EP 302: How My Short Term Mission Trip Changed Me and From Start-Up to Marvel Entertainment

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This is what you believe, and this is our Americans. The reason we tell stories about everything here on the show clerestory send them our American stories.com. Some of our favorites are show is free to listen to when it is not free to make. We are a nonprofit in any contributions any donations any support is greatly appreciated you a little do a lot a gift of $5.10 dollars a month really makes a difference in bringing the stories to you each and every week and just keeping our team on track. Oh and by the way, you can do that by going to our American stories.com and simply click the donate button seemingly sitting at one of our regular contributors is a special piece for us today. The story was written by his daughter is being read by his niece Andy. This story is entitled please don't leave before and so I had no reason to believe that this time would be any different. I was saddened when I returned home from my mission trap.

As always, I would bring back nothing more than sunlight in my boots collar to my jeans and of course a lot of great memories. Little did I know that this time it was going to be different this summer before my high school graduation I went to West Virginia with others for my church as members of the Appalachia service project goals included refurbishing the homes of those in need and where we were heading.

There is no shortage of along with volunteers from many churches. We arrived at our destination much like an invading army and miniature, and we arrived ready to do battle the tools that we brought from home would service our weapons as we prepared to wage war against an all-too-familiar and any substandard living conditions. I mission was to make the homes of those we served warm or safer, and drier and with only five days to accomplish as much as we could.

You're anxious to get started. My group was assigned the task of rebuilding sections of the home that had been damaged by fire.

No sooner had we parked on the homes dirt driveway when I saw an excited little girl no more than five or six years old, standing in the doorway of the family's temporary trailer home. She lists and wearing dirty clothes in the biggest smile I'd ever seen. She yelled mom on. They really came. I didn't like that and that her name was Dakota, and four more days would pass before she'd say another word near me behind Dakota was a woman in a wheelchair.

Her grandmother we turn I also learned that my job this week would be to help convert a fire damage dining room into a bedroom for this little girl after meeting several more family members got down to the business of making a difference in their lives.

Grabbing our tools. We went to work. Walls were torn down and replaced hammers and nails, saws and electrics your guns drywall prepping and painting. We moved at a fast pace over the following days. I noticed he could've peeking at us every now and then, as we worked a few times I tried talking with her, but she remained shine aloft, always fluttering around us like a tiny butterfly, always there, but staying just out of reach. Watching us intently, but keeping to herself by our fifth and final day. However, this would change before I went to work on her home on that last morning I spoke for a moment or two with the grandmother. I was especially pleased when she told me how much Dakota left her new room so much in fact that she begged to sleep and at the previous night even though it wasn't quite ready just yet as we talked I noticed something I hadn't seen before. Dakota was hiding behind her grandmother.

Cautiously she stepped into view and I could see that just like her close her face was still dirty, but no amount of soil can hide those bright blue eyes and her big smile. She was simply adorable. I wanted to hug her but respecting her shyness. I kept my distance. Slowly she began walking towards me and it wasn't until she was inches away that I noticed the folded piece of paper in her tiny hand. Silently she reached up and handed it to me once unfolded, I looked at the drawing should meet with her broken crowns on the back of an old coloring book cover. It was up to you girls. One much taller than the other and they were thing hands.

She told me that it was supposed to be me and her and sprawled on the bottom of the paper were three little words that instantly broke. Please don't leave now almost in tears. I surrendered to the impulse that surpassed only moments before I bent down and hugged her.

She hugged me to and for the longest time either one of us could let go.

By early afternoon we finish Dakota's bedroom and so I gladly use the rare free time to get to know my newest friend sitting under a tree away from the others. We shared a few apples while she told me about her life in the hollow as I listen to her stories about the struggles she and her family endured daily. I began to realize how frivolous various aspects of my own life for suddenly things like deciding what to wear when I went out on a Friday night which wannabe celebrity was starring the latest reality television series now seems so trivial in comparison.

Thoughts like this and others quickly took a backseat to what really matters most to me, my friends, my family and my faith and maybe more surprisingly, all it took for me to reaffirm these important truths was the wisdom of one special little girl living somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia. I left for home early the next morning and of course I returned with muddy boots and holes in my jeans, but because it Dakota. I brought back with me. Something else you a greater appreciation for all the blessings of my life I'll never forget that barefooted little butterfly with the big smile and that dirty face, and in the end, I pray that she'll never forget me. Special thanks to Sumi exclusivity for reading daughters words about the simple mission trip.

