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'''Christopher Paul Kline''' (born August 8<sup>th</sup>, 1979, Yankton, South Dakota) is an American artist and musician best known as “vertexguy” or the “vertex guy”. His artwork and music is present in several video games spanning more than a dozen titles across several console and PC platforms. His guitar renditions of classic video game songs have also been performed live at award shows and in concert with Video Games Live.
'''Christopher Paul Kline''' (born August 8<sup>th</sup>, 1979, Yankton, South Dakota) is an American artist and musician best known as “vertexguy” or the “vertex guy”. His artwork and music is present in several video games spanning more than a dozen titles across several console and PC platforms. His guitar renditions of classic video game songs have also been performed live at award shows and in concert with Video Games Live.



==Biography==
==Biography==
Chris Kline’s musical influences started from his parents, David and Mary Ellen Kline, who first met in a rock and roll band. Chris’s father David was a drummer and encouraged Chris to pick up the drums around the age of 5. Chris stuck with the drums through high school, but also tried out a few other instruments along the way, such as the violin and the guitar. In Middle School, Chris joined band and quickly excelled to first chair drummer. He performed in competition Jazz band and performed drum solos at band concerts in front of the entire school.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>
Chris Kline’s musical influences started from his parents, David and Mary Ellen Kline, who first met in a rock and roll band. Chris’s father David was a drummer and encouraged Chris to pick up the drums around the age of 5. Chris stuck with the drums through high school, but also tried out a few other instruments along the way, such as the violin and the guitar. In Middle School, Chris joined band and quickly excelled to first chair drummer. He performed in competition Jazz band and performed drum solos at band concerts in front of the entire school.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>



Around this time Chris also became interested in learning the guitar. He started out on his Dad’s old acoustic guitar trying to play songs like “Enter Sandman” and “The Unforgiven” made popular by Metallica. Soon after this he got his first electric guitar. Chris was largely influenced by metal, rock, and progressive rock bands of the 80’s and had a hard time finding any instructors interested in the same genres. He started by taking a few lessons here and there, but ended up quitting and teaching himself along the way.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>
Around this time Chris also became interested in learning the guitar. He started out on his Dad’s old acoustic guitar trying to play songs like “Enter Sandman” and “The Unforgiven” made popular by Metallica. Soon after this he got his first electric guitar. Chris was largely influenced by metal, rock, and progressive rock bands of the 80’s and had a hard time finding any instructors interested in the same genres. He started by taking a few lessons here and there, but ended up quitting and teaching himself along the way.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>



Around this time, he also was very heavily influenced by the Video Game industry and took a strong liking to the Nintendo Entertainment System. He had a passion for art and music and had been conjuring up his own game designs since the NES made its first U.S. debut in 1985. With the help of AOL, he went online and began searching for other likeminded individuals wanting to try to make their own video game. In the process he formed the company known as “Nuke Ware”.<ref>http://www.NukeWare.com</ref> He pursued a few different game designs under this company, and with the help of DarkSoft Entertainment, successfully co-published his first title, Empires: Quest for Power on the Excalibur BBS.
Around this time, he also was very heavily influenced by the Video Game industry and took a strong liking to the Nintendo Entertainment System. He had a passion for art and music and had been conjuring up his own game designs since the NES made its first U.S. debut in 1985. With the help of AOL, he went online and began searching for other likeminded individuals wanting to try to make their own video game. In the process he formed the company known as “Nuke Ware”.<ref>http://www.NukeWare.com</ref> He pursued a few different game designs under this company, and with the help of DarkSoft Entertainment, successfully co-published his first title, Empires: Quest for Power on the Excalibur BBS.



Not long after this, Chris graduated from Yankton High School and went off to college. He originally tried to get into Nintendo’s DigiPen, but was rejected due to insufficient traditional art skills. Soon after, he applied and was accepted into the Art Institute of Phoenix. He began pursuing the nations first Bachelor of Arts Degree in Game Art & Design. In college, Chris excelled in all subjects and made the Deans Honor Roll.<ref>http://www.gamasutra.com</ref>
Not long after this, Chris graduated from Yankton High School and went off to college. He originally tried to get into Nintendo’s DigiPen, but was rejected due to insufficient traditional art skills. Soon after, he applied and was accepted into the Art Institute of Phoenix. He began pursuing the nations first Bachelor of Arts Degree in Game Art & Design. In college, Chris excelled in all subjects and made the Deans Honor Roll.<ref>http://www.gamasutra.com</ref>



