About Me
It all started when…
A couple of my childhood friends had Atari 2600s and the first time I played games on them, I was hooked. When the NES came out in North America, a Japanese friend of mine already had a Famicom and that completely blew my mind away that the NES, as cool as it was, could also have so many neat games and peripherals. Sadly, my parents did not believe in consoles and did what they thought was best for an elementary school kid - they got me my first PC instead, ostensibly for schoolwork. Not a Commodore 64, but an IBM PC XT with a monochrome monitor and no hard drive..
Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. That old XT provided years of joy with the first Sierra adventure games, Populous, and Sim City all in a glorious monochromatic amber hue. In high school, the 386 I had next allowed me to play games like Civilization, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, Dune 2, Starcraft, Syndicate, the Wing Commander series, and the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games in full VGA glory. Through the magic of BBSes, I discovered that people had made map editors for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and even the X-Wing games! Eagerly, I dove in and made my own levels. These early experiments are sadly lost in time, but they helped plant inside me the notion it was possible to craft my own experiences.
By the time I was in university my friends started becoming interested in an MMO called EverQuest, but for some odd reason, it didn’t pull me in or capture my imagination as much as this other new game I heard of called Homeworld. It promised to deliver an unparalleled experience - an epic story where you commanded a space fleet in cinematic 3D in real time! I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the developers were from Vancouver. I got the game on the day it came out - and never looked back. To me, Homeworld remains an example of what could be achieved with the perfect blend of gameplay, world building, narrative exposition, and (very importantly) sound design.
I wanted to be a part of that. So, as soon as I graduated from university (while working off my student debt from a degree as a lowly barista), I immediately sought to join the video game industry . Through some lucky chance and some connections, I managed to land a contract technical writing position at Relic Entertainment for Impossible Creatures. Eventually, my first game credit as a developer was Homeworld 2 and I have not looked back since…