Garry Kitchen is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Skyworks, the leading developer of sponsored online entertainment. His career in interactive entertainment spans 25 years, initially as a toy designer and quickly transitioning into a pioneer in the launch of the video game industry.
From 1981-1995, Kitchen
was an industry leader in the development of home video games, generating over
$300 million in retail sales. His 2600 adaptation of the hit Nintendo arcade game Donkey Kong, published by Coleco, was one of the top selling games on the Atari platform, selling over 4 million units. In 1983, Kitchen followed up the success of Donkey Kong with his hit title Keystone Kapers, published by Activision and a nominee for Video Game of the Year.When the video game industry suffered a slump in 1984-1985, Kitchen focused his efforts on a new area of computer entertainment, creativity software. His first creativity title, The Designer's Pencil, was hailed as groundbreaking by reviewers and paved the way for Kitchen's most ambitious title to day, Garry Kitchen's GameMaker.
GameMaker, a suite of 5 professional-quality design tools connected to an easy-to-use programming language, allowed novice designers to create commercial quality video games. Kitchen was named Video Game Designer of the Year for his work on GameMaker.
Kitchen went on to found Absolute Entertainment, Inc., building it into one of the leading video game developers in North America. Under his leadership, Absolute created more than 120 software titles while working with such leading entertainment companies as Nintendo, Sega, Sony, 3DO, Paramount Pictures, MCA, 20th Century Fox, and Acclaim.
In 1995, with the founding of Skyworks, Kitchen brought his gaming expertise to online marketing, launching the innovative LifeSavers Candystand, hailed by experts as the premier example of brand-sponsored gaming, or Advergaming. Today, Skyworks supplies advergames to world-class brands, including Nabisco, Pepsi, BMW, and Ford. Kitchen has received numerous awards and is well respected by the media with appearances on CNBC, CNN and the NBC Today show.
In addition to Kitchen's work in multimedia, he is an experienced Expert Witness in the areas of Video Game Design, Software Development, Internet Technologies and Patent Infringement.