Hey there, I’m Simon. I do quite a bit at Couch Pixel Studios… I manage the business side of things, I design and maintain our web presence, and – perhaps most importantly – I’m lead designer and a programmer developing our games!

On the business end, I’m responsible for the company structure, financials and marketing. I manage almost everything to do with the design and back-end of our presence on the web. And in terms of the games themselves, I am the lead designer and one of the programmers working on our new titles, which I’m really excited about!

I come from a background in programming and web design. I’ve earned an Advanced Diploma in games programming and design from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, I’ve worked as both a web developer and a software engineer at Smart AV, and more recently I worked in game design and programming for Transmedia Entertainment.

Currently, I split my time between my responsibilities at Couch Pixel Studios, and contract programming work with a colleague from Smart AV and Transmedia Entertainment.

I’ve always got an eye out for cool projects or games in the industry, for both work and fun, so if you have anything interesting to share with me, I’ll be more than happy to hear it! Feel free to contact me through Couch Pixel at simon@couchpixels.com, or visit my personal site www.SimonNarai.com to contact me directly, see the other projects I’m currently working on, or to grab a copy of my resume!

- Simon

Hey I’m Adam. i am the manager and artist of the Couch Pixels, Recently i have been pushing the Minimum Viable Product with our first game!

My story is that i come from the traditional art to 3D generalist , but my passions are with making people laugh.

My story starts when my ps1 booted up, i have been playing games since i was a wee chap and have been growing my experiences of laughter and enjoyment through my life. dont get me wrong i do enjoy exercise with my mad danciing skills and my enthusiasm for sports. I completed year 12 at St Joseph’s Catholic High with my studies including Drama, Senior Science and information Technology.

I joined AIE because i love games and i love being creative, the course really put my life in perspective and found what i love doing for the rest of my life. Currently i have had a Casual job at Mc Donalds Warilla for over 4 years now with training in the Front Counter, Drive thru and Fries Area. this has helped me with my organisation skills and knowing where everybody’s place is in the work environment.

i enjoy managing this crew with our current project and im proud of us as a team. You can check out more of my stuff at  www.AdamVieira.com.

:3

Ahoy hoy! Im Ray. Im the Lead Artist of the group. I also do a lot of other things outside of that role so I’ve also taken on a generalist role.

So how did I get here?

Well originally I’m from a planet far away. The people over there got a little overblown with their own egos – inevitably blowing up the planet. Luckily though, my parents had the foresight to send me away, when I was a baby, to this comfortable little rock.

I grew up playing videogames and all I thought about was making videogames as a kid. I would do art and 3d work at home for sh*ts and giggles and even exprimented on real-time stuff. So what did I do when I finished school? I became a kitchen hand and storeroom clerk.

A little while into that job, I signed up to a course for Interactive Multimedia Production at, what was then called CGC, which was then bought by SAE and now? I think it belongs to Quantm. Im not sure, but I digress. I learned a lot of things over there: Creating print ready materials, making websites, digital film productions and presentation format productions. So what did I do when I finished that course?

I became……a Call Centre Consultant.

On and off I would freelance in the industry and keeping up to date with stuff around it. I got around and met a lot of people. Also learned a lot of things about how to communicate properly to people and stuff like that. Eventually I quit that though, because there was an itch I had that I couldnt quite figure out. I then got a job as an office processor for AMP, mainly an insurance company but also involved in superannuations. It was a more business/corporate-ish sort of stint. Boring and easy – but not without lessons to be learned, like how to run an office, how to work in an office and that christmas parties thrown large boring companies can sometimes be…well….almost the extreme opposite of boring.

About a while after I settled in and pretty much in the rhythm of being a corporate cog, I stumbled upon a booth at Supernova (think, a severly downscaled version of Comicon). This booth told me (well the people at the booth, cos the actual booths cant talk right?) about this place called AIE (Academy of Interactive Entertainment) where I can learn and acquire real-world skills for the purpose of creating videogames.

Video games.

I finally figured out the itch I was having. It was the long forgotten dream that I wanted to create games. I enrolled to AIE, had a blast and started creating Awesome like a boss everyday since.

Oh and my home planet that exploded? You may not of heard of it, its probably not in this galaxy, let alone this system. Its called Planet Vegeta.

Hey hey, I’m Ben. At Couch Pixels I am responsible for designing and programming our first game! As designer, I will be working with the other members of the team create awesome. As lead programmer I will be managing the programming side of development, ensuring milestones are met, bugs are fixed, and having an addictive game-play experience.

My background consists of solely programming. I have taken this opportunity that is Couch Pixels and decided that I will be trying my hand at designing.

Now how did I get to where I am? Well I caught a train from the city. No, seriously…

My story begins not as early as some would expect. I had a SNES around 8 and the only game I really played was Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong’s Quest. That game was awesome don’t get me wrong, but I was never massively absorbed in games until I was about 12, when my family finally got a Playstation 2. Shortly after we got the PS2, I begged my mum to get me Final Fantasy X, honestly, I had no idea what it was about but I wanted it. It turned out this game changed my life! No exaggeration. I played for months! Probably totalled 350 hours in game. I still play it today!

This began my addiction, yeah I’ll call it addiction, to video games and it wasn’t until Year 10 where I realised I could make video games a career. It was then I picked up a programming book (Beginning Programming for Dummies… Yeah, what of it?), originally to learn HTML… yeah, HTML. Rookie mistake I know. This book informed me of the realm beyond the web, the realm that is making video games. One that I honestly never thought I would be able to get into. Ever since that day, I have wanted to make games and everything I have done adheres to that dream.

Throughout year 11 and 12 I studied subjects in IT to try and get a taste of things and learn more about what I wanted to do. It was toward the end of year 12 where I was extremely lucky and I found out the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) had a Cert 2 course in programming. I jumped at the opportunity, and I jumped high. I had a week I think it was to apply and be accepted before the course started. My mum kindly accepted, supported and paid for me… Thus, I kick-started my career.

Once I finished my HSC and the Cert 2 course, I jumped straight back into AIE to do the Advanced Diploma on Software Development. Now after 2 years, I have graduated that course with the practical knowledge and skills needed to follow my dream. Now here we are, present day, through the AIE I am starting up an Indie studio and following my dream with some amazing people who share my passion!

-Sad Ben :’(