Jason Mai

Bio for Jason Mai	jason@haversack.com

Jason Mai is an Eagle Scout. With university training in simulation, physics, AI, probability, system modeling and software design, Jason was practically engineered to write computer games. And he has.

A 16-year software industry veteran, and former Microsoft developer and program manager, Jason worked on Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Creative Writer, MSN 2.0, Microsoft FrontPage 98, and Microsoft FrontPage 2000, among others.

Jason left Microsoft in 2000 after shipping the five Internet games that are part of Windows ME (Spades, Hearts, et al). As a founder of Haversack Software, he went on to develop Loch Ness Solitaire, Solitaire Drop Pack and many releases of Word Solitaire.

But the call of Microsoft was too great, and Jason returned to Redmond in 2004 to join the Carbonated Games studio (a part of Microsoft Casual Games). As a producer, he shipped Backgammon, Checkers, Hearts, Texas Hold'Em, and Solitaire In Motion. As an executive producer, he worked on Hop It!, the Fable 2 mini games, and a few yet-to-be-announced Windows titles.

Throughout his career, Jason has played multiple roles, switching between Developer, Tester, Designer, Producer and Program Manager for different projects. He’s not religious about which role is the best – it depends on the team and their relative strengths and weaknesses. But essential for any project’s success, he believes, is a team with flexible processes, dynamic skill sets, and a common vision.

Jason earned his BS with Honors summa cum laude in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona in 1992, and his Master’s degree from the same in 1995 with a thesis on the distributed computation of stochastic optimization problems. His first game was written in GW-BASIC in the sixth grade. It was called Bomb Catcher.

See Jason's resume for more details, including additional contact information.