Alistair Wallis’ path to journalism began many years ago, while reading an issue of the now-defunct Australian Sega magazine, Megazone, in which they had advertised for new writers. While much too young at the time, the idea that people could actually be paid to write about the games industry stayed with him.
Following high school, Alistair began a Media Studies course, before dropping out and becoming a factory-hand in a fabric warehouse. Quickly realising the stupidity of that move, he began working as a chef in Melbourne, soon becoming renowned for “the best scrambled eggs on Exhibition Street”.
He successfully continued in the industry for four years before deciding that the industry held little in the way of a future for him. Packing up his meagre belongings, he moved to Adelaide, where he picked up work as an advertising prop sculptor and a programmer.
It was around this time that he also began intermittently interviewing games industry figures for his own enjoyment. After just four months, he was offered a regular interview column at alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch.
Just days later, he also began reviewing games and music for Adelaide’s DB Magazine, and, after picking up stable freelance work with GameSetWatch sister-site Gamasutra, he decided to focus on writing as a full time career.
In the time that has followed, he has carved out a name for himself as a capable, hard working, knowledgeable and reliable journalist, and continues to find himself presented with new opportunities to prove his worth on a regular basis. You can find his work on Gamasutra, where he wrote the Playing Catch Up, Desert Island Games and Media Consumption columns for some time, as well as various other bits, pieces, Q&As and features. He’s also a regular contributor to the U.S. Official Xbox Magazine, where he writes various features and the occasional TechnoBabble column, which involves him understanding fantastically technical concepts.
Alistair has attracted attention as the author of Game Developer Research’s Game Developer Salary Report: 2004-2007, a 75 page, 9,000 word research paper that compares the salaries of game industry staff over a three year period and involved a lot of 18 hour days to finish. Then there was the Game Developer Census 2007, a 150 page report detailing the size of every single developer in the United States and Canada. Most recently, he authored the Game Developer Top 20 Publishers 2007 report, an extended adaptation of the annual magazine running at more than 100 pages, and almost 20,000 words. That’s a lot.
These days, he’s keeping up a weekly column for GameSetWatch - the rather unfortunately named Quiz Me Qwik - as well as Gamasutra Q&As, and a whole bunch of stuff for OXM’s online presence.
Outside of his work, his interests include having glasses and a (not very good) beard. He’s been in a few bands over the years, including this one, that surprisingly well-regarded one and some others that don’t really have web presences. There’s even a solo project now. He owns a cat named Nobby who seems to spend a lot of time under his desk, sleeping on his shoes.
Recent hate mail:
“The extent of your bile was really quite concerning.”
“I’ll be spreading the word about what a crap reviewer you are.”
“You certainly don’t have any musical credentials.”
“Your critique is based on some sort of personal problem of your own.”
“If I ever find out who this Alistair Wallis guy is, I’ll probably punch him in the face.”
Recent nice things:
“For OXM I need someone who is both well-versed on the technical and development side of the game industry and can explain that to a non-technical audience. I’ve been happy with Alistair’s work on everything I’ve thrown at him, from personality profiles to market analysis and stories about game engines. It could have all been dead boring, but they all went right into the mag with minimal tweaking. I try to hire Alistair every issue.”
- Dan Amrich, Senior Editor, Official Xbox Magazine.