About the Team at Drydock Dreams Games

Our Story

Drydock Dreams Games was founded in 2019 by a handful of passionates. Together, we decided to contribute to a larger gaming project through our diversified skills and common love for history, simulations and wargames of all kinds.

Drydock Dreams Games is made of seasoned international individuals who harbor the wish to recreate the magic of the command and combat simulations as we knew it from the golden era of the 1990s. Our first project, Task Force Admiral is a self-funded effort aimed at making World War 2-era naval command simulations a thing again through the use of innovative game-design choices, intuitive interface and up-to-date graphics. We instill love in each and every tidbit of our minutious work, and we sure hope that it shows. You are more than welcome to join us on this long journey of ours.

Through its founding members, Drydock Dreams Games is based in France, China and Indonesia and as such operates around the clock to its own bewilderment… We can be contacted through our Facebook page or our Twitter account. Don’t hesitate to drop us a kind word from time to time, for at the end of the day, your appreciation is the fuel that keeps us going on!

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The Crew

Amiral Crapaud
Producer, Co-Founder

Amiral Crapaud had a long history of simulation and wargame gaming, after playing and reviewing dozens of them over the years. Having learned the trade under the star of studios such as Microprose, SSI, SSG or Dynamix when they were at the apex of their glory, he kept from these days a taste for well-rounded, narrative-intensive games and looks forward to emulating their spark of magic in the eyes of the younger generation. He is also a self-proclaimed digital grognard and indulges in forbidden pleasures the likes of War in the Pacific, John Tiller’s series, The Operational Art of War and many more. Amiral Crapaud currently manages the production of Task Force Admiral and takes care of the communication surrounding the project.

Jean-Baptiste
Lead Developer, Co-Founder

Jean-Baptiste is an experienced game developer who already took part in half a dozen game projects over the last few years, including the Moto Racer series and his very own indie project, BOMB. His experience in the game industry brings to our indie team the sort of maturity and standards it needed to achieve its goals in a timely and proficient fashion. Jean-Baptiste is a long-time lover of virtual flying machines, having played and loved immersive classics of the late 90s and early 2000s such as Falcon 4.0, Enemy Engaged, Crimson Skies or Combat Flight Simulator 2. His gaming tastes are not limited to the air though, as he still holds iconic game series such as Close Combat, Combat Mission and Operation Flashpoint close to his heart.

Rizki
Lead 3D Artist, Co-Founder

Rizki is a young prodigy in the domain of 3D arts. As the lead 3D engineer and artist on the project, he is in charge of designing each and every ship model that will come into existence within Task Force Admiral. His admirable dedication to the game is one of the main reasons why we are confident that it might very well someday reach your computer in a finished state! His productivity is only matched by his attention to detail, as Rizki is also a self-taught expert on IJN and USN warships, bringing an amount of authenticity to the table like no other could. With his set of skills expanding a little more every day and a big potential still to be unleashed, we are certain that his journey into game-making has only just begun.

Julien
Lead 2D Artist, Co-Founder

Julien is a well-known name in the French art circles dedicated to aeronautics. As a regular collaborator of Le Fana de l’aviation and a comics illustrator, he has amassed over the years all the knowledge, the skill and the passion needed to cover the topics at hand. His talent is here to make sure that Task Force Admiral not only plays good, but looks good too! As the lead 2D artist, Julien is in charge of our general & promotional artwork (loading screens, branding…) and is learning with great diligence and effect the art of painting virtual planes and ships. A long-time experience with the Jane’s Combat Simulations games, the Silent Hunter series, the Combat Flight Simulator series and many more insures us that he played pretty much everything that ever flew or steamed over and under a virtual sea, which makes him the perfect art critique for the things to come. Do not hesitate to follow him on Facebook for more aviation-related eye-candy: Julien Lepelletier’s Art Page (Facebook)

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Our collaborators

John
Junior Developer

John is a programmer studying computer science at Regent University. He entered the game development industry by working on mods for the game: Pacific Storm and Pacific Storm: Allies. Though he has an interest in a variety of genres, his primary development has been focused on WWII strategy games.