By the way, we told stories so many people of faith around this country with a do with their families is remarkable little just go to the beach and eat the going. They serve by the way, you can read the story in the back story visiting Stephen Simeon.com recently asked daughters mission in West Virginia story of her connection with a young girl named Dakota and the people around her throat. His life here on L American store view of the great American stories we tell.

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Please make a donation monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters little L American stories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming but tell American stories.com doing household chores can Artie be time-consuming and tedious. There's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done that can be overwhelming for anyone. If you want to get those larger laundry loads down bright and get back to your life. Try all three clear maggot packs all three clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry all three clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and their dental and skin which is great for any families sensitive skin needs my family. We definitely have sensitive skin. The the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is. That's because this big pile of dirty clothes is not all three clear maggot packs have your back purchase all three clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types so you're in the garage working on your car and you need the valves you bought last week.

You look in the cabinets and on the shelves with parts are never in the right place eBay motor says the carport you need over 122 million of them all in one place that all of the right prices find parts for everything from your classic coupe to your brand-new truck@ebaymode.com.

Let's ride you guys, this is Tori, and Jenny with the 90210 MG podcasts we have such a special episode brought to you by near attack ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's tentpole event windows handout. Did you know that near attack ODT were magic pant 75 mg and help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event window tango. It's true. I had one night and I took minor attack ODT and I was present and had an amazing time.

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This episode was brought to you by near attack ODT were met to pant 75 mg life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully no attack ODT were magic pant 75 mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines and adults sell lively events like window tango don't have to be next, and we continue with our American stories mixed we bring you Josh was binaural show before shared his story of going from hobbyist artist, the videogame designer at the multibillion-dollar videogame company blizzard entertainment Rust Belt tells us the story of how his dream wasn't everything he thought it would be. We rejoin him blizzard on the research and development project name for your job. I don't think I was prepared to work at such a high functioning studio that just demanded excellence routinely. I didn't know how to navigate the political waters and I know I II think II think I made a bad impression to take responsibility for the great artist, but I got disillusioned and I think that I let that disillusion sort of like Kate.

My experience in causing digital sour because what I noticed it. Blizzard is everybody's a genius. Everybody. Everybody is the best everybody's extremely talented from management to recruiting art, you know HR they're all just intelligent bright people. But the thing is when you're full of people like that. You gotta wait your turn. They had a really ingrained sort of tenure system so I was like what went like five years for anybody take me seriously until a timeout to keep my head down and just like impress and impress someone every single day. It was stressful. I didn't quite understand what the expectations were. You know this was a project that had been in research and development for quite a long time and the and and to be fair, there it was. It was a research and develop project with a hunt look hundred 20 people. It was extremely bloated so it was like it was it was weird. The perks were amazing, but it was hard to understand, like how to make the game awesome because you surrounded by awesome but then there treating the awesome things.

Everybody's making is like normal throwaway stuff you get frustrated you know you like what do you want what he wanted for making such great stuff or just throw it away because you can guess what it felt like to me to be fair, I wasn't prepared either and so II after a year it blizzard. I was already like man I don't know if I can do this so I learned a lot there that, in and out like this and I look at this is the top of the mountain like I want to be here anymore. I like considering what should I going to fill should I like start building networks would like, you know some Hollywood buddies and start getting in a like effects collect the skills transfer, you know that not everything that I can get in and out of the Gnostics, thinking all the stuff and then one of the producers on team four project name is Stephen Lim: slim, so slim left blizzard just to go to the little studio called riot games and this was about 2011 and then riot games is working on this game called league of legends and everybody start talking about it and playing it at lunch breaks and stuff like that and I and I like this pretty cool game. It's fun, it's really ugly, ugly, and so I knew that Slim was over there and so I hit him up as a hey man you are looking for character artist.

Yes hey I'm thinking of leaving blizzard does have room over there.

He's like yes and he got me in like so fast in July and this was 2011 and and I kind of lucked out because I guess riot had just got a huge investment of $400 million from the Chinese company called Tencent and riot had huge glances to create something cold eastwards in America they had seen that in Korea StarCraft was a huge he's boring. We can do that America was legal legends. That was the goal and so part of that strategy was to get AAA talent right and team, the team that they had was kind of like the same team that they started with right when they were young and scrappy and didn't have any money and so me coming in from blizzard was like one of the first like all just worked blizzard you know. Yes, I came in and there like to pose like working blizzard and I didn't want to be a jerk or anything as absences, different, and I will be down, you know. But you know it's I going to riot the give you the job you know they they they like it.

I like them. The vibe is awesome.

They're all very very kind and generous and I got the feeling that he really needed me right was blizzard like they needed me. I feel like I was disposable riot gave this feeling there like Josh like we need you to do this house like dude I'm right that's what you want and so I got a little bit down as I shut the work and I talk another producer and what you want me to do. It was my first assignment and is not in Thomasville I think is an executive vice president of the good guy in Tom's like to do whatever you want to do like what do you want to do and I'll let what we can tell you what to do, like, but like what would you do to improve our game and I'm like you, I want to redo all your characters because you guys are no better getting huge and you can't have your game look like this. But I agree hundred percent so they put me on a few assignments like get familiar with the pipeline how to make skins and this is the first time since no sort of thing like fortnightly can play any of these games like skins is a huge monetization to legal legends was one of the first ones, like me, this thing, learn how everything works and you know it was an incredibly ambitious young team and they they have the funds and they had the wrong way to make amazing things so I was part of the team that really made skins valuable like we work on this one. Scan for character as real and useful pulse fire Israel and we put all the bells and whistles.

Are we merely transform every time you leveled and they wanted salt for 30 bucks and everybody what like to pay 30 bucks for this is digital is not even real, but they did it and it sold so well made so much money and they're like oh my gosh, we are onto something and so they really beefed up the pipeline for the skins team to make these really exist. Top-of-the-line cosmetics for player expression at least found that was a market and then I split off and I created helped create no this other team cut was the champion updating it so that with visual updates, registry doing textures and then eventually is redoing the models and then eventually will redoing the models, textures and animations and then we found that those were getting as much engagement as a brand-new champions of the K-1.

We give this if you give us a proper proper team.

It was really fun and I was there for five years I was the longest I've ever been at a studio because you know it was just so much variety, they they let me help out with so many things like it had been lucked out.

It was it was a studio becoming a big unit also have small studio mentality were like iconic do whatever I wanted because it was needed. But it hadn't really crystallized into stay in your lane only do this so I got to help out like merchandise cinematics into such a fun time travel the world, you know, I went to Cologne Germany couple times for games, calm, and you know whence you know when to sell.

So Korea for for the world's like there they they didn't know they may be sports a thing enough.

If the eastwards is now a finger in the red for many many years, but they had faith and now he sports is like a viable thing you know on twitch and stuff like that and you been listening to Josh share his story made it to the big time made it blizzard in blizzard entertainment is a multibillion-dollar videogame production company huge studio. By the way videogames it's as big a business is movies if not bigger, and he wasn't prepared for the big time. He wasn't prepared for a giant studio where everybody everybody was excellence and it was routinely demanded excellence from everybody. A lot of great people all just overwhelmed. Josh felt the need to impress people every day. The perks weren't bad either but kept a lot of people. At one point he tired. If this is the top of the mountain. What I really want to be here gets the call makes the call to riot. I have the feeling that you needed me blizzard. I was disposable when we come back more joshing story here on our American stores doing household chores can Artie be time-consuming and tedious. There's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done can be overwhelming for anyone. If you want to get those larger laundry loads down right and get back to your life. Try all three clear mega packs all three clear mega packs are bigger packs two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry all three clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and their dental and skin which is great for any families sensitive skin needs my family. We definitely have sensitive skin. The next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is. That's because this big pile of dirty clothes. All three clear mega packs have your back purchase all three clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types so you're in the garage working on your car and you need the valves you bought last week. You look in the cabinets and on the shelves with the parts are never in the right place eBay motor says the carport you need over 122 million of them all in one place and all of the right prices find parts for everything from your classic coupe to your brand-new truck@ebay.com. Let's ride you guys, this is Tori, and Jenny with the 90210 MG podcasts we have such a special episode brought to you by near attack ODT.

We recorded it at iHeartRadio type event windows handout.

Did you know that your tech ODT were magic pants 75 mg can help migraine sufferers still such an exciting event like window tango. I had one night I took minor tech ODT and I was present and had an amazing time. Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends.

This episode was brought to you by near tech ODT were magic pants 75 mg life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully near tech ODT were magic pants 75 mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines and adults sell lively events like window tango don't have to be next and were back to our American stories in the story of Josh sitting, Josh was working at riot games, the developer of the sports phenomena, league of legends again created in 2009, but still has 100 million unique monthly users back to Josh and then I eventually got the itch again. I felt like I as an individual contributor I had done everything I wanted to do. Like I now I want to be an art director I knew how to make great art and I wanted to learn how to make great artists because I thought that was the next logical step and I kind of saw the value in helping people versus just having a portfolio of awesome art, want to have a network of awesome people that I felt I thought of you more valuable that a longer lasting legacy so that was like around 2000 1610 sent bought riot games and I have shares company that was granted to medically think much about it and all of a sudden the shares were worse. You know, a lot of money like seven figures and I did and I was like okay what's next up is working on this card game called legends room Tara there for about a year riot. Now, like director, Nick believed like on one how to lead and teach me teaching, but you know the carrot on a stick on the thing you note. No hard feelings or anything, but it felt like I just want to wait now that I had some cash I didn't have to work. I am not here to figure out a mild enough money to sort of like wasp to your sabbatical buy a house and figure out what I want to do away from Orange County back to the hometown of Utah St. George on our first house and I just sort of like our items, get a chill no I got a buddy reach out to me and say what you doing these days. Not like this, like an off trying to do artwork purchasing out of my kids and enjoying enjoying not having to work for a second and he said how would you like to work on as an art director on a fully funded fighting game I like oh I love fighting games. Tell me more and so we got in touch with his friends and it was a group of guys that were fairly new to but they just receive a 10 million in funding. They were in Las Vegas on only two hours away from Las Vegas there at Las Vegas Evo which is a fighting sort of, and they were showing the prototype to people and the general manager of the year when the founders he was in Salt Lake City was passing by.

You said you want to get some dinner. We'll talk about it. We got dinner. We talked about and I said sure, man, I'll come see what's going on balance, I drove down the Vegas and I saw people playing their prototype and ice and I just kinda started introducing myself as the architect and I said I'll invest some money in this.

No part of this and I'll be the art director so the thing here so long story short is incredible stressful. The money was all gone. It was not received well and you know a lot of people like emotional and mental health to control.

I was there for three years as the art director on this on his game and I never been our trucker before and I wanted to be a good art director I wanted to be emotionally invested in my people, and because money was running out and mistakes were made by I wanted to lead with empathy and lead would like emotional intelligence, but at the same time when they were all stressed out like it stressed me out and I didn't have anybody to help me and I basically bought myself an art director title like jumped into the jumped in the defense and I'm an art director so I was not director, you know, and I learned everything from outsourced management you know Excel sheets and manpower and all the sort of stuff and then I'm hunting one on ones with everybody making sure they're okay raises you know dictating the art style print slides for investors like just everything not all fun stuff.

It was also tedious stuff and emotionally heavy stuff fire people talk to people about your be like to work for our demand right out of the man in the in the bad way like I wasn't used to it and but I know I try to do as best I could took a huge toll on gaining weight has blown my beard got grazing my beard grade my hair and I every year in San Francisco. You business event called the game the GDC game developer conference. We were in Oakland at the time I would live in St. George Utah and then fly down to Oakland I would stay there. I would stay open Monday Tuesday Wednesday Wednesday night.

I fly back home and I do that every other week and I was in Oakland. GDC was happening. San Francisco easy PC go over there. She's also talks and just chill and you know doing nothing that I do when I'm uncomfortable in my sketchbook. I'm just drawing my sketchbook. You know like syndicate from middle middle school drug ninja turtle or something and mild director from riot as well as a couple other art directors licensed the studio head art director and a few other friends with early Josh which you and I like cuddling, not feeling very social and just like high because of the game go on house everything was going to like yeah you know it's it's gone gone so much on my mind and this can be alone and eventually they wore me down and I asked the studio art director got out of review who I was never really close. To be honest he was just so high-level we would see each other and I think we had a few one on ones. We first got hired right very quickly became at the studio head art director of right games. We knew each other that we did not know know each other just opened up to him as a him like fire someone that everybody likes and how you know how you maintain your emotional and mental health.

You have to hold people accountable. How do you get people to step up and become senior artists you know and and and lead artists when they don't want to because our director everything I can't delegate to step up and he's like wow man here you asking the real good questions and so we went to dinner and we just talked about.

Manny was so cathartic to have a group of other arts rectors that had these like leadership questions that the answer for me. You know, fast-forward 2018. Very very hard here. Close the studio, you know, the general manager and the CEO work. They left the board and they made me more times with not a lot of money in the bank and a ton of outsourcers that needed to get paid.

Thankfully, we are able to pay everyone's salary and lay them off. They were laid off pretty good pretty good advance, but we still owed a lot of money to outsourcers and so I had to negotiate down had really came like I know we all you X amount would you take like 20% of that, you know, or would you like to liquidate these assets like I threw a 20% plus like you know some computers and hard is that cool in man that was so rough, but oddly enough, a lot of the outsourcers that we owed money to their dislike men were so glad you called us without your gonna ghost us to so many people do that like yeah will take 20%. That sucks, but glad you at least are trying to make it right like hopefully this comes back around and hopefully, some, points for this and you're listening to Josh until a heck of a story about his own personal growth. His own professional growth and how those two intersect really talks about the perils and the responsibilities and burdens of being a boss what it's like to have to make those life-changing decisions for other people to make those hard phone calls make those hard decisions and he didn't have a lot of places, or people to help them with that makes it just that much harder when you're out on your own with no lifeline when we come back more of this remarkable storytelling. Josh single-story this journey. The ups and downs and in between here on our American stores doing household chores can Artie be time-consuming and tedious. There's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done can be overwhelming for anyone. If you want to get those larger laundry loads down right and get back to your life. Try all three clear maggot packs all three clear mega packs are bigger packs two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry all three clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and their dental and skin which is great for any families sensitive skin needs my family. We definitely have sensitive skin. The next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is.

That's because this big pile of dirty clothes. All three clear maggot packs have your back purchase all three clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types so you're in the garage working on your car and you need the valves you bought last week. You look in the cabinets and on the shelves with the parts are never in the right place eBay motor says the carport you need over 122 million of them all in one place and all of the right prices find parts for everything from your classic coupe to your brand-new truck@ebay.com.

Let's ride you guys, this is Tori, and Jenny with the 90210 MG podcasts we have such a special episode brought to you by near attack ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's tentpole event windows handout. Did you know that near attack ODT were magic pant 75 mg can help migraine sufferers still such an exciting event like window tango. I had one night I took minor attack ODT. I was present and had an amazing time.

Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends.

This episode was brought to you by near attack ODT were magic pant 75 mg life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully near attack ODT were magic pant 75 mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines and adults sell lively events like window tango don't have to be next and were back with our American stories and the final portion of Josh things were when we last heard from him.

Josh was the wartime CEO of a failed videogame studio despite mounting stress. Josh did right by his employees and his outside vendors and all thanks to a few mentors from his previous employer right games in a particularly vigilant man, Adam, back to Josh a call from Adam and you know that right. He is working with a Brazilian mobile game studio called PFG. He says Josh you want to be in our director again like were looking for our directors and work for this little bowl with Morgan company in Brazil called PFG don't look them up to look at the website. The art yeah.

Turns out that this list that they needed to rebrand the needed to revamp the entire art culture and the games they made were getting on the download link billions of downloads but the art was subpar and the sort of optics around the quality of the game were subpar and so they couldn't get like editors pick on Apple Store like they couldn't but there is really no prestige.

They felt you know the game just to have that like sort of like shiny shiny sparkle like you know the best games and the app stores have not only that our team was a little bit guided and we had to rebuild it again and he wanted to build in our team very similar to like it, which was trying to be world-class creative push boundaries and and just have a lot of fun and so I was like okay interested.

You know, and so I had a phone call with their CEO and they were like yeah and you can basically you know we want you to Brazil but will work and make another studio in San Francisco you could go there or you can stay in Utah and will promote so I talked about it with my wife. You know what you think we were just coming in hi Tom is also talking like other studios like lichen, Linden, Amsterdam, and we're kind of like thinking we wanted to leave you been in St. George for three years. You know you were thinking of venture but it is where you know we are willing to relocate and were to rent out our house and then just have a fun little adventure for a couple years so they flew me out to Brazil. Do they like rolled out the red carpet helicopter went to their house of each like it was Radley definitely like we were try to get a budget and they did so we moved to São Paulo in February 2019 removed at the São Paulo Brazil. We we stayed out there and I wasn't really there, like make games.

I was there to help shape the culture of the of the art team and make games and eventually else, like okay you know I want to find a mobile in the pandemic. It and it's like March 2020 and while working from home.

I'm working from home in Brazil and Mike did. I don't need to be in Brazil working from home so I say you had back to America. I'm still at work here, but I just makes no sense for me spending so much money on private school and the kids aren't going to school and all online anyway so were and so we got on a plane and we flew back to the states, and it was so good to be back home but you know the people renting. We had just rented a house and they wanted to your lease and relocate like you like not be there tomorrow. It will give you like will pay back your down payment and even throw like a lot of money in there for you to like you don't give us a house back in there like a conical thing that you GO you know it was kind of a kind of baldy ask, but you know whatever you like homeless landlords. My mom's basement with my four kids and in this little town called Central Utah like you know dear towels and stuff like it's one thing to be doing the stuff in Brazil like a fun environment the awesome people.

Nothing to my mom's basement and left when my buddies from my again hit me up you know you like lead character artist looking for a gig is all me is only really go back to being character artist of the art director like you know what I need a break in our director for you know five years at that point that being a lead character artist sounded just fine. And so I went to this small company back in Boston called proletariat. I did work on site. Everything was off-site. Now that is the sweetest, kindest, best people with their four-year "spell break. I built a team from scratch and this was stuff that was like Scott Hardy know that they felt their makings did asks of me, but after the pressure cooker of wildlife games in Brazil and wave – games being our director like this was like easy. All I had to worry about with the characters you know in building a team and nurturing a team of life. Eight artists instead of like 20 entire entire department and and it was really really great and I love it very very much and I went left, except the blue marble games so I see there's a job posting for marble games and like all man I have a buddy who works he works at a studio called insomniac with the art director on Spider-Man Miles Mollison and Gavin Goulden old buddies from the form days right and you know again those connections in the past. The always always pay off and he's like, do these this option comes on a blue moon you should take it.

It's a great bunch of great but you guys like you fit right in and so I apply and sure enough you know it was a very long interview process, but I got to get to work at marble games as an art director actually I got on is that the position was for a lead character artist, but the Executive Vice President dining J in our interview he was a blizzard is on team four, but he was aware that he was around during those days and so we gotta talk about those those times and in the pros and the cons and he counted knew that you know I was from those days and I knew what else talking about. He was impressed with like you know where I've been and the offer was actually for an art director so they bumped me.

Okay cool. Yeah, our director marble was go. I told him you know like the hard times in 2018 and I told Jay guy we try to start a studio.

We failed. He's like everybody should try to start a studio and fail you learned so much and he was like super like I like you understood like even though like most people would look at it as like a loss like the overarching. You know, sort of life experience and the ability to pay money and stick your neck out to find a growth opportunity to act like you want pain.

Now the kind of pain that goes with growth that impressed him and the fact that I was still standing still positive and that I contextualize the stuff you know the sort of hard things that I've gone through and I contextualize it into place right side is something that help me grow it was for my benefit. I think impressed him and because you know now that marble is very self-directed is very much like a see a problem you help solve it. You know your contacts on conflict, but five different studios are working on different games and you know it's there again is their game and I'm just there as a consultant, really, and died in a friend to make sure that they all become hits and that they're the best thing that they possibly possibly to be and it takes a great amount of communication and sort of trust building because you know everything studios like to own little family like your own house you know your comes marble knocking on the door like wanting to like look in your fridge to cool right. Gotta make friends, and it's just been so weird man like every studio time. Like working without marble there is somebody there from my past that I worked with either from blizzard or from the form days I will find from iron more in the Boston days like it's just like the Muppet movie like I feel like Kermit the frog try to get from point A to point B and he needs big bird and he needs like the band like you know the guy with a gold tooth and animal on the drawings and he needs like you know celebrities all along the way the very end he needs them off like a big climactic thing they all show up because he did good deeds along the way the shop to help them. You know that here I am. You know, you know, 42 years old, sort of like in the autumn. Maybe the auto maybe the late spring of my career. Who knows you retire from video games on industry is old enough to have like people to retire from my digging ditches or anything.

My back hurts like a couple tunnel syndrome is probably the only thing that a great job by Robbie Davis on the production know what a special voice and special storyteller Josh thing is, but is humility in telling the story and running the gamut and being a good guy in any career for long enough knows being a good guy is 90% of the game and he did it all big companies, small company startups. In the end what he loves doing is creating you.

There is an art director is a character creator, but in the end it's being a part of a team in bringing to life. Another great videogame, a remarkable heart and feature of American and wildlife videogame production just saying story here on our American story.

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