Joe Sparks is an American video game developer, animator, songwriter, web publisher, and multimedia consultant from San Francisco, California. He is also a loving husband and father of his two children: Maxim Sparks and Samuel Sparks, and his wife Johanan Sparks.
He is best known for his Flash animation and video games. His Radiskull and Devil Doll cartoons were an internet craze in 2000-2001. His pioneering games Total Distortion and the classic Mac adventure game Spaceship Warlock won much acclaim.
Joe Sparks is a former guitarist of the Californian deathrock band Burning Image. As an original member of the band, he did attend reunion shows.
Joe Sparks was an early employee of Paracomp, which had become Macromedia in 1992. He left to found Pop Rocket, which produced the critically acclaimed video game Total Distortion, to moderate success. Pop Rocket folded in 1995, with Sparks returning to Macromedia in 1997 as a creative developer.
Sparks was instrumental in the formation and lasting success of shockwave.com, most especially because of the popularity of Radiskull and Devil Doll. He created all the graphics, programming, and animation, as well as wrote and recorded all the music.
A pioneer of the interactive web, Joe Sparks has been asked to speak at industry conferences and educational events. His website has unfortunately been rather unused in quite some time. joesparks.com
He currently works as a consultant and contractor for development and design.