My career in games (and why I went indie)

As a kid, I loved actualizing my ideas into art, projects and inventions, always creating something from my imagination. My desire to evolve video games led me to art school.

My career in games started in 1999 when I was recruited by the EA Academy while pursuing my bachelor's degree. I spent two summers interning as a game artist at the Redwood Shores HQ studio and subsequently accepted an offer for a full-time position. Within a few years I worked to migrate from game artist to game designer.  At EA I experienced three generations of game consoles as well as PC, contributing to several AAA titles including 007 007 James bond: Everything or Nothing and The Sims 2.

After 5 years working with EA I decided it was time to experience other projects and development models. I was a key level designer for Eidos' Tomb Raider: Legend, worked as a senior game designer for Factor 5's LAIR and and later worked with other studios pursuing several experimental game projects. I worked as a lead designer on a casual MMO startup project called Arcadia and as a Creative Director at a casual game startup called SGN. In 2009, Activision offered me a position where I would guide the design of multiple projects simultaneously across the globe. I learned a ton about games and development methods on all of these projects.

After a decade-long career making games, I decided to "go indie" for lots of reasons, the main one being, I wanted a more intimate relationship with the games I was making. As an indie, I'd have no one to answer to but me.  I could take risks that I wouldn't be able to inside an established studio or publisher. Moving back to my home state of Colorado and founding my own studio, Fresh Aces Videogames, my goal is to craft games myself experimenting with the art-form, focusing on unique gameplay, themes and interfaces.

My first game St. Chicken is out and getting good reviews. I am in the planning stages for my second game. If you are interested in learning more about my development, feel free to sign-up as an insider, it is free and you will gain access to information, media and game demos that you would not otherwise be privy to. You will only be e-mailed when I have created new content for insiders or when a game is ready on a particular platform and you can always be removed if you choose.

Thanks for your interest,

-Marc