About

Hi! I’m E McNeill. I’m an indie game designer in San Diego. I’m best known for my VR games.

I am a “progressive formalist” game designer with a broad interest in all kinds of games. I often work solo, but I’ve always depended on help from talented artists, composers, and others. I’m keeping very busy with new projects most of the time, but if you’d like to work together, if you have feedback for me, or if you want to chat about game stuff, feel free to drop me a line.

Bio

My mom was a teacher, and she often tested educational games with me to figure out which ones worked best. I was pretty much doomed to love games after that.

In 2011, my final year of college, I launched Auralux, a minimalistic RTS. It later found success on mobile platforms, which allowed me to go indie full-time in late 2012.

Not long after that, I got an Oculus Rift prototype. After winning an early VR game jam, I decided to make Darknet, which launched in the very first wave of games for the Gear VR in 2014. I followed that up with a loose trilogy of VR strategy games: Tactera (2016), Skylight (2017), and Astraeus (2018). I then switched genres with Ironlights (2020), a VR dueling game. Its success inspired me to make a not-quite-sequel with Ironstrike (2023), a 4-player co-op VR action roguelike.

By this point I am definitively a “VR guy”, though I’ve also helped to build Auralux: Constellations (a sequel to Auralux) and Squeelings (a cute mobile puzzle game based on the mechanics from Darknet). I also continue to design games on the side for fun, including non-VR and non-digital games, and I occasionally run a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.