I still remember teaching my Mom how to play Super Mario Brothers back when the NES was all the rage. I didn’t really succeed as I don’t remember her actually having made it past the very first intimidating goomba that approaches you within the first 3 seconds of the game. To my Mom’s credit however, a few years later I had much more success in teaching her how to beat a few levels in the original Doom (go figure). I’ve been a diehard gamer since my Dad got me my first NES. I’m one of the few people I know who was looking forward to and actually completed Zelda II. My favorite video game franchise is easily Metroid. I’ve beaten all of them several times and look up to them (2D and 3D alike) for inspiration for level design.

Ever since I played the first Unreal I wanted to become a level designer. That’s when it hit me that after you get over the character (or lack there-of) and you get accustomed to the gameplay, then you’re left with level design to carry the gaming experience. The fact remains that when you play a game that looks as good as Unreal did back when it first came out, then you just have to take a second, sit back and take in all the amazing visuals before you can progress. I remember playing through Metroid Prime 2 for the first time and I had to force myself off of the TV. The amount of detail in the environments and sheer design of them simply blew me away.

It’s my goal to create surreal, immersive environments that take people’s breath away and leave them sitting there saying, “wow, how could someone come up with that?”