Alex Thomas is a game developer, writer and the principle creative designer at Stoic, which he co-founded along with Arnie Jorgensen and John Watson.
Biography[]
As a child, Thomas was fond of strategic and tactic role-playing games, as well as classic animated movies drawn using traditional animation techniques. He enrolled into college to learn 2D animation but dropped out at the age of 19 after realizing that a significant market for it didn't exist any longer. He went on to join Wolfpack Studios in 2001, where he worked on Shadowbane and the cancelled Marvel Online Super Heroes.
He transferred to KingsIsle Entertainment, which consisted of former Wolfpack developers, in 2005, and worked on a social MMO and some minigames. In 2007, he left KingsIsle and joined BioWare Austin, while also working as a freelance writer and artist, pitching screenplays to Cartoon Network and DreamWorks, providing art for the Call of Cthulu role-playing game's sourcebook Miskatonic University and the choose-your-adventure book Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure, as well as working as an artist on a GameStop advert.
At BioWare, Thomas worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic for about five years and met the future Stoic co-founders John Watson and Arnie Jorgensen there. He also created an iOS game called Dino Boy there with Jorgensen, after getting permission from BioWare. In June 2011, Thomas and Watson started working together on their own game and were joined by Jorgensen by 2012.
After the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, they left BioWare in January and founded their own studio called "Stoic", working on the game which became The Banner Saga. Thomas worked as the lead writer, designer and animator. He was the sole animator on the game before they could outsource the work to Powerhouse Animation Studios with the help of the Kickstarter funds.
After The Banner Saga's release in 2014, Thomas greatly decreased his work at Stoic and founded an independent one-man company called "Candle and Key", creating the game called Killers and Thieves, which was made with the help of outscourced programmers and published by Stoic. He worked as a vonsultant on The Banner Saga 2 and as the lead writer on The Banner Saga 3, returning to work full-time at Stoic in 2020 as its principal creative designer.
Games[]
BioWare Austin[]
- Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011) - Senior environment artist, planet designer
Candle and Key[]
- Killers and Thieves (2017) - Designer, artist, writer, animator
Stoic[]
- The Banner Saga: Factions (2013) - Lead designer, writer and animator
- The Banner Saga (2014) - Lead designer, writer and animator
- The Banner Saga 2 (2016) - Consultant
- The Banner Saga 3 (2018) - Lead writer
Wolfpack Studios[]
- Shadowbane (2003) - Additional designer, world builder
- Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos (2003) - Lead artist
- Shadowbane: Throne of Oblivion (2004) - Lead artist