About Me
I grew up on a small cattle farm in Moultonborough, New Hampshire. We raised Scotch Highland Cattle, and various other animals over the years which provided for a fairly interesting childhood dynamic. At age 12 I found my first real job, other than working on a friend’s Ostrich Farm or helping Mom at work, at a local kayak and canoe store named Wild Meadow of Center Harbor. This became my summer job for the next eight years, where I worked in kayak and canoe sales, rentals, tours, and lessons. Throughout high school I ran Track and Field and Cross Country, and became involved in coaching others though Moultonborough’s Hershey Track and Field program. I was heavily involved in Drama, and Mentoring by my Senior Year. That same year I successfully lobbied the Moultonborough School Board for a new “Anti-Drug Coalition” program for Moultonborough, as there was no previous program. My Junior year I found that it was possible for me to combine my artistic talents with my passion for video games, this is when I found Champlain College’s new degree program. After graduating in 2005 I moved to Burlington, Vermont to pursue a degree in Art and Animation through Champlain College.
After my first year at Champlain College I was asked to be a Peer Mentor for incoming freshman students my Sophomore year. My Junior year I decided to become a Residential Assistant after enjoying my experience as a Peer Mentor. Fall of my Junior year I began volunteering for Champlain’s Emergent Media Center, where I was asked to be apart of a four person team of students going to Eliot Masies’ Learning 2007 Conference in Orlando. While there we were charged with creating two game prototypes in three days in front of two thousand active conference goers. We were successful in creating games based on new employees entering the workforce and another on the Avian Flu. Soon after I was asked to join another team headed to CIMIT (Center for the Integration of Medical and Innovative Technology) 2007 in Boston, where we helped illustrate possible game uses for medical purposes.
Spring Semester of my Junior year I was asked to join another team of Emergent Media Center students to the MPI (Meeting professionals International) 2008 conference in Houston. Much like Learning 2007, we had to create two games in three days while interacting with conference goers. We were successful a second time in creating two games based on how to keep events “green,” and a simulator for meeting and event planners in layout design in which the objective is for your conference goers to generate ideas with each other. By the end of my Junior year I had one last opportunity to attend Digital Now 2008 in Orlando, in which we were invited to contribute to round table discussions this time rather than for our rapid prototyping.
That summer I was hired on through the Emergent Media Center to work on two gaming projects. Firstly I was hired on as Lead Artist for a project funded by CIMIT to create a Emergency Response Simulator for Emergency responders. After 9/11 many found that since each department had their own communication methods and codes they used, they had a hard time communicating with one another. The “NIMS” system of communication was developed shortly after to address the issue, and our game is based on this system.
I was also hired on an unpaid internship for America’s Army working on multiplayer maps. I’m happy to say that my group’s map named Canyon was released to the public in December of 2008. Canyon was received pretty well by the public with people saying things like …
“IMO Canyon is the best map released in a long time.”
Be sure to check out this interview.
In August of 2008 I was hired on as an Artist for a new project funded by the United Nations to address gender based violence in developing nations. As apart of our research I flew down to Cape Town, South Africa with my team to learn more of our demographic. To hear more about my trip to South Africa read my blog entries here. And be sure to check out the Emergent Media Center’s UNFPA Blog.
Starting my Senior Year I’ve kept working for the UN project as well as the CIMIT project, I was also hired on the first part of the year as a Peer Advisor, and all the while still being a full time student. In November of 2008 I was asked to speak with a few other students at the Montreal International Game Summit 2008 on our experiences and process we’ve been going through for the UN project. Our session was titled “Turning Tides: a game to combat gender violence.”
I graduated Suma Cum Laude from Champlain in May of 2009. In June I started at Mistic Software as an intern 3D Infographiste in Montreal. While at Mistic I’ve had the opportunity to work on Wii and DS games. Although I can’t talk about which games I’ve been working on, my first game should be out by December of this year!
