cover letter

Hi Dean/HR person,

I'm an artist based in Dunedin, just completed a bachelor of visual arts honours. I technically majored in painting, though ended up exploring a lot of mediums, including sculpture and digital.

I have experience in many areas related to game art/ design including 3d modeling (Sculptris, Sketchup), Pixel art and Photoshop, and scripting (Stencyl, Twine, RPGmaker 2000)

Last year my primary focus was on developing the skills (and equipment) to CNC mill complex freestanding figures.

In 2013 part of my output included a large randomised digital projection (scripted in Stencyl) onto a painted canvas. An experimental attempt to achieve the effects claimed by the early 20th century, Havelock North based, magical order Stella Matutina in their underground meditation chamber.

Other projects while at art school include a ceramic board-game, A card game, and some experimentation with augmented reality and adventure games (once again in Stencyl).

I've been a gamer on and off my whole life with an interest in traditional RPGs (DND, Fighting Fantasy, Gurps etc.) and wargaming as well as video games from the Apple ][ through to the PS3. To keep it concise I'm fairly intimate with the catalogs of mastersystem, megadrive, snes, psx, xbox, ps2, gameboy, GBA and NDS.

Favourite games include Jagged alliance 2, the original Fallout, Final Fantasy 7 and the first Metal Gear Solid. In terms of recent-ish indie stuff I've enjoy'd Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Norrland and Sabbat: Director's kvt.

Basically my personal tastes run toward single player non-linear narrative (or at least providing the illusion of player freedom).

Member of the gaming world/ salt world online community for over a decade which the creators of barkley shut up and jam gaiden and hotline miami emerged from.

Interests outside of gaming and art include New Zealand history, ancient history and mythology, architecture, WWI, social history and product design between the wars, music (rap, alternative, electronic, psychedelic folk) as well as investigating the works of marginalised eccentrics (artists, software/game designers, occultists and amateur philosophers).

This year I am going to be doing a graduate diploma in design (print) with the hopes of acquiring the skills to publish highly crafted small run editions of original and out of copyright (overlooked and forgotten) material.

Personal game design dream: custom designed arcade games running through 1930's oscilloscopes.