I’ll skip any prologue concerning my headfirst arrival into the middle of the 1970s, avoid details about my primary and secondary school educational, and just briefly mention that I spent 2 years at Art College doing an OND in graphic design, and 2 years at university doing an HND in Film and Television design. Having just condensed 22 years of my life into a couple of dismissive lines, I'll also quickly thumb through the next chapter which saw me leave Uni and start up my own business as a designer/illustrator. Despite several years of "moderate" success, I only ever fiscally trod water. So, after 4 years of empire building, I decided that the time had come for me to seek out new pastures where I could swing my proverbial creative udders.

It was at this point (2001) that I interviewed at and joined Leeds-based games company "The Code Monkeys", working and living in this fine city for 2 years. It was a startling introduction to the industry, demonstrating both very low pay and periods of very long hours. However I found myself covering many disciplines whilst there, learning and adapting as I went ... there was little time for standing around, and you had to think on your feet.

I started out on a Gameboy Advance title called Xbladez, and then moved into the latter stages of production on Simpsons Skateboarding, where I covered UI and loading screens, in-game textures, prop destruction animations and level establishing cameras. Once this title was finished, I found myself doing various other tasks until the company transferred all of its resources onto a troubled title called Neopets. This game was no easy ride and didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. Working hours began to stretch to 4am, staff grew tired, disillusioned and baggy around the eyes, and it soon became very apparent that both the game and company were in dire straits.

Despite several attempts to rouse moral, a pale-faced boss turned up one afternoon, told us to turn off our PCs and go home, thus demonstrating how dire the straits had finally become. Neopets which had started out as a PS2 title, then dropped to a PS1 title, had finally been dropped altogether. Now many staff, including myself, were surplus to requirement and so, after a small apologetic chat, we were given the proverbial boot up the bum.

Faced with this sudden about in my employment situation, I could be forgiven for wallowing in self-pity. But I was armed with the knowledge that it'd be pointless to rest on my laurels, and hardy constitutions win the day. So I applied myself to the task of applying for jobs and, thankfully, it was only a couple of months later that I found myself being interviewed in the modest offices of the Warrington-based company, Juice Games. A second interview later saw me bidding farewell to Leeds and returning to the North West to start afresh in early 2004.

My initial responsibility at this new company was squeezing artwork into mobile phone games ... no mean task considering the limitations of the time. But, after nearly 12 months of pixel crunching, an opportunity arose to help tackle the UI on the follow up to Juiced, and I jumped at it. A very involved 2 years followed as we designed, redesigned and designed the UI again for Juiced 2. When the American car show "Hot Import Nights" jumped on board it pushed the design into new and interesting territories.

Following Juiced 2, I was offered a chance at designing the UI for a new flight sim game called Stormbirds. In addition to this, I would also be involved in testing and assisting in the development of an in-house UI tool. I found this both an interesting and challenging period, as it was quite a juggle designing the game UI and implementing it using fledgling software. But I nevertheless enjoyed myself as a beta team member, on the secondary project, which we hoped would be an addictive multiplayer arcade style flight sim.

THQ, however, started to have differing ideas for this game, convinced as they were that the secret to success had less to do with the fight in your flight, and more about the size of your bombers. Suddenly it was becoming apparent that Stormbirds was mutating from a sleek arcade flight-sim, into an awkward post apocalyptic, giganta-hovership "shoot 'em up", which was all elbows. Life can sometimes be like a cold hand beneath the duvet, inflicting a sudden and unexpected surprise! And so it was, on a chilly Monday in November, that the unscheduled arrival of an emotional looking company boss, an ashen-faced team lead and a woman I'd not seen before, sporting an H.R badge, saw my Juice Games career take a notable downward turn. Yes, Stormbirds was for the chop, as were all working on it. After 4 years ensconced at Juice Games, I was now out on my ear, which I needed to keep pressed to the ground, which I had to hit running, by putting my best foot forward, if I wanted to stay one step ahead in this race.

Thankfully a job interview 2 days later catapulted me into the ranks of Travellers’ Tales, or more specifically, TT-Fusion. What followed was a continuous roll of video game credits, predominantly for the LEGO franchise. From Rock Band to Star Wars, Harry Potter and the massive LEGO City Undercover, the subject matter was ever changing and never boring.

Then in late 2013, just after I'd finished with LEGO City, TT decided that they wanted to hire some more UI artists to fill out the ranks, and stated that they wanted me to captain that ship. A little hesitantly I agreed and within the month had two members on "my" UI team. Two became three after I was given a junior ... then three swiftly became six as I inherited the concept art team under my remit as well. This situation lasted until 2018, when Tt suddenly decided to merge the UI team from the Knutsford office with the Wilmslow team. This was due to the fact that the Knutsford office were impressed with our approach to UI and wanted a slice of the action. This decision led to there being 7 staff on 3 projects across 2 sites lead by 1 lead ... that lead being me!

During my time as lead I found myself dealing with more than just games responsibilities. I was also tasked with doing a huge piece of office wall art, creating company anniversary t-shirts and mugs. In 2017, I was included in a team which was tasked with looking into a new company engine, taking responsibility for the UI requirements side.

And then in early 2019, after being presented with just 3 powerpoint slides, I was tasked with creating a video to help promote the formation of a new R&D department called AIM. So, I single-handley wrote and narrated the script, selected and edited a piece of music, illustrated, animated and edited the entire piece ... in a month.

In November 2020 I transferred over to this team and, at time of writing this self-indulgent monologue, that is where you'll currently find me. Like all in this creative profession, we prefer it for people to say that our art is our strongest point, and not our breath. So a return to a more creative role was welcome fare as, although I enjoyed leading a team of talented people, it's nice to get my hands dirty again!

If you're still reading this, then well done! The last person who was this attentive towards my personal situation wrote a prescription and said things should clear up after a week. Below you'll find a list of all the games I've worked on in my time in the games industry.