Our Team

Meet the Hack and Slash Games Team

Robert Shofkom

President

I was into geek culture WAY before it was cool! I have been collecting (and reading) comic books for over 40 years! I started playing D&D before the 1st edition books were available for sale, and was playing board and card games from the 60’s and 70’s before they were considered “vintage”! My first PC’s were a Timex Sinclair 100 and a Texas Instruments TI99-4a. As a youngster, I loved to show off my “Merlin” along with games like Dark Tower, Atmosfear, and Omega Virus (many of which I still own to this day!) I was the first kid in my neighborhood to demo “Space Invaders” on an Atari 2600! The love of all things “geek” led me to open a comic/game/LAN center in 2003 and we made headlines by having the fastest internet connection for a gaming center in the entire southern United States (we had 10 MEG fiber when everyone else was puttering along with T1’s). I now own an IT company called “Remote IT For SMB Inc.” but managing techs all day just wasn’t filling my “geek quota” so I started “Hack and Slash Games” with my long time friend James Milling. Together with the talented Jason Robinette, we plan on turning out some amazing projects that we guarantee you will enjoy! My goal is to make great games that give people that same feeling of wonder and satisfaction as the innovators of all my childhood favorites did for me!

Chris Milling

VP of Operations

I have always been and always shall be a dreamer. I started taking things apart and sometimes putting them back together at an early age. For me playing with electrical and mechanical things was a fun puzzle. Since my father was an early computer guy I was lucky enough to get his hand-me-downs in this order:

* PC Junior – Bad keyboard – but it had Reading Rabbit, Top Gun, and Digger
* IBM 286 – awesome mechanical keyboard, Doom and Wolfenstein – muhaha
* No-name 486 – finally a color monitor and speakers, moving up in the world
* Pentium 60 – Warcraft 2, Quake, oh my!

I started building my own computers in high school, the best form of Lego you could buy. I started from a Pentium 150 and lost track from there. My fascination with computers lead me to the University of Houston College of Technology. To help pay my way though college I became Robert’s computer repair minion and Sunday shop manager. I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Engineering Technology and quickly found work in the oil and gas industry as a Controls Systems and Instrument engineer. When Rob presented this opportunity to me, the chance of a lifetime, I jumped at the chance! I bring with me my keen attention to detail, my understanding of logic and all things numerical.

Jason Robinette

VP of Marketing and Game Design

Originally hailing from San Francisco, Jason has been a New Yorker since 1994. A published game designer, he has been involved in the game/entertainment industry for nearly 20 years, including being a member of the original Ophidian 2350 development team. Jason is also a front-end web developer, marketing/branding specialist, and graphic designer. While he has worked at some of the largest Madison Avenue advertising agencies, he prefers to be a different kind of Mad Man… a gaming berserker! Jason is proud and excited to be a member of Hack and Slash Games, bringing his experience and talents to the team.  Ophidian 2360 is Jason’s latest design release.

Hugo Ferreira

Community Liaison and Master of Storyline

Hailing from Lisbon, Portugal, Hugo is a freelancer Writer, Blogger, Game Designer, Web Designer, Occultist, big kid dreamer and a lot more. Hugo began creative writing for a contest. In 2003, the original Ophidian team back launched a writing contest, and from that time on he became part of the Ophidian creative team.  He has been keeping the Ophidian dream alive for over a decade. Back in the day he wrote several official Ophidian 2350 biographies and storylines, and a couple of Fan Fictions set in the Ophidian Universe that received high praise from the community. During that time Hugo also created and released four Print and Play (and highly overpowered) Ophidian 2350 Fan Expansions Sets, and became the manager of all the Fan Works for Ophidian.
 
In 2010 with the introduction of Facebook into Hugo’s life, he ventured into the creation of online games with the most spectacular idea ever… he reshaped the Ophidian 2350 Universe into a brand new Ophidian 2355 RPG Facebook Game. It didn’t go well, as the company that powered the game was shut down, ending this new Ophidian version prematurely only after four months of life. That was only a minor setback, as that new universe was kept expanding even without the game and it lasted until 2014. After that, Hugo was contacted by another original Ophidian team member to create a simplified version of the Ophidian Universe for a Strategic Tabletop Game with cards and 3D printed minis set in the year of 2375. It was something that Hugo could not ignore, so he created a new Ophidian Universe where things diverged from the original timeline while still maintaining the familiar feel of the original.
 
Enter Hack and Slash Games in 2015. Re-opening the Ophidian Arenas, Hugo was contacted to act as a writer and as a Ophidian “Lore” Guru, and he gladly accepted the new challenge. Together with Jason Robinette, Hugo has helped to shape the Ophidian timeline forward into Ophidian 2360 for Hack and Slash Games.  He has crafted multiple biographies, lore and is currently developing the upcoming Ophidian Roleplaying Game.