,
15 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
On this day 20 years ago, I walked through the doors at SI Towers for the first time as a full-time employee. I was lucky, I had been a fan of CM since the start, bugging Ov Collyer with hand drawn feature suggestions before email was a thing. (1/14)
When the internet started taking off in 1995, I stalked out the Collyer’s again and became part of the original CM community scene, making websites and in 1997 running the “official” Champman fansite. In 1999, Paul Collyer phoned me up and asked if I’d like a job…yes please.
Getting hired by SI was a special moment, but my mum and Nan didn’t really understand it and probably thought I was mad. SI back then was just six people; it was small and nimble and everyone mucked in and did what was needed to “get shit done”. (3/14)
I was hired to run the community and website but also setup then first internal QA department and took over the builds process. At least two of the QA class of ‘99 are still at the studio. It’s continued to be one of the best recruitment tools for us
My story isnt unique,5/6 original SI members are still with the company &many more who arrived weeks and months after are still with the studio & about to celebrate a similar milestone.We've an amazing retention rate over the years.What’s not to love working in games and football
I’ve got many tales I could share from my time here and many that I can’t (at least not without lots of alcohol). I’ll try to list a few here. (6/14)
Running my cm3.com site, PC Zone shared with me their WORLD EXCLUSIVE & not yet published review of the game.I decided it would be a great idea to publish it in full on my site and I remember a VERY angry editor The Collyers and Eidos to remove it immediately.
In setting up the QA lab, I managed to get some freebie AMD machines in, I was the guy who plugged each of them in, only to watch them blow up and scare the shit out of the office (who knew there was a switch on the back to turn the power source from US to UK) (8/14)
One version of CM shipped without any player histories appearing. That was my fault as the build script didn’t include an important file. (9/14)
The CM to FM change was crazy, I don’t think any of us appreciated at the time just how big a deal it was. There were months of preparation on my side I purchased FM domains for every CM site going and in the days after the announcement transferred ownership to many site owners
There were rumours swirling around about what Eidos were doing next with the CM brand and I managed to find their unreleased webpage and be the first to post in their new forums. A monumental day 😊 (11/14)
Alongside CM and FM, I’ve got to experience working on some of our other projects EHM, OOTP, FML, FMO and FM mobile. those experiences and learnings are what drive me forward - some exciting new studio projects will have my finger-marks all over them 😊.
Even 20 years on I’m still learning and as I look around the studio today, I can see a the NextGen coming though who know will carry the studio forward when we’re all too old and wrinkly (13/14)
Tonight, I’ll dine with @milessi, my work wife, who is without doubt one of the most inspirational, influential and driven people I’ve ever met. Here's to another 20 years 🤪 (14/14)
oi oi "Hoot if you play CM 00/01" car sticker. 
