Jeff has been programming for over 25 years. In 1993, he started his own software company called Visual Inspirations Inc.
"Our main focus over the years have been video, 3D and web applications. We always wanted to work on virutal worlds,
but never felt the available software packages were good enough. When we saw Unity 3D, we KNEW our time had come.
FriendsHangout is our first serious attempt in the gaming industry, but we are quite proud of the results and it is all because
of the wonderful group of programmers, artist and animators we brought together for this project!"
Jeff over sees all aspects of FriendsHangout from game & web design to advertising and promotions.
Miguel Benitez - Lead Designer
Miguel has been doing 3D since 2004 and has focused on game scene design and layouts. He is in charge of putting
all the 3D elements together for the scenes in Unity and to gather all the designs and models from the various animators then adding his magic
touch. You can tell he LOVES working on game design, by the amount of detail he puts into each and every scene.
Nathan Warden - Unity Programmer
Nathan has been programming since he was in high school and considers himself a generalist when it comes to the computer.
He loves "making things work" especially when it comes to making a process seam more simple to those using it.
He has always loved to work with video games. To him, it's one of the few places where "work hard" can really mean "play hard" :)
Visit his web site here.
Nathan is our lead programmer here at FriendsHangout.
Rich DiGiovanni - 3D Modeler
For a very long time, Rich loved video games and art. But
it wasn't until 7 years ago that he realized he could
combine those 2 great things, and became a 3D artist.
Since then, he has been happily creating 3D environments.
More work can be seen at www.ancientidolstudio.com
Rich is in charge of creating many of the scene layouts & 3D models for FriendsHangout.
Vincent Foster - Animator
Vincent has been a 3D modeler / animator for over 10 years, with experience in programming and game design.
He also has been a professional musician for over 22 years.
Check out his band's site at Reign IV.
Vincent is in charge of creating many of our 3D models as well as various animations through out all our scenes.
Cemre Ozkurt - 3D Animator
Cemre started animation when he was just 7 years old working on his brother's Amiga computer.
He went to Carsaf Caricature School for 7 years and won several awards at international competitions.
Later he entered the Graphic Design Academy at the
Mimar Sinan University.
Right now he is living in San Francisco
and working at Electonic Arts Studios
as a Senior Character Modeler.
Visit his web site here.
Cemre is in charge of animating our avatars on FriendsHangout.
Russ Menapace - Network Programmer
Russ has been programming since 1992 and had been a professional musician before that. He received his BS in Computer Engineering at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. His main focus for the past few
years has been Games and Multimedia Networking.
Visit his web site here.
Russ is in charge of network programming on FriendsHangout.
Unity 3D - Game Engine
We would not be here if it was not for the great team of programmers and designers that make up Unity 3D. They created
the unity Game engine that we used to create FriendsHangout. While not directly linked to these folks, we felt it only right to include them here.
Thanks guys!
Smart Fox Server - Game Server
We would also like to thank the folks at Smart Fox Server.
They created the multiplayer game server we used for FriendsHangout to help speed up production time and to be able to handle all our various scenes.
Darwin Dimensions - Avatar Editor
We are happy to announce that we will now be working with the folks at Darwin to use their new Evolver Avatar system.
With this collaboration, users will be able to customize their avatar like never before. Create millions of versions to match your vision in 3D.
Special Thanks to the following that also helped on this project.
"The Team Behind The Scenes!"
Jeff White - Project Manager
Miguel Benitez - Lead Designer
Nathan Warden - Unity Programmer 
Rich DiGiovanni - 3D Modeler 
Vincent Foster - Animator 
Cemre Ozkurt - 3D Animator 
Russ Menapace - Network Programmer 
Unity 3D - Game Engine 
Smart Fox Server - Game Server 
Darwin Dimensions - Avatar Editor 