Greetings!

Welcome to my first post! I have been meaning to start a videogame industry-themed
blog for some time now. For various reasons, I have held off, but I must say that now is as good a time as any to get of the ground with this thing. So I might as well get started and introduce myself.

I am not one for long drawn-out introductions, so I will keep this relatively short and sweet.
My name is Ron, and I am a level artist for a major game developer working in Orange County, California. I live in Hollywood, and I have 10 years of professional game art experience to my credit. Like many of my peers, I have been all over the map studio-wise, and I have been fortunate enough to have worked on a good few well-known games in my day. A quick glance at my resume should give any industry vet an idea of who I've been working alongside during my tenure in the business, and what type of work I prefer to do.

Born and raised in Boston, I was lucky to get my foot in the door with a relatively small Sierra outfit shortly after I wrapped up art school, and it wasn't long before I'd set my sights on the land of milk and honey (Los Angeles) and packed up to see what success I could pursue out here. Well, it's been a long and exhausting, yet rewarding path - and it's a long way to go, yet.

Anyway, I sure didn't start up this journal to gush on and on about the trials and tribulations of working in the field.. that is bound to come out, but in due time. For now, I would prefer to address the matter of "why create another game developer blog?" This is simple, really - i haven't seen much of them online! For the armies of devs out there, I have only passed by a handful of honest-to-goodness gamedev blogs in my day, and of those, many are mixed in with a bunch of personal stuff. That's all well and good, but perhaps it is better to keep things straight and to the point without going on about the stuff no one cares about. At least, that's what I'd like to read from a dev's blog (anyway, I have another blog where I can ramble on about partying in LA and what's the point of life and all of that, but it won't be rearing it's head within here.. at least, unless it's pertinant to the subject matter).

And further, why is a guy like ME writing a blog like this? Again, it's simple.. sure I have a decent amount of experience, but I am really just another grunt in the game industry at the end of the day. Outside of my circle, I don't think anyone would know my name, and that gives me the perfect anonymity to tackle something like this. No one in particular cares what the everyman has to say, but they can at least relate to it, and in that vein appreciate it.

Lastly, I will be honest and say that my purpose is absolutely to raise my visibility in this field. I have been a behind-the-scenes guy for awhile, and that's fine with me.. but for my future plans, it would definitely suit me well to get a move-on with developing some kind of a voice. This is asbsolutely an easy way for me to do this. So long as I don't mess it up too badly, it ougt to serve me well.. at least provide me with an interesting experience, to say the least.

So there you have it. I have a lot more to say, but for now I will sign off and call it a night. If you're starting out with me, I am glad to have you along for the ride. If you decide that you enjoy what you're reading, please pass the website aong to your buddies and help me get some exposure. Likewise if you think I am completely full of it, you can let me know if you feel like it. Anything in between is cool too.

Until next time, then...

- Ron
ralp99@hotmail.com