Noel is following his lifelong dream of being an indie developer. His latest startup, Snappy Touch, is focused exclusively on iPhone game development. He believes that games don’t have to rely on violence, and can instead encourage creativity and sharing. He recently released Flower Garden (2009 iPhone/iPad) and Lorax Garden (2010 iPhone).
He writes about game development regularly, from a monthly column in Game Developer Magazine, to his book C++ For Game Programmers, or contributions to the Game Programming Gems series. Noel frequently speaks in conferences all over the world.
Some of his past games include The Bourne Conspiracy (2008 Xbox360, PS3), Darkwatch (2005 PS2, Xbox), and the MechAssault series ( 2002-2004 Xbox). He earned an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.