Josh Bear

Josh Bear

Peggy Vlerebome
Courier Staff Writer

Madison native Josh Bear and two non-Madison friends started their independent video game business Twisted Pixel Games in Madison in 2006.

After carving a niche in the indie world with successful titles, and with two more Madisonians – Sean Conway and Sterling Williams – on board, they moved the company to Austin, Texas, in 2008 to be in the midst of a talent pool, around like-minded people and near amenities they wanted.

Bear is the chief creative officer and Conway is a video game designer. Williams, who had been a part-time designer, left Twisted Pixel and went to work for an Austin Web company, Volusion.

Four months ago, Twisted Pixel hit the big-time when Microsoft Studios acquired it.

Twisted Pixel plans to stay in Austin. “We all love it here and Microsoft likes that they have a presence here, so it all works out,” Bear said in an email.

Twisted Pixel also will keep its name.

“The Twisted Pixel brand remains; we are still Twisted Pixel even though we are owned by Microsoft now,” Bear wrote. “It was important to us that we remain who we are and continue to run the company and make the games the way we see fit.”

The Twisted Pixel website, www.twistedpixelgames.com, remains and is getting a makeover this year.

The Twisted Pixel presence has not entirely left Madison. Their attorney John Eckert still has the Twisted Pixel shingle on the sign outside his law office, where Twisted Pixel’s office was located.

They wryly acknowledge some pangs about what they left behind.

Bear said Eckert is missed. “I actually have a framed portrait of him in my office that I sometimes talk to when I am lonely,” he wrote.

Conway started as a part-timer at Twisted Pixel in 2007 and got hired full-time in May 2008, and in the interim worked full-time at Bob Evans as a manager.

“I miss Bob Evans,” Conway wrote. “They are kind of like my mom. They put up with me and kept me well-fed. They never slammed my head in a door repeatedly while talking on the phone and laughing, like my mom, Madeline Conway, did, though.”

This year Conway will be working on a video game whose details have not been announced and Bear is “looking forward to working on some really cool games that we haven’t announced yet.”

And Madison might once again figure into his creative, professional plans.

“I’m working on an independend film that I think is going to be really cool, and I hope to film some of it in Madison,” Bear wrote.

“I’ll have to talk to the new mayor and see if he is cool with it,” Bear wrote, referring to Mayor Damon Welch, who formerly owned Damon’s restaurant downtown. “I used to buy a bunch of hamburgers from him with all my allowance as a kid, so I hope he remembers that when I’m asking him to let me close down Main Street for three weeks to film.”

Courtesy of the Madison Courier

http://madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=178&SubSectionID=961&ArticleID=67126&TM=61614.09