(All About Myself)
	Name: Ian Kiigan (B L O G)
	Nationality:From Dublin, Ireland, but currently living in the UK.
	Email: ian@kiigan.com
	Occupation: Software Engineer (Videogames)
	Resumé: Click here.
	Fuel type: Vegetarian only!
	Max velocity: Fastest with my Kangol.
	Operating conditions: Cold, miserable rainy weather. It must be an Irish thing.

 

Quick Facts Index Q:Who are you, anyway? Q: Why does this site look so weird? Q: Is Ian Kiigan your real name? Useless Facts Index Taste in music. Taste in comedy. Taste in cinema. Taste in games

Quick Facts

Q: Who are you, anyway? My name is Ian Kiigan, and I am an Irish computer scientist / software engineer. I come from Dublin originally, but for the past few years I've been living in Scotland (in Dundee) where I work creating videogames. This has always been a big passion of mine - I've been playing videogames since the Atari VCS, and have had a keen interest in making them since I first started out coding on Atari 8-bit computers. With respect to computer science, I would describe myself as a bit of an all-rounder. Having a rather broad range of interests and professional experience, I consider myself quite versatile professionally and always enjoy jumping into something new for the first time. A list of some of the things I've worked on over the years can be found on my Product Portfolio page. I also have a great love of comedy, theatre and the written word.. Perhaps this explains why I've chosen to focus so heavily on videogames during the latter half of my career: to reconcile my chosen discipline of computer science with my natural desire to entertain people! back to top

Q: Why does this site look so weird? If the style of the site seems familiar, that is because I based it on the self-test screen from the old Atari 8-bit computers. Since my early experiences with those machines cemented my love of computing and of making videogames, I thought it would be nice to pay tribute.. back to top

Q: Is Ian Kiigan your real name? Yes it is! Although "Kiigan" may seem an unusual spelling, it is pronounced just like "Keegan". Ultimately, both of those are just anglicised versions of the Irish surname "Mac Aodhgáin", which I do also use sometimes. However I usually use "Kiigan" professionally and that's what it says on my passport and driving license. back to top

Useless Facts

Taste in music. Mostly hip-hop, soul, R&B, funk, jazz. I am a huge fan of Prince. Other artists I like include Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, Sly & The Family Stone, Terence Trent D'Arby, Miles Davis. Modern day soul artists like D'angelo, Alicia Keyes, Lynden David Hall, Me'shell, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott etc. I'm a bit of a hiphop fanatic - my faves include Chuck D and Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur, Spearhead, De La Soul, Run DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Common, Mos Def, The Roots, Nas etc. Being painfully old-school, there's still plenty of room on my iPod for guys like Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh, Grandmaster Flash, KRS-1, Eric B and Rakim, Kurtis Blow, Afrika Bambaataa etc. back to top

Taste in comedy. Pretty much all of my taste in comedy comes from discovering the likes of Monty Python and Spike Milligan as a youngster. I remain a huge fan of the Pythons, the Goons, and Spike to this day. In terms of standup, some of the best comedians I have ever seen live would include Billy Connolly, Jack Dee, Bill Bailey, Ed Byrne and Dara O'Brian. I love standup comedy! On TV, I like a lot of stuff. Favourites include The Simpsons, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Yes Minister, Porridge, Father Ted, Fawlty Towers, The Thick of It, BrassEye, Have I Got News For You etc. Comedy heroes include Spike Milligan, Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, Larry David, all the Pythons, and Morcambe and Wise of course. Other favourites include Dermot Morgan, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Alexei Sayle, Ben Elton, Lenny Henry, Chris Morris, Ricky Gervais, Eddie Izzard, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Mel Brooks and many others. back to top

Taste in cinema. Favourite directors are Spike Lee and Woody Allen. Favourite film by Spike Lee is probably Malcolm X, 25th Hour or Jungle Fever and my favourite film by Woody Allen would probably be Manhattan, Stardust Memories, or Annie Hall. Tough choice! Also I'd say The Producers is probably my favourite comedy movie of all time (the original version with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, not the modern remake). back to top

Taste in games Pretty hard to pick favourites, but here goes. In terms of older games, favourites include Centipede, Pac-Man and Robotron 2084. I love the noise, the spectacle, the simplicity. These are the games that jump-started my interest in videogames as a kid, and they still play very well today. Later, with the 8-bit and 16-bit home computer era, I became a big fan of Mercenary by Paul Woakes / Novagen, and the sequels too. The freedom to just explore and pick your own path through the world was such a breath of fresh air, and along with Elite by Ian Bell / David Braben that pretty much set the stage for modern hits like the Grand Theft Auto series. I'm a big fan of adventure games too - Myst, Monkey Island, Syberia, and many others. If I had a chance to work on anything at all, I'd be doing adventure games and trying to revive the genre which has sadly been in decline in recent years. For more recent favourites, I'd list Super Mario 64, Tempest 2000 by the ever-llovely Jeff Minter, along with Rez, Deus Ex, Ico, Half Life 2, and the Metal Gear Solid series. I don't have many heroes in the industry now as the industry is sort of stuck in a creative rut, but the people I admire the most in the business nowadays includes Japanese studios such as Treasure, Clover Studios... and of course Nintendo and Capcom too for that matter. In the western world... well there is Valve of course, and Blizzard's Starcraft remains my favourite strategy game ever.