Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Young
Hi Steve, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Ever since I played the original Mario Brothers on the NES as a child, I’ve always wanted to build video games, and I remember ripping out 20 sheets of perforated pages from my parents’ dot matrix printer to sketch levels onto for games like Mario, Ninja Turtles, and more. I used to say that one day I would mail those drawings into Nintendo, so the fact that I’ve been building video games now for about 20 years makes me think the young me would be pretty happy.
I graduated from the Academy of Art University at a rapid pace to get started with my career and got my first job as a Level Designer at a studio in Colorado where I remained for about 5 years. After that I came out to Texas for another position at another game studio, before landing at Certain Affinity here in Austin for about 10 years. I loved my time there and my desire to build my own games kept growing and growing until I shipped my first mobile game a few years back, and now while I’m still processing my son’s cancer diagnosis when he was only 2 years old, I’ve been motivated to express my family’s experience in video game form based on all the trauma we went through.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My career has been on a mostly steady trajectory, but the video game industry is a roller coaster ride for any veteran. I’ve survived multiple closures, layoffs, etc, and ultimately when I became director for my favorite franchise of all time (Halo), it got ripped away from myself and my team right before we were about to ship something truly amazing that would’ve changed multiplayer gaming for the better.
My son’s cancer diagnosis was obviously a huge blow, but it also strangely accelerated my career, mainly because I stopped getting bogged down in the details and frankly started to care less about my work, but more about understanding the goals/deliverables and ensuring we were hitting those targets.
Making games on the side (in addition to making games professionally!) has always been a challenge though because of how little time I actually have to dedicate to them. Standing out in a sea of developers and amazing, innovative projects today is tough, and even more so when you have a fulltime job plus a family that you want to spend time with.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I love the creative process and building content for people, be it interactive or not. My favorite creative medium is video games, because of how disciplined and challenging it is, especially if you’re doing it on a smaller team or solo. For my time at Certain Affinity, I was known as “the Halo guy” because of my fondness for the franchise and how much I loved creating content for the multiplayer component. I’ve essentially built my career around competitive multiplayer, but I just love creating, and I also want to tell stories and build all-inclusive experiences for players to keep them both emotionally and mentally engaged.
I’m most proud of my creative approach to solving problems within my own limitations as a creator. A few years ago I would’ve been convinced that I couldn’t make an engaging Action-Adventure game with a compelling story, but leaning hard into my own strengths as a creator – those being world building, game art, and game design – has helped my find ways to fill the gaps and hopefully come up with a unique style based on my areas of focus.
Typically, likely thanks to my ADHD brain, if I’m sitting down watching a show or reading a book or hanging out with friends, deep in my brain space I’m solving some very specific problem for the project I’m actively working on. I never truly disconnect from an active project, and it’s something I try to be mindful of so that I can actually give attention to either my team at work or my family at home!
What matters most to you? Why?
I love my wife and kiddos so much, and watching them all explore their own creative outlets has been a true joy for me. I remember a while back my wife and I were walking through a hotel, I think for our anniversary, and she made some commentary about the artwork on the walls in the hallway to our room. I said something along the lines of, “someone got paid to take those photos, and any time there’s some creative process involved, it’s art.” Are any two screwdrivers the same shape? Does your lawn ever come out the same way when you mow it or the “lawn guys” come by?
Art is literally everywhere around us all the time, and what blows me away is that I think half the time some people not only don’t realize that they’re looking at art, but that they may actually be the ones creating it! My wife expressed that this meant something to her when I pointed this out, and it helped me appreciate everyone else’s creativity even more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rebound-studios.net/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-young-4438a2233/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reboundstudios8
- Other: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2470910/Evie_The_Echo_Condition/
