Temple Gates Games is an independent game development studio located in San Mateo, CA that focuses on making digital boardgames. We are long-time game industry veterans with a passion for playing and making games.
Theresa ‘TStudio’ Duringer
Jam Junkie
Theresa Duringer is owner and CEO of Temple Gates Games, a digital boardgame development studio based out of San Francisco. Her team is known for digitizing Dominion, Race for the Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy, and Ascension. Her focus is in scaling AI across games with several expansions, including those yet to be designed, through reinforcement learning. To this end, her team has developed the first commercial app that uses the methods behind the Alpha Zero algorithm.
Jeff ‘greysphere’ GatesLoot Wrangler
When Jeff Gates developed an addiction to Night Mission Pinball on the 8088 at the age of 5, some might have considered his eventual role as a video game programmer inevitable. But in fact, it took further addictions to Rogue, King’s Quest, Pool of Radiance, Starcraft, Diablo, and Quake 3, a delusion of being a physics professor and a stint at an internet start up before a friend finally told him, “You know, you should just apply to a game company.” He did, and never looked back (except for one brief moment where he considered making rocket ships, cause, yeah, that could be awesome…) As far as he knows, games provide the most interesting problems to work on and the most interesting people to work with, i.e. the best job a person could have.
Prior to founding Temple Gates Games, Jeff made the cell stage of Spore for Maxis, worked on Blizzard’s Diablo 3 (including back when it was in space, but after it was a pirate game), and worked at Popcap with the team that made Plants vs. Zombies. And a way long time ago, Jeff helped make a website called Paypal.com. You can catch Jeff online as ‘greysphere’ in League of Legends or any of Blizzard’s games.
Tod ‘Todnut’ Semple
Monster Fodder
Tod started programming when he was 8 and quickly learned he could make video games and hasn’t stopped since. After tinkering for many years, he finally landed a job at Blizzard Entertainment and spent 4 years developing the game engine that eventually became Diablo 3. He then moved to Lucas Arts and developed the game engine for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. More recently he worked at PopCap Games and was the programmer on the small team that made Plants vs. Zombies. When he’s not enjoying life with his beautiful wife and amazing baby daughter, he makes games at Temple Gates Games.
B “Monsoon2D” Rosaschi
Calamitous Creator
One time trapeze artist and daredevil extraordinaire, B Rosaschi fell into the role of artist after a botched parachuteless skydive into a writing implements production factory. Emerging, pen in (or, perhaps, protruding from) hand, B vowed to rise to greatness once again. The power of the pen became an undeniable lure with strong lines and daring, bold colors. Each drawing stunned audiences in delight and terror! Each animation moved people to cries of tears and joy! Although B has yet to return to the life of a daredevil, these new-found skills as an artist and animator has proven to be a new avenue for fame and fortune.
Patrick ‘Been Jammin’ Benjamin
Direwolf Master
Patrick began drawing as soon as he could hold a pencil, and playing video games since he first held an Atari 2600 joystick. Since then his scribbles have gotten slightly more elaborate, and he’s bested Bowser on more than one occasion. Some of his favorite games include Nintendo staples like Zelda, Smash Bros., and Mario Kart, as well as adventure games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider. He finally got a crack at making games when he moved to CA and joined Maxis in 2006, adding animation flair to titles such as Spore, Darkspore, and SimCity. Now he’s excited to dive into the indie virtual reality scene to create entirely new VR experiences! Back in the real world, he likes to rock out on the drums and go for hikes with his mischievous little husky She-Ra.