Orthogonal Games company

Orthogonal Games is an independent, self-funded game studio founded by Kent Hudson in San Francisco. Its first project is The Novelist.

Backstory

A veteran of the game industry with over a decade of experience, Kent Hudson worked as a primary developer on Deus Ex: Invisible War and BioShock 2. He also worked smaller roles on Deus Ex: The Conspiracy for PS2 and Thief: Deadly Shadows. After Ion Storm he served as the creative director on an unannounced project at Midway Austin that was cancelled during Midway's collapse. He then moved to 2K Marin, where he worked as a senior designer on BioShock 2 and a lead on the upcoming The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. After a brief stint at LucasArts he quit his job to pursue independent development while consulting on BioShock: Infinite, Dishonored, and other titles.

Going Indie

When Kent went indie he didn't have a specific game idea or a plan; he just had some savings, a wildly supportive wife, and the desire to make something that was all his own. After scrapping his first project (an iOS game), he went back to a previous idea he'd jotted down involving a ghost manipulating people in an ancient mansion. After refining the focus of the game to a single family and getting concept art from his friend, the talented artist J.R. Hogarth de la Plante, he commissioned art from the equally talented art company CGBot and started building The Novelist. Independent development has had its share of challenges, but the ability to work on personal projects without outside influences has more than made it worth it.