Good news, everyone! jmtb02 is joining Kongregate

Hey all— I am incredibly pleased to announce that Kongregate’s newest employee is jmtb02!!! He has eight years of experience developing single-player flash games, and we’re thrilled that he has joined our team.

Many of his past games will already be familiar to you: the Achievement Unlocked series, the This Is the Only Level series, Treadmillasaurus Rex, Hedgehog Launch, Epic Combo! and of course Soviet Giraffe. (Who can resist a game description that starts out, “Okay, so this time you are a giraffe in a Soviet military base…”?) They’re fun, they’re funny, they’re easy to jump into and just start playing— genuinely terrific stuff.

Don’t worry, we’re not turning him into a project manager or something. He’s going to continue making great games, but now he’s doing it for us! Will Kongbot get his own game at last? Will guinea pigs finally get the fan base they deserve? Will we decide for once and for all which is superior, pygmy hedgehogs or sugar gliders? Stay tuned…. same bat time, same bat channel.

Whoa.

Nice snipe from AG.

[Edit: Wait… now we have an Elephant vs. Ant situation going on.]

Elephants. Elephants everywhere!

This is awesome, I love this.

Originally posted by trickyrodent:

Many of his past games will already be familiar to you: the Achievement Unlocked series, the This Is the Only Level series, Treadmillasaurus Rex, Hedgehog Launch, Epic Combo! and of course Soviet Giraffe. (Who can resist a game description that starts out, “Okay, so this time you are a giraffe in a Soviet military base…”?)

How is RER not in this list?

EDIT for Top 5 jmtb02 games list:
1. RER
2. AU
3. Elephant Rave
4. Four Second Frenzy
5. This Is The Only Level

Was expecting something to do with futurarma from someone then I saw this and then I went insane because he’s awesome.

Edit: What is RER?

Edit: What is RER?

Run, Elephant Run

Recruit ALL the good developers. Muahahah.
I definitely overuse this meme.

Happy for you, jmtb02. :) I think Kongregate already has quite a few awesome developers, and you’ll be a great asset. (not just saying that because I love Epic Combo!… maybe)

What is RER?

Run Elephant Run. ninja’d ;-;

Also, great job on this Kong, his games will be 37 times better with the Kong sponsor screen in the beginning as apposed to the AG one!

AKA he got bribed by cookies

Originally posted by CowFriend:

AKA he got bribed by cookies

They are a pretty exceptional bribery tool. I once killed a man for a chocolate ch… nevermind.

Also, Kongbot should get his own game, and it should be an addictive multiplayer RPG. :O

Nothing beats his best game ever: Kongregate Chat.

I want to marry jmtb02

HELLO KONGREGATE. I heard there would be cookies?

Take that Armor Games! >:D

Tasteless joke on my part.

I only meant it as a joke and if that joke really did cause hurt feelings, then I’m honestly sorry and didn’t mean it like that. I apologize.

Nice to have a famous dev on Kong’s staff.

Does this mean John left AG? I didn’t think Kong wanted programmers, I thought they were more of an accumulator of good games. I’m guessing they’re paying more?

Originally posted by framage:

Does this mean John left AG? I didn’t think Kong wanted programmers, I thought they were more of an accumulator of good games. I’m guessing they’re paying more?

Kongregate has developers as well. In regards to the terms, that’s none of our business. :D

So does this mean more elephants? If yes, how many, in furlongs?

I don’t believe that…He can’t read!

Hiring John is our first experiment in dedicated internal game development since Kongai. All our other developers are working on website functionality, though schonstal makes games in his free time, and Anthony and Greg have collaborated with others to make games.

You may have noticed that the supply of great single-player games has been a little weaker in the last six months or so, which is part of the reason why mmo-type games have seemed more prominent. We think those games are great but single-player games of all genres are equally important in keeping variety and interest for everyone and the overall Kongregate ecosystem healthy. We’ve been brainstorming ways to increase the supply and we’re hoping developing some games ourselves will be at least a small help.

We’ve always thought John is one of the best game developers out there and overall a great guy, and made a job offer to him as far back as 2006. We’re thrilled that he was willing to make a move right at a time when we were thinking of getting more involved in game development. I’m not promising more hires are on the way, as we’re going to move forward cautiously as we learn what we’re doing, but we couldn’t start with anyone better.

Originally posted by emily_greer:

Awesome! Sounds very exciting. :D

Great news, I can’t wait to see all that comes from this.

Sounds awesome. More elephants on Kong! ヽ(°▽　°)ﾉ
Also excited about new Kongregate developed games besides Kongai.

which is part of the reason why mmo-type games have seemed more prominent. We think those games are great…

I’m dissapointed.

Also Phoenix’s link isn’t working because you got his account name wrong.

Originally posted by LouWeed:

Originally posted by trickyrodent:

Many of his past games will already be familiar to you: the Achievement Unlocked series, the This Is the Only Level series, Treadmillasaurus Rex, Hedgehog Launch, Epic Combo! and of course Soviet Giraffe. (Who can resist a game description that starts out, “Okay, so this time you are a giraffe in a Soviet military base…”?)

How is RER not in this list?

Because trickyrodent doesn’t compete in the forum tournaments. :p