During his early college years, Chris joined his first official band, “Universal Tongue”. They toured the local bar scenes performing lead / rhythm guitar on original and popular cover songs.Chris’s involvement with the band lasted about a year.Shortly after Chris left, the band began falling apart and is now non existent.<ref>http://www.universaltongue.com</ref>
During his early college years, Chris joined his first official band, “Universal Tongue”. They toured the local bar scenes performing lead / rhythm guitar on original and popular cover songs.Chris’s involvement with the band lasted about a year.Shortly after Chris left, the band began falling apart and is now non existent.<ref>http://www.universaltongue.com</ref>



Towards the final year of College, Chris realized he would need to create a website for his online portfolio. He wanted the address to be memorable and make sense with the type of work he did. Since 3d art is made up of verticies at its core level, and this what he spends his time manipulating every day, Chris though it would be catchy to call himself “VertexGuy”. Chris usually lumps the 2 words together to match his website address ([http://www.vertexguy.com/ www.vertexguy.com]), but can often be found referenced as “the vertex guy” or “vertex guy”, or just “vertex”. He prefers treating the title as one word because it is unique enough to make him instantly easy to find in any search engine.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>
Towards the final year of College, Chris realized he would need to create a website for his online portfolio. He wanted the address to be memorable and make sense with the type of work he did. Since 3d art is made up of verticies at its core level, and this what he spends his time manipulating every day, Chris though it would be catchy to call himself “VertexGuy”. Chris usually lumps the 2 words together to match his website address ([http://www.vertexguy.com/ www.vertexguy.com]), but can often be found referenced as “the vertex guy” or “vertex guy”, or just “vertex”. He prefers treating the title as one word because it is unique enough to make him instantly easy to find in any search engine.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>



After graduating from College in 2002, Chris moved to Prescott Arizona to be with his girlfriend, Trina Noelle Cowin, who would soon become his wife. During this time, Chris worked on his art portfolio and began applying to game studios across the U.S.Knowing he needed a job to get married, Chris jumped on the first major opportunity that came his way. This came in the form of a job offer from FarSight Studios.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>
After graduating from College in 2002, Chris moved to Prescott Arizona to be with his girlfriend, Trina Noelle Cowin, who would soon become his wife. During this time, Chris worked on his art portfolio and began applying to game studios across the U.S.Knowing he needed a job to get married, Chris jumped on the first major opportunity that came his way. This came in the form of a job offer from FarSight Studios.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>



During his time at FarSight Studios, Chris quickly adapted and assumed a natural leadership role, taking on a great deal of responsibility. In addition to creating artwork for all the games the studio worked on, he also became the studios Audio Director. He created all the sound effects for the studios game line up and also wrote a few music scores.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>
During his time at FarSight Studios, Chris quickly adapted and assumed a natural leadership role, taking on a great deal of responsibility. In addition to creating artwork for all the games the studio worked on, he also became the studios Audio Director. He created all the sound effects for the studios game line up and also wrote a few music scores.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>



In 2005, Chris joined MusicianWar.com and began posting original compositions in friendly music competition. This site features categories to compete in and the one that caught Chris’s attention the most was “Video Game Themes”. Though this didn’t seem to be a very popular category, Chris began posting guitar renditions of various classic video game themes. Shortly after he decided to take one of the game themes he covered (John Petrucci’s Necronomicon: Epiloque) and post it on YouTube.com. Not long after he followed it up with his remake of the original level 1 music from the NES title, Contra. This release proved to be huge hit and spawned lots of media attention from various gaming sites. Since then he has been interviewed and talked about on just about every major gaming site out there, including but not limited to: Kotaku.com and Destructoid.com.<ref>http://www.kotaku.com</ref><ref>http://www.destructoid</ref>
In 2005, Chris joined MusicianWar.com and began posting original compositions in friendly music competition. This site features categories to compete in and the one that caught Chris’s attention the most was “Video Game Themes”. Though this didn’t seem to be a very popular category, Chris began posting guitar renditions of various classic video game themes. Shortly after he decided to take one of the game themes he covered (John Petrucci’s Necronomicon: Epiloque) and post it on YouTube.com. Not long after he followed it up with his remake of the original level 1 music from the NES title, Contra. This release proved to be huge hit and spawned lots of media attention from various gaming sites. Since then he has been interviewed and talked about on just about every major gaming site out there, including but not limited to: Kotaku.com and Destructoid.com.<ref>http://www.kotaku.com</ref><ref>http://www.destructoid</ref>



On June 28<sup>th</sup>, 2006, Chris’s rendition of the Duke Nukem theme, titled “Duke Nukem Jam”, was presented on 3d Realms front page (3dRealms.com).This helped expose Chris to new listeners who immediately became die hard fans of his work.Since then his video on youtube.com has had more than a half a million views, with over a million total views spanning across all his videos.<ref>http://www.3drealms.com</ref><ref>http://www.youtube.com</ref>
On June 28<sup>th</sup>, 2006, Chris’s rendition of the Duke Nukem theme, titled “Duke Nukem Jam”, was presented on 3d Realms front page (3dRealms.com).This helped expose Chris to new listeners who immediately became die hard fans of his work.Since then his video on youtube.com has had more than a half a million views, with over a million total views spanning across all his videos.<ref>http://www.3drealms.com</ref><ref>http://www.youtube.com</ref>



After Contra made its popular debut across the web, a fellow MySpace.com user named “Stretch” contacted Chris and suggested that he contact Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall from Video Games Live to see if they might be interested in doing something together. Chris took him up on this advice and soon after was invited to perform with Video Games Live at the Game Developers Conference in 2007. He also performed at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards show during the conference. Since then Chris has performed with Video Games Live at the E4All Expo in 2007 and is looking to do future performances in 2008.<ref>http://www.videogameslive.com</ref>
After Contra made its popular debut across the web, a fellow MySpace.com user named “Stretch” contacted Chris and suggested that he contact Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall from Video Games Live to see if they might be interested in doing something together. Chris took him up on this advice and soon after was invited to perform with Video Games Live at the Game Developers Conference in 2007. He also performed at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards show during the conference. Since then Chris has performed with Video Games Live at the E4All Expo in 2007 and is looking to do future performances in 2008.<ref>http://www.videogameslive.com</ref>



In November of 2007, Chris took a new job with Idol Minds in Louisville, Colorado.He was recently promoted to a lead role for an unannounced AAA game title.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>
In November of 2007, Chris took a new job with Idol Minds in Louisville, Colorado.He was recently promoted to a lead role for an unannounced AAA game title.<ref>http://www.vertexguy.com</ref>

Revision as of 00:13, 20 January 2008

Christopher Paul Kline (born August 8th, 1979, Yankton, South Dakota) is an American artist and musician best known as “vertexguy” or the “vertex guy”. His artwork and music is present in several video games spanning more than a dozen titles across several console and PC platforms. His guitar renditions of classic video game songs have also been performed live at award shows and in concert with Video Games Live.


Biography

Chris Kline’s musical influences started from his parents, David and Mary Ellen Kline, who first met in a rock and roll band. Chris’s father David was a drummer and encouraged Chris to pick up the drums around the age of 5. Chris stuck with the drums through high school, but also tried out a few other instruments along the way, such as the violin and the guitar. In Middle School, Chris joined band and quickly excelled to first chair drummer. He performed in competition Jazz band and performed drum solos at band concerts in front of the entire school.[1]


Around this time Chris also became interested in learning the guitar. He started out on his Dad’s old acoustic guitar trying to play songs like “Enter Sandman” and “The Unforgiven” made popular by Metallica. Soon after this he got his first electric guitar. Chris was largely influenced by metal, rock, and progressive rock bands of the 80’s and had a hard time finding any instructors interested in the same genres. He started by taking a few lessons here and there, but ended up quitting and teaching himself along the way.[2]


Around this time, he also was very heavily influenced by the Video Game industry and took a strong liking to the Nintendo Entertainment System. He had a passion for art and music and had been conjuring up his own game designs since the NES made its first U.S. debut in 1985. With the help of AOL, he went online and began searching for other likeminded individuals wanting to try to make their own video game. In the process he formed the company known as “Nuke Ware”.[3] He pursued a few different game designs under this company, and with the help of DarkSoft Entertainment, successfully co-published his first title, Empires: Quest for Power on the Excalibur BBS.


Not long after this, Chris graduated from Yankton High School and went off to college. He originally tried to get into Nintendo’s DigiPen, but was rejected due to insufficient traditional art skills. Soon after, he applied and was accepted into the Art Institute of Phoenix. He began pursuing the nations first Bachelor of Arts Degree in Game Art & Design. In college, Chris excelled in all subjects and made the Deans Honor Roll.[4]


During his early college years, Chris joined his first official band, “Universal Tongue”. They toured the local bar scenes performing lead / rhythm guitar on original and popular cover songs.Chris’s involvement with the band lasted about a year.Shortly after Chris left, the band began falling apart and is now non existent.[5]


