Secret Level

Sega

Play Video
when Marvel calls....

My freelance career was going very slow in 2008. I had just moved in with my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I needed stability. I was 3 years out of school, but only had a little experience. I was good enough for small gigs, but was having a very hard time finding full time work with benefits. I saw a job on a forum called CG talk. It was at a company called Secret Level, owned by Sega. I applied online and the very next day I got a call for an interview. After about 15 min into the interview, I realized I was way in over my head. Somehow, despite my lack of confidence, I was hired. I signed an NDA and the first project I was to work on was Ironman. Things were looking up.

pyromaniac

I was hired as a Lead FX artist. Th role required me to become efficient with the company’s proprietary dynamic simulation software “Uber-Particles”. It was super flexible for what it was…. a spreadsheet-based particle system with a small and archaic UI. It featured the utilization of spherical harmonic textures, and all the bells and whistles you would expect from a particle simulator. With this I would go on to design Ironman's various “repulsor” rays, and “uni-beam”, as well as all of the smoke, lasers, contrails, explosions, flame thrower weapons, gunfire, and missile trails in the game. All of these effects connected with various environmental and lighting effects. It was a blast….sorry, I had to. Later on I would, help edit, composite and assemble all of the various in-game cinematics. The ask was much more advanced that the tech limitations of the game engine, so we had to make everything as AVI files, that would trigger upon a satisfied chapter point in the game.

Parents strongly advised

After Ironman released, and I had a nice long break, I started on the next project: Golden Axe – Beast Rider. It was a sequel to the side scrolling 1989 action game. It featured full 3d graphics, a pretty cool combat system, and the ability to ride any creature you found in the game, if they let you. It was bloody and brutal for its time. My first job was to create the loading screen. Working with a small team, we created a massive field of human skulls, with a couple bodies stuck on spikes. I took this still render, and comped it up with a scary dark time-lapse sky and added creepy details like swarms of flies to the corpses. Yes…parental guidance was advised…heavily.

more FX

I was then put back on FX work. I created all of the blood effects, fire and smoke, power ups, special attacks. The largest of which involved summoning a giant undead dragon which literally nuked everything on screen that wasn’t friendly.

happiness is a warm puppy

Ironman released with very middle of the road reviews. It did however sell 2.6 million copies, and regardless, I was very proud of the work I did. It was a fun (if exhausting experience). Robert Downy Jr sent us a personal video stating that if we “f@#ked this game up, he was gonna come after us crazier than a dog with two d@#ks”. I'm not sure if he liked the game, but I did indeed NOT get attacked by a double penis-ed canine, so I guess we did OK. Golden Axe faired far worse. In fairness, we were building a new game engine while we were developing the game, which was kinda insane. Talk about building the car while racing… Secret Level was a great company with good people, and I very much miss my time there.