Editor’s Note: Most people find a job in the game industry by sending out resumes. Freelancer Kurtis Seid got his foot in the door racing dragon boats. His unconventional story demonstrates there’s no one right way to break into this business. -Brett
Last weekend the San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival took place at Treasure Island. The entire event was a mishmash of many Asian-Pacific cultures: Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Hawaiian, to name a few. Taiko drummers, wushu experts, and Musubi peddlers could all be within feet of each other.
But I wasn’t just there for the sights. I came to compete. Of course, being on a rookie team against national champions meant no chance of victory.
Yet losing didn’t bother me. I don’t race dragon boats for glory; I race them for nostalgia. See, dragon boats actually helped me get a job in the video game industry.
Back when I was a greasy, disgruntled high school kid, my mother figured I needed more discipline. The solution? Force me onto a semi-new dragon boat team dubbed DragonMax. Dragon boat racing was challenging, intensive, and team dependent.
DragonMax attracted many different people from across Berkeley and Oakland, mostly those looking for a traditional Asian sport. Members came and went, but one person I met briefly just happened to be a producer at Backbone Entertainment.
Today, when someone says Backbone Entertainment, you might think of hits like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. But ten years ago, when I was involved with the dragon boat team, Backbone wasn’t really a big name yet. I believe I only owned a handful of their Game Boy Advance games. It wasn’t until the creation of PSP launch title Death Jr. in 2005 that Backbone started to make their mark.
By 2007, a lot of time had passed since high school and my dragon boat days. I was about to graduate college, and, dejected about being rejected from LucasArts, I resorted to sending my resume to nearly anyone I knew. Thank the stars that the producer I had met so long ago was willing to help me.
Weeks passed after our initial conversation, and I was almost sure there was nothing for me. Then I got an email saying that my resume had reached Backbone’s parent company, Foundation 9 Entertainment. I was invited to interview for a temporary assistant position with the Business Development team. It was a long cry from my art degree, but I was willing to adjust.
The three gentlemen who interviewed me would turn into my greatest inspirations for my career. The first was Chris Charla, former Future editor in chief and co-founder of Backbone; the second was long-time producer Steven Kovensky; and third was David Chen, former Ziff-Davis editor for GMR.
The part of my interview that really stuck with me was when they asked me what my favorite game was. I told them the truth: that for years it’s been Tactics Ogre, a PS1 strategy game developed by Quest and brought to the U.S. with the help of Atlus and Artdink. The very mention of Artdink sparked a lot of memories for Chris, and he recounted his various meetings with the team. Making Chris nostalgic may have helped me, as I was working for Foundation 9 a week later.
It was both exciting and challenging, especially for someone as green as me. Yes, there was a lot of the standard “assistant” work, but the Biz Dev team didn’t let my skills go to waste. Whenever possible, I was helping with business pitches for future titles, creating UI samples in Flash, or sitting in meetings with big publishers. I helped forge ideas for ports, remakes, new IPs, and games featuring licenses such as Marvel, G.I. Joe, and even Jeff Foxworthy. A lot of times a deal could take awhile, or it’d never finalize at all. But many more times the final results surprised even me.
Almost a year and a half after departing Foundation 9, I was traipsing around the Game Developers Conference as a newbie scribe for 1UP. I tagged along with Phillip Kollar and Jade Kraus for a misadventure in Electronic Arts’ private suite. EA was primarily showcasing The Sims 3, my eyes quickly noticed G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, by none other than Foundation 9’s Backbone and Double Helix studios. Phil was professional and eagerly jotted a story for GamesRadar. However, my mind wandered: Was this the result of my old pitch?
A lot was different, though. The game was based around the movie (of course) and not the old toys/cartoon, and whatever proposed strategy was more “pew, pew, pew, shoot ’em up,” but a few elements from our old meetings still lingered. I wondered if I really had a hand in this Frankenstein. My Frankenstein?
Today, I’m dredging around as a freelance games writer. In this piss-poor economy, it’s a nightmare, and I could very well be headed for financial ruin. Fighting the bad days is an uphill battle, and it’s a major reason why I returned to dragon boat racing. It helps me forget the pain, and it’s made me healthier than ever. But more importantly, it gives me something that’s in short supply these days: hope.
I look forward to who I’ll meet next and where they will take me.