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Code Mystics is lead by a core team of
industry veterans, all with multiple areas of expertise,
and many shipped titles under their belts. Over the
years, this same team have been the key personnel
entrusted with such premium brands as Age of Empires,
Spyro the Dragon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Castlevania
and more... with award-winning results. We are also
renowned for our care of timeless arcade classics like Asteroids
and Pac Man – our team was the very same
founding technical group of Digital Eclipse that
established the retrogaming genre with Williams
Arcade Classics in 1994. Below are bios of some of
our key personnel: Jeff
Vavasour
Code Mystics' founder, Jeff's career in the video game
industry started in 1994. He was formerly a founding
partner and EVP of Canadian Operations for Foundation 9
Entertainment, departing in 2006 to serve as an industry
consultant. Jeff started Backbone Entertainment's
Vancouver studio in 1997, which, by the time of his
departure had grown to over 100 people, developing for
all modern video game platforms. Studio accomplishments
included the award winning Age of Empires: The Age of
Kings for the Nintendo DS, and more than 40 other
titles. Prior to founding Code Mystics, Jeff had already
personally led development for more than 30 titles,
contributed to more than 60, and served as Chief
Technical Officer for both Digital Eclipse Software and
Backbone Entertainment from 1998 to 2005. He has
first-hand knowledge of all aspects of the process,
through contribution to programming, business
development, production, design, budgeting and art. Prior
to his work in video games, Jeff was a researcher in
polymer physics, holding an M.Sc. degree.
George Phillips
Senior Programmer and lead on the platform adaptations
of our FOCAL Emulation
Technology, having a key role in Code Mystics
products such as Lost Treasures of Infocom, Atari's
Greatest Hits, Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection,
and more. George has 20 years’ experience in video
game development, previously culminating as Technical
Director of Backbone Entertainment’s Vancouver
studio. He is an expert in infrastructure coding,
including graphics, collision, physics, and networking,
with strong skills in optimisation, compression,
debugging and coding in everything from C++ and Perl to
assembly. He has served in a significant or lead role on
nearly 50 SKUs from the Sega Genesis to the PS3. He has
been a key contributor to most all of Code Mystics' games. Credits prior
to Code Mystics include Monster Lab (PS2), Sonic
Rivals 2 (PSP), Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
(XBLA), Ultimate Mortal Kombat (DS), and Activision
Hits Remixed (PSP). Prior to his work in video games,
George was a significant contributor to web standards,
including the ubiquitous CGI web interface standard and
to the first implementation of the transparent GIF format
in the Mosaic web browser. He also earned an M.Sc. in
Computer Science from the University of British Columbia,
where he was subsequently employed.
Peter Phillips
Peter brings over 20 years game programming experience
to Code Mystics having worked on teams large and small as
lead or technical director. A programmer by preference,
Peter is a generalist working on all technical aspects of
development: data pipelines, tools, build systems,
graphics, infrastructure, UI, physics, technical
specifications and... whatever else it takes to get the
game shipped. As with his brother, George, Peter has been
a key contributor to most of the games in Code Mystics' catalogue. Prior to
joining Code Mystics, his credits include Sonic
Rivals (PSP), Monster Lab (Wii, PS2), Atari's
Greatest Hits and Activision Anthology
(iOS, Android). Peter's background includes B.Sc. in
Computer Science from UBC, managing large UNIX networks
and writing Internet services in C++.
Tony Rodriguez
Code Mystics' visual lead, Tony has been an artist for
over twenty years. Tony oversees and has a personal hand
in all aspects of Code Mystics' art needs, from
concept/visualisation to characters and 3D modelling to
UI. Tony studied graphic arts for five years including
the postgraduate 3D animation program at Sheridan College
in Toronto, Ontario. Upon graduation he worked for three
years in TV production at Nelvana (Animation Studio). In
2001 Tony moved to Vancouver where he began his career in
the games industry, joining Digital Eclipse in 2002. With
such a strong art background, Tony was quickly promoted
to art lead as well as a team lead. Tony has contributed
his talents to major licences such as MLB Baseball
for both the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, Full Auto
2 for the PSP, Spyro the Dragon for GBA, Cat
in the Hat and Nicktoons Basketball for PC.
All together Tony has worked on more than 50 games plus
has contributed to an array of concept work and design
for original IP.
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