Wes Platt


Wes Platt is a professional journalist, game writer/designer, creator of the online games OtherSpace, Chiaroscuro and Necromundus, and one-time Director of Content Development for Fallen Earth. In July 2014, joined Prologue Games as a writer/designer working on an adventure game project called "Knee Deep."

Biography

Born in Lake Wales, Florida, he grew up in Orlando, where he attended Winter Park High School and Valencia College before moving to Tampa to enroll in the University of South Florida in 1989. At the University of South Florida, he joined the staff of the Oracle newspaper. While he was editor-in-chief, the Oracle achieved recognition as the Best Student Daily in the Nation by the Society of Professional Journalists. In 1991, he started as an intern at the St. Petersburg Times. Within a year, he was a full-time reporter. In 1994, he became editor of a fledgling regional edition of the Times in central Pasco County, which grew to a full-blown daily paper by 1998. His work as a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times spanned 1991 to 2003.
Platt's first experience with text-based MUDs came in 1994, with games like Infinity, TOS TrekMUSE, and Hemlock III. On June 28, 1998, he opened OtherSpace, an original space opera themed MUSH that was innovative in employing an evolving series of story arcs. In 2003, he released fantasy-themed Chiaroscuro. In 2005, he began working on the afterlife-themed game Necromundus, which was released in 2006.
Besides developing online games, he became active in the MUD community as "Brody", writing columns about roleplaying for Top MUD Sites, The Mud Connector and Imaginary Realities.
Platt left journalism in 2003 to pursue a career in online game development, becoming CEO of Mongoose Online Entertainment, and eventually joined the Icarus Studios team in 2006 as a writer/content developer for the MMORPG Fallen Earth, where he was known as "Canticle". Platt was promoted to Director of Content Development in 2010, but was laid off later that year.
In February 2012, after a brief stint working on an undisclosed project for a startup video game company in Huntsville, Alabama, he returned to journalism as news editor/senior reporter at the Daily Dispatch in Henderson, North Carolina. In June 2012, he joined the staff of the Durham Herald-Sun in Durham, North Carolina as the K-12 education reporter. In January 2013, he became news editor, web editor of heraldsun.com and Saturday columnist.
In July 2014, he left The Herald-Sun to reunite with fellow Fallen Earth alum Colin Dwan at Prologue Games to work on single-player adventure projects.