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Adam PowellBritish game designer and entrepreneur
Date of Birth: 20.12.1976
Country:  Great Britain |
Content:
Biography of Adam Powell
Adam Powell, a British game designer and entrepreneur, is one of the founders of the virtual pets website 'Neopets' and the game studio 'Meteor Games'. He was born on December 20, 1976, in Newport, Wales. Powell studied computer technology at the University of Nottingham from 1995 to 1998. During his studies, in 1996, he developed and released 'Dark Heart', a text-based multiplayer computer game based on DikuMUD code.
Early Career
In 1997, Powell launched 'Shout! Advertising', a British advertising company that became the third most clicked site on the internet in the mid-1999. He was also one of the founders of 'Netmagic', a successful business creating and selling internet banners. In July 1999, Powell founded 'Powlex', a web page design studio.
Creation of Neopets
In 1997, while still studying at the University of Nottingham, Powell started thinking about creating 'Neopets'. He and his wife, Donna Powell (nee Williams), began programming the website in September 1999 and launched it two months later on November 15, 1999. Powell acted as the developer for the entire site, creating most of the games and other original content. In April 2000, Powell attracted the attention of major investors to Neopets.com and relocated the company from the UK to Los Angeles, California.
Success with Neopets
After the move, Powell remained with the company as the creative director and technical lead. Under his guidance, 'Neopets' grew from its inception to a portal with over 140 million registered users, generating approximately 5 billion page views per month. On June 20, 2005, Viacom acquired 'Neopets, Inc.' for $160 million. Adam continued to work with Neopets.com until June 2007, helping with the transition period after the acquisition and continuing to develop the site.
Later Career
Powell played a significant role in creating a wide range of 'Neopets' products, including the 2006 release 'Neopets: Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing' for the PlayStation Portable, the 'Neopets Trading Card Game' released in September 2003 by 'Wizards of the Coast', and the 2005 game 'Neopets: The Darkest Faerie' published by 'Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.' for the PlayStation 2.
In 2007, Adam and Donna Powell registered 'Meteor Games', an independent online game studio focused on developing fun, immersive, and innovative games for the internet, social networks, and mobile devices. Their first project was 'Twin Skies', a 3D massively multiplayer online game that combined elements of casual games, social networks, and traditional multiplayer role-playing games. In March 2009, 'Meteor Games' released their first internet game, 'Vikings, Pirates and Ninjas', which could be played for free online and especially on the social network Facebook. They subsequently released several similar games, including 'Island Paradise', which achieved commercial success, 'Serf Wars', and 'Ranch Town'.
'Meteor Games' is headquartered in Los Angeles and employs over 100 people.
