"The Boy Who Lived...out of his car." Part I

People ask me sometimes, "How did you go from architecture to level design?" The easy answer being the two share a lot of similar themes and the jump wasn't that far a stretch to begin with. You might even think, "Well sure, architect's draw layouts and schematics so level designers basically do the same thing." You wouldn't be too far off in that assumption but to get to the heart of my decision, you need to set the time machine way back to the late sixties or early seventies.

This part of the story is a little paraphrased but bear with me. My father graduated from high school, and with maybe a few college classes, managed to land a job working for the city - shirt and tie, business cards...respectable. Remember, back in those days, you could land a decent job with just a high school education at best. Things were good until an election and regime change later, he found himself on the outside looking in with a wife and family to support. Things were tight for a while until he landed a job in a technology company but don't start cheering just yet.

It wasn't a "tech" job like we think of today and remember: "high school diploma" only. No, what I mean by technology is that this company was one of many that created products like elevators, engines, rockets and anything remotely aerospace related. You're familiar with a helicopter right? The correct answer is: well, duh. And you're aware that they have a secondary blade attached to the tail for stability, right? Again, your answer should be the same as before. Well, my father was the guy that sharpened the blade: 365 days a year, give or take a holiday when they so graciously deemed him, and the other grunts, worthy of one. He would be gone in the morning before the rest of the family awoke for school, to make the hour commute through traffic. Work in the factory, through the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter, all the while standing, one blade after another. Then make the trip home with his lunch box and sweaty work clothes to find us playing in the yard or doing homework in the house. Some family time, dinner, then usually early to bed so he could repeat the same routine the next day. He did this for 29 years. Not because he wanted to, not because he enjoyed it but because he had a family that he loved and wanted a better life or future for. Think about that the next time someone asks if you're "dedicated" to anything in your life.

Now, with that being said, let's fast forward to the late eighties. My whole life, my father worked along with my mother eventually joining him in the work force once me, my sister and brother were old enough to look after ourselves. We weren't rich by any means but we always had clean clothes to wear, food on the table and it was always stressed in our house that school came before anything else. My father's biggest fear was to see us fail in life because we short-changed ourselves out of the best education available; he and my mother wanted us to do better than them. So, when it came time to look into college, one of the few skills I had ever really shown any aptitude toward was drawing. "What are you good at and how can you make a living at it," is what I was asked. Me, being young and super naive, had always had my heart set on being a Disney Animator or later on, a comic book illustrator. I had played video games since they were made available for home entertainment but it was the late eighties and that route wasn't even on the horizon or an option yet. "You'll go to school for architecture," and that was how my immediate future was decided, simple as that.

There are three professions that are considered fairly "safe:" Law, Medicine and Architecture. I do not mean this in a condescending way because people tend to look upon careers in these fields as somewhat respectable and they are. One can make a fairly good living in any of these fields and they carry a bit of prestige along with them, even though, none are completely safe from layoffs or other career maladies. But, people are going to run into trouble now and then, people are going to get sick and people are always going to need places to live and work - so with that in mind, any of these are a "safe" career bet usually.

In the early nineties, halfway through school, I found myself pulling an all-nighter to prepare for a design presentation the next morning. Drawing after drawing, plans, elevations, sections and finally perspective drawings to show usage, interaction and scale. The funny thing is, I discovered I found more enjoyment at around 3am, exhausted, drawing in the people for my scene than I had the whole time I spent working on the schematics I had created for my future chosen career field. That was a sign but I stayed to finish my degree. After graduation, I lingered in the restaurant and bar scene scrambling to pay off school loans. With time starting to run out and needing health insurance which was covered under my parents, I decided I should give the architecture career one last good try.

I was lucky enough to find an architect who hired me with little to no experience. It was fun for a while and I was making good money; enough to pay my loans and cover health insurance. I bought a brand new car and began my hour commute to the new career until I started staying with an aunt during the week which cut my drive down to twenty minutes a day. That should have been a sign of things to come. I learned a lot in those first six months - more than I felt I ever did in five years at college. This would not be my last time feeling this way regarding life and the lessons it teaches you through experience only.

...Continued in "The Boy Who Lived...out of his car." Part II