- Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:44 pm
#33844
Martin Edmondson – Creative Director
Founded Reflections in 1984, originally creating games for the BBC micro such as Ravenskull and Stryker’s Run 2 if anyone can remember that far back! Switched to Commodore Amiga and designed a number of games published by Psygnosis such as Shadow of the Beast, Ballistics, AWESOME, and Destruction Derby. Then designed Driver, during the production of which, sold Reflections to GT Interactive with a 5 year agreement to deliver the sequels and a new game, Stuntman. Left Reflections in 2004 to pursue new interests unrelated to the games industry. Returned as a consultant to Reflections (which had then been purchased by Ubisoft) in 2006, later taking on the role of Creative Director of Driver San Francisco. Lives in London but currently spending a lot of time in Newcastle!
His dream car would be something that’s impossible to get. Ferrari FXX or the new GTO would fit the bill! Probably the GTO because it’s road legal and probably not that far off the pace of the FXX.
Gareth Edmondson – Studio Manager
Gareth Edmondson is the Studio Manager of Ubisoft Reflections in Newcastle and has been since he took over running the studio from his brother, Martin in 2004 and has worked on major titles such as all of the games in the Driver series plus Stuntman, and Monster 4 x 4 Stunt Racer. The Studio became known as Ubisoft Reflections when it became part of the company’s family of studios in 2006. Gareth is the Vice Chairman for TIGA and is actively involved in the ‘Passionate people, passionate places’ North East of England campaign. Prior to working in video games, Gareth was a Civil Engineer and an unknown fact about Gareth is that he built Cleethorpes sewage treatment works...
He lives in Newcastle, enjoys cycling and sailing, but not at the same time!
His dream car would be a Lamborghini Miura and would one day like to drive the Pacific coast highway in it – maybe once the current game is complete and he has more spare time!
Jack Couvela – Art Director
Jack has worked for Ubisoft since 2006 as the Art Director of Driver San Francisco. His games career began at Reflections 13 years ago as a texture artist on the original Driver. He's since worked on Driver 2, Driver 3, and as Lead Artist on both Stuntman and Driver: Parallel Lines.
Jack's first car was an 11 year old rusty Mini with a pink roof, which was the inspiration for the hidden car in Havana in Driver 2. He also featured as the face of every pedestrian in that game. Yes, including the women.
Before joining Reflections Jack was a comic book artist working on Judge Dredd for 2000AD.
Interesting fact: Jack loves everything beginning with the letter C - cycling, comics, cake, cats, cinema, and camping and his dream car is a Ferrari 308 GTS, so he can pretend to be Magnum.
Chris Hadley – Senior Producer
Chris joined Ubisoft in 2009 as the senior Producer for DRIVER San Francisco in the Newcastle-based Reflections studio. Chris came to Ubisoft from Vancouver where he had been Franchise Development Director on a number of Need For Speed titles for EA. Before moving to Canada Chris had worked for London based independent UK developer Computer Artworks where he was Senior Producer on Universal’s game sequel to John Carpenter’s “The Thingâ€. He also spent a couple for tours working for Climax producing console conversions of titles such as Theme Park World, Populous: The Beginning & Diablo as well as troubleshooting projects in the Nottingham and Los Angeles offices.
As a self confessed car nerd Chris’ current mode of transport is a Mini Cooper S but his dream car would probably have to be an Aston Martin DBS ... or One-77 ... or ...
Jean-Sebastien Decant – Senior Designer
Joined Ubisoft in 2009 as Senior Designer on DRIVER® San Francisco in the Newcastle-based Reflections studio to supervise all single player aspects of the game.
Prior to that, Jean-Sebastien worked on many games in different Paris-based studios, directed a handful of Advert Games for the F4-Group, was heading the development of The Little Prince cross Media project at MKO Games, and helped David Cage on writing the PS3 thriller Heavy Rain.
Before getting into game design, Jean-Sebastien was a film and game journalist for lifestyle magazines, a film acquisition consultant and a screenwriter for Pathé and Metropolitan Films. Lives in Paris but also currently spending a lot of time in Newcastle!
As a kid he always wanted a Ferrari 250 GTO, now since he had the opportunity to try it in DRIVER® San Francisco he would go for a SLR McLaren Mercedes.
