Here is some interesting information about me, I run a meetup for independent video game developers in the Chicagoland area twice a month.  We set a topic to talk about a few weeks in advance and we all come to the meetup and hash that topic among many many others.  We have a wide range of participants in the meetup and I really like going and talking with people who love this stuff as much as I do.

We have been having the meetups for almost 6 months now I believe.  We are working toward teaming up on projects and actually making games in the group.  Hopefully in a few months we will have a playable game or two.

So, I just thought I would post and say that I am really happy with how the work I have done on Portal-Studios.com has turned out.  I think it looks pretty snazzy if I do say so myself.  I have been working hard to get more work lately,  the jobs don’t just fall into your lap or anything right?

I am going to be setting a goal for myself with this blog.  A post a week minimum.  Not just some fluff about a picture of a cat I saw on some website either.  I want to convey something with every post… though I bet they won’t be the most educational.

If you would like to comment on the design or you have found an issue you would like to bring to my attention please contact me about it.

Howdy Everypeoples! I’m starting a blog here on Jacksmack.com to widen the range of content I provide to my users. I thought to kick it off I would give you a little bit of information about what Jacksmack.com has been over the years and where it is headed.

Original Jacksmack.com logo

I am Dave Fulton, I started Jacksmack.com in 2003 way back when I had graduated with a degree in Media Arts and Animation from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I had sent out over 90 demo tapes… at this time it was not acceptable to most companies to post your work online or send DVD’s for some reason… I think my teachers just wanted me to pay out the nose for shipping personally.

So anyway I sent out 90 demo tapes, and was lucky enough to recieve only 2 rejection emails. The other companies didn’t even respond. Since I couldn’t get work in my field I moved around a bit and finally settled in the suburbs of Chicago. I did standup comedy and improv for a while with no success but I learned quite a bit.

One day I found flash and started making small animations and decided I liked working with it and I would make a website. This was not my first website, I taught myself to code HTML when I was 12 on my old Geocities account, but it was my first REAL URL based website.

I have taken Jacksmack.com in several directions over the years from a personal portfolio site to the game arcade it is now. I have a few more changes planned in the future as well but more on those later.

I have been working with flash professionally for many years, as a web developer, and before that as an E-learning developer. Games and movies are much more fun to work on though. I also do some freelance flash development every now and then, as well as plain old web development projects… though I haven’t done those for a while now since I work for a web design company.

I hope that gives you some insite on my past and the past of Jacksmack.com. I hope to post regularly in this blog, so please check back every now and then.

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