Towards the final year of College, Chris realized he would need to create a website for his online portfolio. He wanted the address to be memorable and make sense with the type of work he did. Since 3d art is made up of verticies at its core level, and this what he spends his time manipulating every day, Chris though it would be catchy to call himself “VertexGuy”. Chris usually lumps the 2 words together to match his website address (www.vertexguy.com), but can often be found referenced as “the vertex guy” or “vertex guy”, or just “vertex”. He prefers treating the title as one word because it is unique enough to make him instantly easy to find in any search engine.[6]


After graduating from College in 2002, Chris moved to Prescott Arizona to be with his girlfriend, Trina Noelle Cowin, who would soon become his wife. During this time, Chris worked on his art portfolio and began applying to game studios across the U.S.Knowing he needed a job to get married, Chris jumped on the first major opportunity that came his way. This came in the form of a job offer from FarSight Studios.[7]


During his time at FarSight Studios, Chris quickly adapted and assumed a natural leadership role, taking on a great deal of responsibility. In addition to creating artwork for all the games the studio worked on, he also became the studios Audio Director. He created all the sound effects for the studios game line up and also wrote a few music scores.[8]


In 2005, Chris joined MusicianWar.com and began posting original compositions in friendly music competition. This site features categories to compete in and the one that caught Chris’s attention the most was “Video Game Themes”. Though this didn’t seem to be a very popular category, Chris began posting guitar renditions of various classic video game themes. Shortly after he decided to take one of the game themes he covered (John Petrucci’s Necronomicon: Epiloque) and post it on YouTube.com. Not long after he followed it up with his remake of the original level 1 music from the NES title, Contra. This release proved to be huge hit and spawned lots of media attention from various gaming sites. Since then he has been interviewed and talked about on just about every major gaming site out there, including but not limited to: Kotaku.com and Destructoid.com.[9][10]


On June 28th, 2006, Chris’s rendition of the Duke Nukem theme, titled “Duke Nukem Jam”, was presented on 3d Realms front page (3dRealms.com).This helped expose Chris to new listeners who immediately became die hard fans of his work.Since then his video on youtube.com has had more than a half a million views, with over a million total views spanning across all his videos.[11][12]


After Contra made its popular debut across the web, a fellow MySpace.com user named “Stretch” contacted Chris and suggested that he contact Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall from Video Games Live to see if they might be interested in doing something together. Chris took him up on this advice and soon after was invited to perform with Video Games Live at the Game Developers Conference in 2007. He also performed at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards show during the conference. Since then Chris has performed with Video Games Live at the E4All Expo in 2007 and is looking to do future performances in 2008.[13]


In November of 2007, Chris took a new job with Idol Minds in Louisville, Colorado.He was recently promoted to a lead role for an unannounced AAA game title.[14]

Games Worked On To Date

  • Game Party: (Wii) Published
  • Backyard Football 2008: (PS2, PC, Wii) Published
  • Pinball Hall of Fame - The Williams Collection: (PS2, PSP, Wii) Published
  • Scarface: Money, Power, Respect (PSP) Published
  • Hard Rock Casino: (PS2, PSP) Published
  • Charlie Brown All Stars: (PS2, X-Box) Cancelled
  • Skateboarder: (stand alone game console unit) Published
  • Gottlieb's Pinball Classics: (PSP) Published
  • Golden Tee Home Edition: (stand alone game console unit) Published
  • Real Swing Golf: (stand alone game console unit) Published
  • Pinball Hall of Fame: (PS2, X-Box, Game Cube) Published
  • Slugger: (PS2, Xbox, Game Cube) Cancelled
  • Black' College' Football: (PS2, X-Box, Game Cube) Cancelled
  • Mini-Golf Mayhem: (PS2, X-Box, Game Cube) Cancelled
  • Empires: Quest for Power (Excalibur BBS) Published

(His personal projects: Extreme Xaos, Rahaji, and Legends, all on the PC) [15]


References

  1. ^ http://www.vertexguy.com
  2. ^ http://www.vertexguy.com
  3. ^ http://www.NukeWare.com
  4. ^ http://www.gamasutra.com
  5. ^ http://www.universaltongue.com
  6. ^ http://www.vertexguy.com
  7. ^ http://www.vertexguy.com
  8. ^ http://www.vertexguy.com
  9. ^ http://www.kotaku.com
  10. ^ http://www.destructoid
  11. ^ http://www.3drealms.com
  12. ^ http://www.youtube.com
  13. ^ http://www.videogameslive.com
  14. ^ http://www.vertexguy.com
  15. ^ http://www.vertexguy.com
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