Brian “BMAN” Babendererde is a game designer, artist, and author working in games, comics, and novels.
A veteran of the video game industry, Brian began his career as an artist, animator, and game designer for SNES, Turbo-Grafix, and Genesis titles such as Road Runner’s Death Valley Rally, Phantom 2040, and Rock’s Modern Life. His first PC title, Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity, was named “The Funniest Game of All Time” and one of the “25 Best Games Ever Made” by PC Gamer Magazine.
He went on to co-found Valkyrie Studios, where he created SepterraCore: Legacy of the Creator, a game which won several RPG of the year awards and gained a dedicated cult following around the world. He was also a game designer and script writer for Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, which was named by Game Informer as one of the “25 Games That Defined the XBOX Experience.”
In recent years, Brian was a Lead Game Designer at Zynga, creating casual games based on properties such as The Wizard of Oz, The Terminator, and The Evil Dead.
Brian is also the creator of the comic Soul Chaser Betty, driven by his love of mythology, sprinkled with a healthy dose of ‘80s nostalgia, and topped off with a heap of high octane action. Originally serialized as a popular webcomic, the book was collected into a “director’s cut” graphic novel with new art, scenes, and additional content.
His series of fantasy illustrations and pinups focus on fierce warrior women, savage tales of sword and sorcery, fallen angels, dragons, and other creatures from a mythical, bygone era, all depicted in classic painterly strokes mixed with pulp, comic styled line work.
Brian currently lives in the suburbs of Chicago where he continues to pursue his love of art and writing by producing comics, pinups, and illustrations, while working on his first prose novel.