Founded Reflections in 1984, originally creating games for the BBC micro such as Ravenskull and Stryker’s Run 2 if anyone can remember that far back! Switched to Commodore Amiga and designed a number of games published by Psygnosis such as Shadow of the Beast, Ballistics, AWESOME, and Destruction Derby. Then designed Driver, during the production of which, sold Reflections to GT Interactive with a 5 year agreement to deliver the sequels and a new game, Stuntman. Left Reflections in 2004 to pursue new interests unrelated to the games industry. Returned as a consultant to Reflections (which had then been purchased by Ubisoft) in 2006, later taking on the role of Creative Director of Driver San Francisco. Lives in London but currently spending a lot of time in Newcastle!
His dream car would be something that’s impossible to get. Ferrari FXX or the new GTO would fit the bill! Probably the GTO because it’s road legal and probably not that far off the pace of the FXX.
Gareth Edmondson – Studio Manager
Gareth Edmondson is the Studio Manager of Ubisoft Reflections in Newcastle and has been since he took over running the studio from his brother, Martin in 2004 and has worked on major titles such as all of the games in the Driver series plus Stuntman, and Monster 4 x 4 Stunt Racer. The Studio became known as Ubisoft Reflections when it became part of the company’s family of studios in 2006. Gareth is the Vice Chairman for TIGA and is actively involved in the ‘Passionate people, passionate places’ North East of England campaign. Prior to working in video games, Gareth was a Civil Engineer and an unknown fact about Gareth is that he built Cleethorpes sewage treatment works...
He lives in Newcastle, enjoys cycling and sailing, but not at the same time!
His dream car would be a Lamborghini Miura and would one day like to drive the Pacific coast highway in it – maybe once the current game is complete and he has more spare time!
Jack Couvela – Art Director
Jack has worked for Ubisoft since 2006 as the Art Director of Driver San Francisco. His games career began at Reflections 13 years ago as a texture artist on the original Driver. He's since worked on Driver 2, Driver 3, and as Lead Artist on both Stuntman and Driver: Parallel Lines.
Jack's first car was an 11 year old rusty Mini with a pink roof, which was the inspiration for the hidden car in Havana in Driver 2. He also featured as the face of every pedestrian in that game. Yes, including the women.
Before joining Reflections Jack was a comic book artist working on Judge Dredd for 2000AD.
Interesting fact: Jack loves everything beginning with the letter C - cycling, comics, cake, cats, cinema, and camping and his dream car is a Ferrari 308 GTS, so he can pretend to be Magnum.
Chris Hadley – Senior Producer
Chris joined Ubisoft in 2009 as the senior Producer for DRIVER San Francisco in the Newcastle-based Reflections studio. Chris came to Ubisoft from Vancouver where he had been Franchise Development Director on a number of Need For Speed titles for EA. Before moving to Canada Chris had worked for London based independent UK developer Computer Artworks where he was Senior Producer on Universal’s game sequel to John Carpenter’s “The Thingâ€. He also spent a couple for tours working for Climax producing console conversions of titles such as Theme Park World, Populous: The Beginning & Diablo as well as troubleshooting projects in the Nottingham and Los Angeles offices.
As a self confessed car nerd Chris’ current mode of transport is a Mini Cooper S but his dream car would probably have to be an Aston Martin DBS ... or One-77 ... or ...
Jean-Sebastien Decant – Senior Designer
Joined Ubisoft in 2009 as Senior Designer on DRIVER® San Francisco in the Newcastle-based Reflections studio to supervise all single player aspects of the game.
Prior to that, Jean-Sebastien worked on many games in different Paris-based studios, directed a handful of Advert Games for the F4-Group, was heading the development of The Little Prince cross Media project at MKO Games, and helped David Cage on writing the PS3 thriller Heavy Rain.
Before getting into game design, Jean-Sebastien was a film and game journalist for lifestyle magazines, a film acquisition consultant and a screenwriter for Pathé and Metropolitan Films. Lives in Paris but also currently spending a lot of time in Newcastle!
As a kid he always wanted a Ferrari 250 GTO, now since he had the opportunity to try it in DRIVER® San Francisco he would go for a SLR McLaren Mercedes.