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Google hires Mark DeLoura as game 'developer advocate'
[DeLoura at Johnny Rockets, 2006; gamedev.net] Industry veteran Mark DeLoura begins his position as "developer advocate" of games at Google today, ending a 34-month stint as a game technology consultant. DeLoura has traded numerous jobs and advisory roles in the industry since beginning as a lead engineer for Nintendo in 1995. Having once served as manager of developer relations for Sony Computer Entertainment America, DeLoura becomes the second former SCEA man to be hired by Google within its lively loosely defined games division. Until April 2009, Bernie Stolar, the first executive VP of SCEA, was known as Google's "game evangelist" for two years. In his new role at Google, DeLoura will work with game developers, both "traditional" and "new," to provide support for and information about creating games for Google's various platforms, which could include Android, O3D (its open-source web API) and the in-progress Chrome OS. DeLoura described the developer advocate position as "both inward- and outward-facing" and suggested that he will seek to make it "easier for developers to express themselves and share the experiences they create" for Google. As for the Google mission, DeLoura said, "They seek to build platforms by working interactively with their partners, providing a big tent so everyone can get involved." Big tent, huh? Sounds like there's at least a free lunch in it for any developer open to taking a peek at what Google's offering.
