Developer bike gang rides across the US to de-stress

William Stallwood is burned out.

In 2008, Stallwood and Dain Saint co-founded independent studio Cipher Prime in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and they've since built a reputation for creating stylish games rich in music and dreamy visuals, such as Auditorium, Splice and Intake. Cipher Prime hit success on Kickstarter before it was cool. Stallwood is heavily involved in the local game dev scene, and he helped found Philly Game Forge, Philly Dev Night, and he's Creative Director of the Philadelphia Geek Awards. Right now, he and three friends are taking a break from normal life – and from Philadelphia – to ride across the country on bicycles.

"Cipher Prime is down to just Dain and myself again, and I needed to sort of run away and collect myself," Stallwood tells Joystiq in an email. "I've taken on a bit too many management roles and my recent work on the Philadelphia Geek Awards has pushed me a little over the level. I'm hoping to refuel my creativity and process all the things I love."

Stallwood calls the bike tour "Nerds Across America," and he's taking the journey with fellow developers Greg Lobanov and Tyler Myers, and dancer Savannah Carr. The tagline on their blog is, "No time limits, no regrets." Still, Stallwood can't help getting some work done from the road.

"As for Cipher Prime, Dain and I are both incredibly burned out," Stallwood says. "So, we're letting it take a sideline for this journey. He's actually working on his personal album right now. That said, we're playing some aggressive games of 'Volley.' Volley is a little game like Pong. I make something in one of our games. Then, Dain has one week to iterate or I get a point and vice-versa. We're actively still working on Duet and a little tiny side game. We also just set a launch date for Auditorium that's set around next year."

This is how Stallwood does a vacation. He has a hand in so many aspects of Philadelphia game development that it seems impossible for him to step away entirely, but he says that most of his roles with Philly Game Forge and Dev Night are automated at this point. The community runs Dev Night, which hosts more than 50 people once a week.

"That said, I frequently check in to make sure things like our monthly game jams are running all right," he says. "It's a community event, so it only seems fit that it's run by the community. I only help if I'm needed now."

Riding a bike across America is daunting, but Stallwood says it's a great chance to reflect and compose himself. His greatest fear about the trip used to be that he simply wouldn't make it. That's not the case anymore.

"My fears are more silly now, like, does anyone miss me, will I get sick and die in the middle of a desert, will anyone care?" he says. "You start asking yourself some strange internal questions when you're up against 20 MPH winds carrying 50 LBS on a bicycle and an impending storm is brewing in the distance."

As of Tuesday, October 21, the Nerds Across America bike gang had reached (and drank at least one pitcher of beer in) Ocracoke, North Carolina. Stallwood is looking forward to beating his personal longest distance ridden on a bicycle, finding new adventures and "everything," he says.

"I'm scared, exhilarated, sad, thrilled – I am emotional. I've traveled across America on a motorcycle once before alone and it was very eye-opening. But, this trip is so much more demanding."

Auditorium is free to play online through October 31 in celebration of the Cipher Prime site redesign (another thing he's helped accomplish recently). It's always free to play the first three levels online, but this month's deal grants access to all 12 acts. The game from the other two developers on the bike tour, Greg Lobanov and Tyler Myers of Dumb and Fat Games, is a randomly generated adventure called Coin Crypt. It launches on Steam on October 28.

[Images: William Stallwood (far right in the second photo), Nerds Across America]