
Hiya. I’m Jeff Nachbaur.
(pronounced NOCK-bao-er)
I am a producer, project manager, and game designer with over 25 years of experience. I have worn many hats during my career – artist, scripter, writer, designer, and producer. I love nothing more than making fun games and learning and doing whatever a project requires in order to deliver them.
After cutting my teeth in Quality Assurance at Activision and at the small publisher Crave Entertainment, I found my way to Universal and eventually Warner Bros., where I focused primarily on developing games based on established franchises and movie & TV IP’s, like Lord of the Rings, Speed Racer, Happy Feet, Mortal Kombat, F.E.A.R., and many more.
In 2013, I joined the Emeryville studio of a small developer, Other Ocean, as their Executive Producer. I led many work-for-hire projects there, including ports for titles such as Costume Quest 2, Tales of Symphonia, Thimbleweed Park, and Minecraft (brought to the Nintendo 3DS!), and wholly original titles like #IDARB. Eventually, Other Ocean’s Emeryville Studio rebranded into Digital Eclipse (DE), increasingly focused on game collections and remakes. They quickly established a strong reputation in the retro games community with their mission: treat classic video games with “the same care and respect given to other artistic mediums.”
I headed DE’s remake team, focused on remaking classic games for modern audiences. We endeavored to stay true to the game creators’ original vision, remaking classics not as they actually were, but as we all remembered them being. This culminated in the release of PSX classic MediEvil in 2019 and the seminal RPG Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord in 2024. Both were lovingly received by their fan communities, with Wizardry also earning a Grammy for its soundtrack, composed by the amazing Winifred Phillips.
In early 2025, I joined Side as their Global Senior Producer, utilizing my project management background to support their Co-dev & Art groups, coordinating with cross-functional teams across the globe to create bespoke production plans and estimates for incoming projects. And in October 2025, I founded NockeyWorks, not only to provide creative and production services to game developers and publishers, but also to explore my own passions with smaller personal projects, in both video games and tabletop.
I am currently working with Argonaut Games as their Principal Producer, once again working to bring retro games back – introducing them to new audiences while helping restore them for the audience that never forgot them.
Check out my experience and the games I’ve produced.
Or read about some things that I think about. And working on.
And if you want to work together or just say hi, contact me.
