Born and raised in Hull, Steve studied Astronomy and Astrophysics at Newcastle University before taking on jobs as varied as bingo hall management and metal refinery worker. At the age of thirty five he joined the games industry as an artist and has developed this creative career ever since, now working as a freelance writer and artist.
Steve gained a nomination for Excellence in Writing at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2004 for Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon and received a second nomination in 2008 from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain for his writing on So Blonde.
Steve’s book, Writing for Video Games, was published by A&C Black and has sold throughout the world, sometimes used as a text in game writing courses. This has recently been followed by the books, An Introduction to Game Writing and 201 Things for Better Game Writing with Collected Game Writing Articles making a fourth.
Regularly invited to speak at conferences around the world, Steve enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience.
Steve has also written and drawn a number of online comic strips involving adults, children and a variety of cute animals.
His short film, Payment, was released a few years ago to critical acclaim.
He has written a number of fiction books in different styles, including an urban fantasy novel, two children’s titles that he also illustrated and a graphic novel. He undertakes illustration work for other writers, too.
He has been working on a climate change app aimed at young children but is now concentrating his creativity on further books, both writing and illustrating.
Steve is a full member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.
Steve lives with his partner, June, in the quiet wilds of East Yorkshire. They have a lovely garden, a ginger cat called Xena and a number of fish in the garden pond.
He has three sons, Shaun, David and Jason, as well as six grandchildren, Caitlin, Leilani, Selene, Louie, Freya and Ariana.