Steven
Content Creator & Writer

Steven Lohr is a retired naval officer who is a qualified in both surface warfare and intelligence. A graduate of the Naval War College, he has also umpired wargames there. A long-time amateur military historian and wargamer, he has previously worked as a researcher and writer for Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager, and is currently a researcher for Burden of Command too. We are thrilled and delighted to count him among our close collaborators, as he will contribute his skills, knowledge and experience to our in-game encyclopedia and reference materials.

Mark
3D Plane Artist & Contributor

Mark is a gifted British aircraft 3D maker that has crafted a wide and impressive selection of models with exemplary regularity and care. Mark contributed to our project by providing us with the original 3D meshes for the 40 odd planes featured in Task Force Admiral, from which we home-grew our own in-game variants using our tech and Rizki’s skills. We can’t wait to work again with him in the future – this time perhaps to give the FAA the proper facelift it deserves, thanks to the unique roster of planes he assembled over the years!
Mark’s online shop can be found here.

Bertrand, aka Tiger_33
Sound Effects Designer

Having a passion for video games since 1988 and the Great Era of Amiga 500, he was quickly aware of the great possibilities offered by the rise of the PC. Since then, he has played hundreds of different titles of all sorts, although he has a soft spot for the world of computer aviation – and warbirds in particular. For years now, he has been connecting two of his passions – sound & flight sims – by producing new sound effects mods for the games he loves, starting with Flight Simulator, European Air War, Jane’s WW2 Fighters, moving eventually to Il-2 and Il-2 Great Battles. Today, when real life agrees to cut him some slack, he still finds the time to play – and when he is not playing, he might even find some time to make new sound effects for us!

Mark
Gallant Proofreader

Mark’s first board wargame was Avalon Hill’s Guadalcanal and his first computer wargame was Chris Crawford’s Eastern Front on the Atari 400. He has never looked back and looks forward to the next innovative wargame experience. After 30 years in IT, he awaits his next big challenge, retirement. In the meantime, he is fine enough a lad to find time for us. Just like Steven, Mark is a member of the Grogheads community who offered to help very early in the development, and has been hard at work trying to correct our clumsy English since then.

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Our technical advisors

Akos
Technical & Historical Advisor (ships)

Akos is a noted Hungarian expert at everything Navy. He contributed for several years to the historical research used for World of Warships, and now has put his encyclopedic knowledge to good use in our own project. His erudition regarding every ship that was – and even ships that weren’t – is the sort of help we needed to make sure that South Dakota lacks her secondary gun turrets, or Hiei gets her own shiny modernized pagoda tower!
Akos’ website Warship Projects (1900-1950) dedicated to warship development history can be found here.

Michael Claringbould
Technical & Historical Advisor (aviation)

Michael Claringbould is an authority on the air war in the Pacific Theater. His research as published in the South Pacific Air War, Pacific Adversaries & Pacific Profiles series are unparalleled sources for anyone involved in recreating the air war and matching both sides of the conflict. Who better than someone who literally grew up in Port Moresby guide us on such topics! He kindly agreed to share with us the most accurate info available to date regarding Allied and Japanese aircraft and units, providing Julien with all the references he needed for our in-game art. Michael’s books, including his latest opus dedicated to Operation I-Go can all be found at Avonmore Books by clicking on the link below.

Peter Ingman
Technical & Historical Advisor (aviation)

Peter Ingman is the proprietor of Avonmore Books, a leading global WWII military aviation history publisher, especially when it comes to Australian, Japanese and South Pacific-related topics. Also an author in his own right, Peter has co-authored Zero Hour in Broome and the widely acclaimed South Pacific Air War series. Peter himself is no stranger to deep research and captivating writing. The wealth of knowledge provided by the works published by Avonmore Books is one prime reason why we are so confident about our chances of providing the very best Pacific theatre content. We warmly encourage all PTO lovers serious about aviation to support Avonmore Books – don’t hesitate to visit the website by clicking on the link below!