todd . J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Games Forms In-House Studio Led by Gaming Vet Mike Booth . 27 January 2024 . Variety . 10 December 2020.
  3. News: Sinclair . Brendan . Bad Robot looking to be the rare Hollywood-and-games success story . 27 January 2024 . GamesIndustry.biz . 12 February 2021 . en.
  4. News: Allen . Jen . 'Left 4 Dead' creator thinks there "just aren't enough" co-op games . 28 January 2024 . NME . 7 February 2022.
  5. News: Aihoshi . Richard . Nox Developer Profile: Michael Booth . 2 February 2024 . IGN . 27 May 2000 . https://web.archive.org/web/20000711004634/http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/profiles/mbooth.shtml . 11 July 2000.
  6. News: Quick . Sonya . O.C. developer of game Left 4 Dead bought by Valve Corp. . 2 February 2024 . Orange County Register . 11 January 2008.
  7. Web site: Turtle Rock Studios reforms. Tom. Bramwell. Eurogamer. 18 March 2015. 2 February 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924153020/http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/turtle-rock-studios-reforms. 24 September 2015. live.
  8. News: McElroy . Griffin . Left 4 Dead co-dev Turtle Rock Studios reanimated . 28 January 2024 . Engadget . 17 March 2010.
  9. News: Callaham . John . Official Counter-Strike Bot Interview . 28 January 2024 . HomeLan Fed . 17 April 2003 . https://web.archive.org/web/20030426043612/http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=13555 . 26 April 2003.
  10. News: The Making Of... Left 4 Dead . 28 January 2024 . GamesRadar . 27 April 2015 . en.
  11. News: Champandard . Alex J. . 11 Secrets about LEFT 4 DEAD's AI 11 Secrets about LEFT 4 DEAD's AI Director and its Procedural Zombie Director and its Procedural Zombie Population Population . 28 January 2024 . AIGameDev.com . 7 October 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171030005234/http://aigamedev.com/premium/articles/procedural-director/ . 30 October 2017 . bot: unknown .
  12. News: Mike Booth, the Architect of Left 4 Dead's AI Director, Explains Why It's So Bloody Good . 28 January 2024 . Kotaku Australia . 20 November 2018 . en-AU.
  13. News: Calvin . Alex . Valve and Facebook vet Booth joins Resolution Games board . 2 February 2024 . PCGamesInsider . 18 March 2020.
  14. News: Cook . JR . The Unsolved Mystery of Mike Booth . 2 February 2024 . BlizzPro . 31 July 2015.
  15. News: Robertson . Adi . Facebook founds team to help people 'connect and share' in virtual reality . 28 January 2024 . The Verge . 21 February 2016 . en.
  16. News: Denzer . TJ . Mike Booth leaves Facebook VR to return to game development . 28 January 2024 . Shacknews . 3 December 2019 . en.
  17. News: Terdiman . Daniel . How Facebook's Social VR Could Be the Killer App for Virtual Reality . 2 February 2024 . Fast Company . 13 April 2016.
  18. News: Statt . Nick . Facebook's bold and bizarre VR hangout app is now available for the Oculus Rift . 28 January 2024 . The Verge . 18 April 2017 . en.
  19. News: Machkovech . Sam . Facebook's first VR experience demonstrated by Mark Zuckerberg [Updated] ]. 2 February 2024 . Ars Technica . 6 October 2016 . en-us.
  20. News: Forde . Matthew . Resolution Games adds Left 4 Dead creator Mike Booth to board of directors . 28 January 2024 . PocketGamer.biz . 18 March 2020.
  21. News: Takahashi . Dean . JJ Abrams' Bad Robot launches internal game studio headed by Left 4 Dead creator . 28 January 2024 . VentureBeat . 10 December 2020.
  22. News: Thorsen . Tor . Sinclair . Brendan . Little Big Planet wins big at D.I.C.E. . 6 February 2024 . GameSpot . 23 February 2009.
  23. Web site: 2009 Games Multiplayer . BAFTA Awards . 28 January 2024.
  24. Web site: D.I.C.E. Awards By Video Game Details . D.I.C.E. Awards . 2 February 2024.

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