I am delighted to be a game developer working in the Bellevue, WA US area.
After earning my BFA in production animation at DigiPen in 2008, I interned in the cinematic dept. at Airtight Games on a capcom title Dark Void. Later I joined up with ArenaNet Inc.,an NCsoft Corporation subsidiary, where we shipped Guild Wars 2. It was gratifying to work on this title from near start to finish, and to support it with live content after launch so early in my career. It was fortunate to gain such a thorough window into a full production cycle, and I really enjoy seeing things to completion. It's better still to see them thrive and grow thereafter!
I've since gone on to work at Motiga Inc. where we incubated and developed a stylish PVP 3P Moba called Gigantic, ArenaNet again, this time on incubation projects, and further incubation and early production at Probably Monsters/Cauldron Studios. As time has gone on my responsibilities have drifted into technical animation and blueprint scripting in engine as well as management and production planning.
I find great satisfaction gathering knowledge and solving problems whether technical, feel of play or aesthetic. It's important to remain adaptable, and prepared to evolve personally and professionally as circumstances require, even within a single product cycle. It's critical to build respectful working relationships with colleagues, to punctuate folks' challenging work with recognition and compliments (in victories small or large), and to support them wherever possible. Everyone is learning new things all the time. Be a coach and a guide. We all share the fierce desire to create memorable experiences and delight for our players, and what we do is often not easy, or is required within contexts that aren't always ideal. It is fortunate that we should be living now, working in this field, with its rapidly expanding possibilities.
It's been a privilege to develop games alongside extremely talented, friendly people who care deeply about their players and each other. For this, I feel very fortunate.
Lets remember to help one another find satisfaction as we stack up day to day victories, building each other up as we build our products, because making a game; particularly from inception, can be a perilous road with many setbacks.
Specialties: Animation, Technical Animation and Gameplay Feel / Management and Ideation Process / Systems Design sensibility / Blueprint Scripting, Prototyping and Feel Tuning
I very much enjoy prototyping my own game projects in my spare time using Unreal Engine via blueprint scripting.
It is a powerful thing to engage with gamers in our medium. We get the opportunity to evoke emotions through our interactive art, and see our efforts pay off. We can share in their in game adversities on Twitch or YouTube. Their moments of play should resonate long after they've moved on to other things, and congeal into fond memories of the times they chose to spend with us.
Benjamin Freedman
BenFreedmanArt@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfreedman