You Have to Start Somewhere: Developer Origin Stories

Industry executives recall getting their start in videogames.
5/12/2009 6:59 PM | 4 Comments | Page 1 of 3

They have been movers and shakers in the growing videogame industry for more than 10 years. They have worked on some of the most groundbreaking titles, and been at the cutting edge of the industry. But how did they get their start?

Ted Price
President/CEO, Insomniac

In 1980, when I was 12 or so, I begged my dad to buy an Apple II "for the family." After he gave in to my incessant whining, I immediately appropriated the shiny new computer and began trying to make my own game. I had no clue what I was doing. I think I learned enough to get a character walking across the screen.

After graduating college in 1990 I ended up as the financial controller for my uncle's startup medical company. It was a fantastic gig and I learned a lot about venture capital, finance and corporate life in general. Yet in 1993, I suddenly came to the realization that I didn't want to be in medicine or finance as a career. And I ended up starting Insomniac, incorporating in early 1994. Despite having almost zero experience doing anything involving game creation, I figured it would be easy. Heck, I graduated from college, right? I could figure this one out.

Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that I still didn't know what I was doing. Fortunately, in the summer of 1994 I was extremely lucky to run into two brilliant programmers who also happened to be brothers: Alex and Brian Hastings. They came aboard as partners and we never looked back.

Brian Reynolds
Founder/Creative Director, Big Huge Games

I was in graduate school at Berkeley studying philosophy, but I wasn't enjoying the program there and didn't think it was going to work out. I was playing a lot of games at the time (Ultima VI, Populous and Wing Commander spring to mind, as well as Microprose's F-19 Stealth Fighter and M1 Tank Platoon), and I got to thinking that I knew a lot of computer stuff. All my summer jobs were programming graphics for defense contractors. I put together a little demo to show that I could do graphics programming work at the standard of the industry. I sent it as my "electronic resume" to my three top choices, Origin, Microprose and Sierra. Microprose called surprisingly quickly and flew me out a couple weeks later.

Origin had been my first choice because I loved Ultima so much. About one month after I'd started at Microprose, I got a call at home from Richard Garriott offering me a job based on my original resume! It just about killed me to turn him down, but it didn't feel right to leave a job I'd just started. This made a great story with Richard, when many years later I met him as a successful entrepreneur in my own right.

Lars Gustavsson
Creative Director, DICE

I had around 10 years of working experience in a wide variety of businesses, but had always been drawing. I had a group of friends in a blues band that constantly pushed me to quit working and "be an artist," but I wanted to work, in the movie or games industry. I applied for jobs all over the world. Meanwhile I kept my job, and was getting more and more miserable since I was close, time after time, but never managed to get a position. Suddenly, one day my best friend called me and asked whether I had seen this ad for a position at a company called Refraction Games, located in the heart of Stockholm. It was a dream come true, and I must say that it was all luck. I still remember that first day walking through the streets of Stockholm on my way to my new job. I can remember the sunshine, the sound of a city waking up and the feeling that this would change my life. And I was right.