Mike Pliaconis

Since Michael was young (and even now), he has been taking apart his toys to see how they work or to assemble them into new ones. As an only child with his over-active imagination, it was not uncommon to find him building skyscrapers, castles or vast alien worlds in his room or in his mind for hours at a time. One summer he and a friend dissected Atari's Pitfall!, mapping out each level to completion on a continuous roll of butcher paper. Growing up in the '70s and 80s, Michael was able to experience virtually every home game console including Sears Pong to ColecoVision, Intellivision, Odyssey, Atari and then on to the C64 and now into the modern era of PC and XBOX/PS3. Geeking it out in his teens (and to this day), he was an avid player and a game master of games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Earthdawn, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu and many others, leading to the creation of many role-playing rule sets and settings both fantasy and futuristic. For the past 25 years he and best friend David Massey have been designing and prototyping games and testing ideas on paper and pixel, starting with their interactive online RPG/BBS "The Underdark" in the early '90s to strategy and RPG computer games today. As an award-winning 2D and 3D artist he hopes to continue his childhood dreams of creating enjoyable games for people to play. More of a gamer than an actor... But he tries. Michael currently resides in Charlotte, NC with his wife Ferris and his two cats, Sebastian and Zoë and teaches Simulation and Game Design at CPCC.