Catalyst Game Labs » Biographies

Loren L. Coleman
Director of Theoretical Gaming Sciences

I’ve been a novelist, game designer, and all-around literary hatchet-man for over fourteen years. Regularly published since about 1995, my first BattleTech novel, Double-Blind, hit the bookstores in 1997. In the last ten years I’ve published over twenty novels, including nine for BattleTech and a trilogy to help re-launch the world of Conan. Counting up all short stories and game-related sourcebooks, I have well over two million words in print—most of them involving a media tie-in project of one type or another. Most recently I’ve edited two DAW Books anthologies as well as a six-series set of Young Adult work for Adventure Boys, Inc.

I am also one of the primary founders of InMediaRes Productions, LLC, which launched the successful internet publishing venture, BattleCorps.com, and is now developing Catalyst Game Labs. With a great deal of hard work, Catalyst will soon be known for creativity and high professional standards—a company in which everyone involved stands proudly behind every single product.

To accomplish this, I’ll be staying out of the way of a lot of very smart, very hardworking people. And in the meantime, I will contribute what I can as editor-in-chief, creative consultant, and staff writer. I enjoy a creative environment where people challenge me, though in the end (as many writers already know) I have very strong opinions which will continue to evolve as I do my part to help guide the universe(s) forward.

Reaching me can be difficult, as I tend to keep myself “slightly” overburdened. Refer to our Submission Process Guidelines for the best way to submit fiction and other works to BattleCorps, and to the relevant web pages for how to submit material for our game lines. For general business, please use contact@catalystgamelabs.com and they can get the message to me.

David M. Stansel-Garner... How can you have any pudding if you won't finish your book!

David M. Stansel-Garner
Materials & Operations Manager

I’ve spent the last decade working as a FLGS retailer, graphic designer, print estimator, production manager, writer, and publisher. My education is in entrepreneurship with a focus in small business management & marketing, and I have a degree in Graphic Imaging and Printing Technologies (fancy name for all aspects of printing and press work). I have kept my eyes open looking at what every level of the industry was doing…right or wrong.

My goals with Catalyst Game Labs are to ensure that all levels from our players to retailers, distributors, freelancers, and vendors are treated fairly. I also will strive to ensure that Catalyst Game Labs has a professional demeanor in all aspects of our business.

My job at Catalyst Game Labs is to ensure the smooth operation of all of our properties. I handle retail & distributor support with Adam Jury, and product promotion & publications with Rob Boyle, Herb Beas, and Randall Bills. I also handle contracting as well as vendor and freelancer payments.

I can be contacted by email at contact@catalystgamelabs.com, voicemail at (425) 265-6625 (425) 265-6625 , or AOL IM at CatalystDave.

Questions I can help with:

Adam Jury... La la la... needless words blah blah blah...

Adam Jury
Media Design & Production [and Pant-Rocking]

p. 23, The Elements of Style Fourth Edition: Omit Needless Words.

I’ve worked in the hobby game industry full-time since 2002 as a graphic designer, art director, and webmaster. Occasionally I get the chance to write and edit—and sometimes I do it out of necessity. My first published credit was Shadowrun’s Target: Matrix, and I’ve worked on licensed books for Shadowrun, BattleTech, many anime series, and A Game of Thrones.

My position in Catalyst Game Labs: ship ass-kicking games on time and make sure all tiers of the hobby gaming industry know about them.

I work with Rob Boyle and Randall Bills to design and produce our games, and with David Stansel-Garner to handle retailer & distributor support and other promotional matters. I will also manage the Holostreets Shadowrun subscription service, with Rob Boyle.

I can be reached by email at production@catalystgamelabs.com or AOLIM at catalystadamjury

Questions I can help with:

Rob Boyle... Don't let the pretty outfit fool you

Rob Boyle
Game & World Development: Alternate World Engineer [Eclipse Phase]; Resident Anarchist

I’ve been making up stories for a living since ‘97, when I started as an editor at FASA. Since then I’ve worked as a writer and/or editor on game lines such as Shadowrun, Earthdawn, BattleTech, VOR: The Maelstrom, Crimson Skies, and Degenesis, among others. In 2001 I helped start FanPro LLC and took point as the Shadowrun line developer, only to completely throw out the rules and start over with Shadowrun Fourth Edition in 2005 (it simply needed to happen). In 2008, I handed over the reigns of SR development and switched to developing a new game line, Eclipse Phase, which I co-designed with Brian Cross. Eclipse Phase has cleared the gate at a full sprint, with critical acclaim from fans, overwhelming support for its Creative Commons publishing model, and a film option deal.

In my spare time I teach people how to kill, agitate for social revolution, play head-crushing electronic music, dodge balls, and anticipate my transformation into a posthuman entity .

My goals with Catalyst are to continue to push Eclipse Phase as a successful and ground-breaking game line, while also helping Catalyst produce other kick-ass games.

As a game line developer, my job is to explore the EP universe in detail. I oversee every EP book and related project from beginning to end, extracting the best ideas and making them into reality by guiding the writers, artist, editors, and graphic designers. I also answer game-related questions and communicate to our players.

I can be reached at sprite@catalystgamelabs.com or catalystsprite on AIM or eclipsephase on Yahoo Messenger. Phone, skype, PGP, and skinlink access available upon request.

