Where I give the best advice I know.

I’ve been making games for a long time. 17 years to be exact. But let me start from the beginning, before I knew I was going to be gamer. Heck, before I even knew video games existed. 1978.

I love art. I always have.

One of my most vivid memories is of copying panels from Marshall Roger’s-Batman’s Detective Comics at my grandma’s apartment. She was having a nap and I snuck my comic book out (it was contraband for sure) and begin dreaming that one day I’d be a comic book artist. 

She woke up as I was in a drawing trance, (I was eight – did I mention that?) and she had a fit. Called the comic book and my drawings trash and made me throw them away. Then she made me wash my hands with bleach - seriously. To this day the smell of bleach makes me think of Marshall Rogers and Batman, not to mention my grandma’s bizarre reaction to something that I thought was amazing.

So, why start with such a dark memory. Well, it’s because later that day when I returned to my house, I pulled out a pad of paper and started drawing the panels again. Only this time without the aid of Roger’s comic in front of me. Guess what – it sparked. Not the drawing, it was probably horrible, but something inside me sparked that I could never turn off.  I drew until my hands were tired, then I moved on to the writing side of things. A bit backward now, but I remember doing it that way, and within a few days I had written and illustrated my first comic book. I showed it to my parents and they went bonkers. They praised me and told me it was wonderful. I went back to my room and hand drew a few more copies (This was 1978 BK – Before Kinkos) and I took them to school and passed them out. The three original copies of Batman and The Iron Fist soared around the 3^rd grade like wildfire and by the end of the week I was a celebrity.

Genesis is one of my favorite words. I means the beginning of something, usually something great. That week in my eight year old life was the genesis of me becoming who I am today. Oh, there were detours, major ones where I thought I’d be a lawyer or an accountant; great jobs, but I suck at math and I hate arguing.  But from that day on, I knew I would be a CREATIVE!

Here is what went right, and if I’m going to challenge you with anything it is this. It might be the most important advice I can give to anyone wanting to chase after a career in something crazy like games, or writing, or film.

Don’t give up.