Google hires Noah Falstein as Chief Game Designer

Google may have big plans for gaming on Android. The Mountain View-based company has hired veteran game designer and producer Noah Falstein as Chief Game Designer, lending strength to rumours about a multiplayer gaming service for Android.  

Falstein’s LinkedIn profile says he is currently working with Google as Chief Game Designer. However, after some digging, TechCrunch found a cached version of his profile page that revealed Falstein’s position at Google to be “Chief Game Designer at Android Play Studio”.

This points towards Google focusing on a more serious approach to gaming on Android. Although the open source platform isn’t really doing badly on the gaming front, Falstein might have been hired to help design/develop more serious games. 

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Looks like there could be more games by Google in store for us

Google has already taken the first steps into gaming with Ingress, the augmented-reality game that had you join one of two rival factions and visit landmarks to complete objectives. More recently, an APK teardown of the MyGlass app by Android Police revealed some code that indicated a gaming centre for Android was in the works. The gaming centre appears to have facilities for multiplayer gaming, in-game chatting, tracking achievements, leader boards and game invites. 

This hire may hold hints at the sort of games Google might be considering. Falstein’s Wikipedia page reveals that he has worked with Lucasfilm Games, DreamWorks Interactive and The 3DO Company. Some of the games he has helped develop include arcade game Sinistar, Battlehawks 1942, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, Chaos Island and Hungry Red Planet. He has also been Chair of the International Game Developers Association from 1997 to 1999 and he is on the advisory boards of the Games for Health Conference and Serious Games Summit.

Adding more weight to the rumours is the fact that the schedule for the upcoming Google I/O developer conference shows a handful of sessions related to gaming on Android. We could very well have some interesting gaming news in store when Google I/O rolls around on May 15.