Questions I can help with:

Randall N. Bills... Developers remain locked up for the safety of authors and players

Randall N. Bills
Game & World Development: Alternate World Engineer

I’ve served as the BattleTech line developer, continuity editor, art director, and a primary author/novelist; under FASA I was also the BattleTech assistant line developer. I’ve also served as the Mechwarrior: Dark Age continuity editor, working with WizKids to help in the creation of the universe—including its thirty full-length novels—assisted in the writing and crafting of the original MechWarrior community campaigns, and was the driving force behind the coffee-table art/universe book MechWarrior: Technology of Destruction. In addition I’ve also published fiction and game design in the Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Crimson Skies and Vor: The Maelstrom universes, as well as am one of the lead writers kicking off the Adventure Boys series of Young Adult fiction as published by the Adventure Boys Company. I’m also one of the two developers of associated games that will be packaged with the Adventure Boys fiction that will see publication next year.

My goals are to continue the quality of Shadowrun and BattleTech products as set with Shadowrun Fourth Edition, and the BattleTech Introductory Box Set and Total Warfare. This involves working closely with both line developers to ensure they receive the necessary resources to maintain that quality, while hitting their release dates. This also allows me the flexibility to throw my skills at new games that Catalyst pursues, such as the post-apocalyptic RPG, Degenesis, set to release at the end of this year.

As a roving developer, I can work at any level of game production, as needed. This may include making outlines, selecting and guiding the fantastic creative talent of authors, artists, painters and so on that work for Catalyst, rules generation, writing and so on.

I can be reached at randall@catalystgamelabs.com

Herbert A Beas II... Merrily hast thou seen my Nuke?

Herbert A. Beas II
Game & World Development: Alternate World Engineer [BattleTech]; God of Nukes, Fire, Death, and Other Fun Stuff

I’ve been playing BattleTech (and the MechWarrior role-playing game) since 1990 and have been writing for both since about 1997, way back when FASA ran the show. Since then, I’ve served as the BattleTech’s assistant line developer (pretty much throughout the days of FanPro), as well as playing the role of junior continuity editor for the series. Meanwhile, I’ve working alongside the folks at WizKids on their Mage Knight and MechWarrior: Dark Age lines (way more of the latter than the former), while puttering around in some other fantasy and sci-fi game universes.

My goals are to continue the quality established by Total Warfare and TechManual, not only in fleshing out the rules and such, but also to ensure that the universe never gets too stale and peaceful for us. Since the line began back in 1984, BattleTech has always been (in my none-too-humble opinion, anyway) far more than a simple “beer-and-pretzels” game; it’s been a universe, filled with characters, intrigue, and lots of heavily armed, stomping hulks heavy metal. I continue to believe—as my progenitors in this gig before me did—that for both long-time players and newcomers alike, the story and the game should both be top-notch. Praise for that, of course, will always go to the creative team behind the universe—at all levels, from the most discreet playtesters to the contributing authors and artists that make the whole thing up (and, of course, the folks at WizKids and Catalyst who let us put it on the shelves!) Only together do we keep this entire universe alive and wonderfully messy.

As a developer, my job’s pretty much to oversee every book from start to finish. This includes making the outlines, soliciting and assigning the authors, requesting art where needed (an area I rely heavily on the input of my mentor, Randall Bills), assuring a nice flow of continuity and aesthetics, and all that fun stuff. I’ll even write on occasion, and do a “pre-edit” pass of material (part of that continuity and aesthetic flow thing) to best ensure that the material fits the universe as best as it can. (Once more, these tasks come with the heavy aid of a team, but in the end, I suppose you could say the developer is the guy most responsible for the finished product’s quality, and not be too far off the mark.) As a consequence of my past role as assistant dev, I’m also largely responsible for maintaining continuity both into the universe’s history and into its Dark Age “future history”, while establishing the baseline for the overall story arc that runs in between.

I can be reached at classicbattletech@catalystgamelabs.com (or by politely-worded queries to HABEAS2 on classicbattletech.com)

Questions I can help with:

Matt Heerdt
Graphic Design, Production, Layout Machine

I’ve been a gamer my whole life, but only got into the biz in 2007 as a freelancer with CGL and then as a full-timer in July 2009. I handle many layout and design duties for CGL products across the board, from BattleTech and Shadowrun to Leviathans and casual games, plus many other projects between.

My goals are simple: Make the best games humanly possible and help Catalyst take over the world, one gamer at a time. I’m also hoping that a freak lab accident will give me super powers.

I can be reached at matt@catalystgamelabs.com

Jason Hardy
Shadowrun Line Developer and super spy

According to the various bios I’ve written about myself over the years, I have: won the Nobel Peace Prize, choreographed a Shadowrun musical, and been renowned for my prowess in the art of seduction. So clearly I can only be trusted so far when I’m doing this sort of thing.
Here’s what’s verifiable: I got my game-writing start with two Crimson Skies novels that never came out in English, did some d20 stuff, finagled some miscellaneous Shadowrun credits, then wrote the MechWarrior: Dark Age novel _The Scorpion Jar_. That led to many things, including two more MWDA novels and the Shadwrun novel _Drops of Corruption_. I’ve also written a number of stories for BattleCorps and some other stories here and there, plus I was nominated for an ENnie for an April Fool’s joke, a fact that I might have engraved on my tombstone.

I’m completely excited to be immersed in the Shadowrun setting and to have a chance to do all sorts of things that will excite, amuse, and most likely occasionally enrage the incredibly faithful players that have kept the flame of Shadowrun burning. It’s going to be fun (and stressful and maddening, but that’s okay), and I hope I can help a lot of other people have fun too.

If not, I always have my top-secret monastery/elite martial-arts training dojo in the Himalayas to retire to.

I can be reached at jason@catalystgamelabs.com