Trevor Stricker from Disco Pixel contacted me out of the blue in 2007 asking if I'd be willing to meet up while he was in Manila. He resigned from SEGA after working on NBA2K and wanted to put his royalty money to good use. He'd found my portfolio on Deviantart and thought I would be a good fit for a DS game he wanted to make. I can't remember if I was suspicious or not. This was 2007, and this kind of micro-outsourcing was still pioneering at the time. I guess I was a sucker for compliments (my kindergarten teacher once noted that I respond best to praise) and at the very least he was buying dinner, so I had nothing to lose.
It's weird the things I remember from our meeting. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Sugi. I told him he was the first Jewish person I'd ever met. He told me I was the first Filipino he met that didn't eat meat (I do eat meat, but at the time a tofu and mushroom meal sounded really good to me). We got along well enough, and towards the end of his trip he said that I was the one that really “got” his project, and he wanted to sign me on as his lead artist. I was excited and terrified at the same time. My UI job paid pretty well and in terms of salary as an artist I thought I'd pretty much peaked. Trevor promised to pay me a lot more, but that also came with the risk of his startup failing. I was 25 and had nothing to lose, so I accepted his offer.
About a year later the 2008 financial collapse happened. Disco Pixel had been talking to some publishers about funding for the game. It actually had gone as far as internal reviewing with some major publishers, but ultimately Trevor decided to fold the company for the moment and find a job. I had just lost the goose that laid the golden egg. My wife and I like to joke that “By the grace of Trevor” we were able to travel around Asia (shoutout to Cebu Pacific) and put a downpayment on a condominium. Little did I know that downpayment was going to haunt my dreams for years to come.
The experience with Trevor and Disco Pixel opened my eyes to the wider range of possibilities when it comes to a career in game development. Previously, I felt limited by my options in the Philippines. Working with Disco Pixel showed me that the internet created a whole new world of opportunities. But had Trevor not taken a chance on me, I probably would never have dared to risk going freelance in 2008.
Intermission : Learning to Freelance the hard way
After Trevor decided to take a break from being an entrepreneur, I was faced with my own major dilemma. I'd already been replaced at my old company. The game companies that were hiring at the time all paid substantially less than my previous gig with Trevor, and with monthly payments on my then newly bought condo looming, I needed to make money fast. I had a bit of runway left from my leftover savings, so I decided to try my hand at being a freelance artist. I had no idea what I was getting into.
All I had to my name was my portfolio. So for the next few months I signed up for all the internet forums with job ads I could find, looking for any job that would pay me so that I could create portfolio material. I didn't say no to anything, and ended up working on a 2D side scroller built by a man who had created website to cater to family friendly games all the way to sprites for a “Thong Girl” video game. I would literally wake up every single day looking for jobs and negotiating with clients in a singular, desperate effort to make sure I could pay for my mortgage every month. It was the white collar version of living hand to mouth, and I spent many sleepless night worrying about the inevitable drought of work.
I have to say that I was never the best artist out there. But I was willing to work hard, often for below US rates, and I'd like to think that my communication skills also helped. They certainly helped when my next big break came in the form of Zach Barth and Spacechem.
Second Big Break : Spacechem
