Fourteen Year Old Publishes Ambitious Xbox Game

REDMOND, Wash. - Jan. 27, 2014 - PRLog -- Over a year of hard work, more than 400 hours invested, and about 6,000 lines of code is what it took 14-year-old Redmond resident Matthew Mistele to finally achieve his dream of becoming a published video game developer. "Warthog Wars" is now available on the Microsoft Xbox Indie Games store for download and purchase (priced at $3) by anyone with an Xbox. Also available are free downloads of the Warthog Wars game trailer video and PC versions of the game on Matthew’s web site at www.matthewmistele.com.

A year ago then 13-year-old Matthew, now a freshman at The Bear Creek School in Redmond, drew up an ambitious plan to create a Xbox game with multiple game modes including campaigns, a survival mode (fight against the computer), and an Xbox Live mode so he could compete against his friends over the Internet. He was just learning C# and had never written for the Xbox, so it was a lofty goal that at times seemed unattainable. But Matthew refused to give up, sacrificing long hours (both free time and not-so-free time), in his pursuit to create his very own Xbox video game. “When he first came to me with the plan he drew up, I thought he was crazy.  I hadn't written a program in over 25 years, so I wasn’t the best teacher for him, but I figured we would learn something along the way so we embarked,” said Matthew’s father, Bryan, who occasionally helped with bug fixes.  “To say I'm surprised by the perseverance and passion I've seen in my son on this project would be a huge understatement.”

Matthew designed Warthog Wars with his friends in mind including options for:

·         Multiplayer – Play with friends in a battle to the finish.*

·         Survival – Endure on your own, battling against increasing enemy forces, wave after wave.

·         Campaign – Complete objectives including attacking any enemy fort and saving a treasured AI and destroying an enemy ship protecting a shield generator.

·         Store – Ability to earn credits and purchase upgrades giving yourself more speed, health, or weapons.

Each of these game modes required months of additional programming and debugging, but it was a labor of love for Matthew, an avid video game player himself. Matthew’s fascination with video games began at age nine with the creative LEGO® Star Wars video games. He began programming with Scratch, an introductory computer programming environment developed by MIT especially for children, and later stepped up to programming in Alice (developed by Carnegie Mellon for students). Inspired by his early success with Scratch and Alice, Matthew’s quest to develop his own video game was cemented at age eleven. He began studying books on programming in his free time and by age 12, he was creating simple computer games that tested and expanded his programming skills. Check out www.matthewmistele.com to play Matthew’s first computer games or to read his programming blog. Also available on his web site are the free game trailer video and PC versions of Warthog Wars.

*As with all Microsoft Indie games, a Microsoft XNA Creator Club account is required to play multiplayer games through Xbox Live.

For additional information, also contact Priscilla Mistele, priscilla@mistele.com, 425- 785-4717

About The Bear Creek School

Founded in 1988, in Redmond, Washington, The Bear Creek School is an Independent Classical Christian School that believes only when faith, mind, and heart are fed together can someone experience the fullness of education, which produces leaders who think well and are compelled to engage the world.

The school serves students from the greater Eastside and is housed on four campuses.  Redmond Campus on Union Hill serves kindergarten to grade 12 students and Valley Campus, also in Redmond, serves preschool to grade 5 students.  Bear Creek has two Early Childhood campuses in Woodinville and Sammamish serving preschool and prekindergarten students. The Bear Creek School is accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities, and the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools.