Some 16 or so years ago, I received my first T rated game, and my mother threw a fit, because there was blood in it. A kid named Blake gave it to me, and his mother convinced mine that it taught history, and that was the grounds by which I kept it. That game was Age of Empires II, which is still one of my favorite games of all time, and it led me to the path of Age of Mythology and later strategy games. 

Naturally, when I was given the opportunity to work on one of the games that I had spent hundreds of hours playing in my childhood, I jumped at the opportunity! I got to work for Forgotten Empires as an Environment Artist and Level Designer, doing everything from designing and modeling buildings to painting terrain in the environment to handcrafting the final levels of the campaign. 

Of course, designing and developing for an engine built in 2002, when I was a mere 9 years old, has it's own unique challenges to overcome. I was taught to build in a low poly style, but in order to match the style we're talking about building with lower visual fidelity than current mobile experiences. This ultimately pushed me to be a better modeler than I was before, and allowed for some interesting studies in style replication.

It was a fantastic experience to work with such a talented international team of designers and developers, and I look forward to similar collaborations in the future.