Sherman3D is an independently owned video game developer team founded by Sherman Chin in April 2003, which develops bright and colorful anime inspired video games.[1]
Sherman Chin
Sherman Chin is the founder, game producer and Chief Information Officer of Sherman3D. Sherman graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Computing from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and was the recipient of the 2002 International Game Developers Association scholarship.[2] After graduating, Sherman won in Venture 2002,Malaysia's first nationwide business plan competition organized by McKinsey & Company.[3] The award was presented to Sherman by then Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.[4]
While in college, Sherman was a partner of the founder of 5th Cell, Joseph Tringali, at Epix Interactive Studios before being a founding a shareholder of 5th Cell.[5]
Aside from being the founder of Sherman3D, Sherman worked as a game producer in Japan, as a project manager in Canada, as a COO in Malaysia and a game industry consultant for the Gerson Lehrman Group providing advisory services for international investors.[6]
Sherman is appointed by Limkokwing University of Creative Technology as its external examiner for its games design course [7]
Sherman was featured on the cover and center spread of the New Straits Times[8] newspapers' Tech pullout. The article was awarded best feature and best cover.
Sherman is interviewed as an authority in video game development by RPGamer,[9] GameRamble,[10] and the Astro Awani satellite TV news channel.[11]
Sherman was invited to speak on the philosophy of Great Doubt at Casual Connect Asia in Singapore and was featured by the official Casual Connect GameSauce website.[12]
Sherman was selected by the Tokyo Game Show management committee to represent Malaysia at the indie game area of Tokyo Game Show on the 17, 18, 19 and 20 September 2015, sponsored by Sony PlayStation.[13]
Sherman was one of the main speakers at the Cloud South East Asia conference on 7 October 2015 covering PC Game and Cloud Computing organized by Informa PLC, London[14] and was interviewed by Business Cloud News.[15]
Sherman was one of the featured speakers at the Mobile Developer Day 2015 Conference on 22 October 2015 covering the 1337 Game Accelerator in Cyberjaya, Malaysia.[16]
Sherman spoke about the 1337 Ventures game pre-accelerator at the closed door CIO Asia Summit organized by GDS International attended by 30 international CIOs from 27 until 29 October 2015 at the Le Meridien Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.[17]
In late 2016, Sherman was credited to be Malaysia's most experienced video game developer.[18]
Overview
Sherman3D started as an independent game development community but was incorporated in April 2003 in Malaysia. Sherman3D's has online developers from across the globe from countries such as Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States. Sherman3D specializes in pixel art outsourcing and has worked on over 20 internationally recognized games including Drawn To Life published by THQ in 2007, Scribblenauts published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in 2009, Nickelodeon Diego's Build & Rescue published by 2K Play in 2010.[19]
In 2011, Sherman3D created its own story and trademarked intellectual property in the form of a sci-fi fantasy PC Role Playing Game entitled Alpha Kimori Great Doubt Episode One, which was distributed by Big Fish Games,[20] IGN Entertainment[21] and GameHouse[22] in the US, IGN[23] in the UK, GamersGate[24] in Sweden, and DLsite in Japan.[25]
Sherman3D is an authorized Nintendo DS developer and provides pixel art partner studio outsourcing services to other game development companies such as 5th Cell.[26] Sherman3D and its services is also listed in the Game Developer's Market Guide book[27]
History
Sherman3D worked on a MMORPG prototype entitled Vibeforce on IBM's Butterfly Supercomputing Grid[28] for Sony's PlayStation 2,[29] which was showcased at E3 2003.[30] Sherman3D was mentioned in The New York Times,[31] The Wall Street Journal[32] and USA Today.[33]
The Sherman3D 3D BSP [34] Game Engine and documentation has been used as university research paper reference.[35]
Sherman3D was invited to speak on the philosophy of Great Doubt in Alpha Kimori[36] at the Defense, Science & Research Conference 2011 organized by the National University of Singapore in Singapore in August 2011.[37]
Sherman3D also worked on all the in-game pixel art graphics of Scribblenauts,[38] Lock's Quest[39] and Drawn To Life,[40] which were rated at 8.5,[41] 8.5[42] and 8.0 out of 10[43] respectively by IGN Entertainment.
Sherman3D's Alpha Kimori game was selected as the first and only commercial flagship RPG Maker game sold by Degica Co., Ltd., Japan, the official sole distributor of the RPG Maker game engine internationally on 5 August 2012.[44]
Sherman3D showcased Alpha Kimori at the Tokyo Game Show in Japan on 20 and 21 September 2012[45][46] and was highlighted by the Japanese media as a tribute to classic Japanese role-playing games.[47]
Sherman3D's Alpha Kimori was put up on Valve's Steam Greenlight[48] and was featured on Tech In Asia[49] and Gamezebo.[50]
The following is a chronology of Alpha Kimori event on Valve's Steam platform:
- 2013 May 21 | Alpha Kimori JRPG and Philosophy lecture by Sherman Chin at Casual Connect Asia in Singapore at the Tower Ballroom of Shangri-la Hotel.[51]
- 2013 December 9 | Alpha Kimori GreenLit on Steam.[52]
- 2014 March 17 | Alpha Kimori launches on Valve's Steam after being Greenlit.[53]
- 2014 April 1 | Alpha Kimori launches on Big Fish Games Japan.[54]
- 2014 June 17 | Alpha Kimori sold over 29,000 copies in the Groupees Be Mine 13 Game and Charity Bundle sponsored by Machinima.[55][56]
- 2014 December 25 | Alpha Kimori sold 31,657 copies in the Humble Weekly Bundle: RPG Edition Book 1 Bundle.[57]
