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Today is a wild day, as it marks the end of a major chapter in my life and the beginning of a new one.
Last Friday, June 4th, was my last day at Privateer Press. Today, I begin my new position as Lead Game Designer at a different company. There’s a lot of excitement about this new opportunity I want to share, and I will soon, but first I want to share a few things regarding my time at Privateer.
I began playing Warmachine back in the mid 2000s, right at the launch of Escalation. Our playgroup was immediately hooked, and from that moment Warmachine and Privateer Press came to be a defining factor in the trajectory of my life. Just playing the game wasn’t enough for me, no, I was obsessively compelled to make sure I spread the joy of this game to everyone and anyone I could reach, and so I became a Press Ganger.
During this time as a player and a PG, I met so many friends that are still with me today. People that have become permanent fixtures in my life. Little did I know at that time that this growing social circle would soon expand exponentially due to the next move I would make in my career.
My love for Warmachine and its community, and my passion for gaming drove me to seek a career at Privateer. I was lucky enough to get that opportunity. Over a decade ago, I moved my entire life up to Seattle and began my first days at Privateer, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I found myself in a position to no longer serve only my local gaming community, but a global one instead. This is what has always driven me in my career, it is the reason I am a game designer: I like making fun things for people.
I have learned so much at Privateer from so many talented people, many of whom I call close friends. I feel like there’s simply too many people to mention by name, as I’ve been there so long and I don’t want to leave anyone out.
I’ve had some truly amazing mentors at Privateer, and I’ve learned so much about game design, community, communication, writing, art, and the industry as a whole thanks to everyone there (past and present). I’m very lucky they gave me a chance, and I can only hope that I repaid them in kind over the years.
Thanks to Privateer and everyone there I’ve achieved the lifelong career dream of becoming a professional game designer, something that I will continue to do for as long as I’m capable.
Then there’s the community of players itself, those beautiful lunatics. I have never been embraced so quickly and so strongly by a group of “strangers” in my life. While my professional talents were honed by the mentors I had at the company, my passion for this industry was increased tenfold by the players as their endless enthusiasm reverberated with mine.
I’ve never felt like just a game designer thanks to the community. I’ve always felt like I was still that Press Ganger back in Louisiana, still playing the game and showing it off to everyone I could. Everyday at work, every decision I made, I always had the community in mind, always trying to figure out what would make people have fun.
Privateer, both the people behind the scenes and its players, have always been good to me. I truly hope that I shared that love and respect back with everyone, to show how deeply grateful I am. All I can say, is simply, thank you to everyone for the last decade. You’ve made my life better.
With that said, the time has come to move to a different opportunity. I’m sure this is going to be a shock to some folks, and I don’t intend to go into the personal details behind why I decided to make this change. I just want to assure you all that my leaving has been on positive terms, and that your favorite Privateer games are in the hands of some incredibly talented individuals.
As for what’s next for me, I’ll be discussing more details on that soon. I’m very excited about what the future holds and look forward to sharing it all with you very soon.