Andrew W

Level Designer

Bio

Andrew arrived at Gearbox from the frigid barrens of southern Wisconsin, where he had spent the last few years as a level designer at Raven Software working on the latest incarnations of Quake and Wolfenstein. He has been known to go by "KungFuSquirrel" online and was active in the Half-Life mod community prior to working professionally, most notably as a contributor of two official Natural Selection levels.

Andrew's home is a bastion of gaming goodness, with a game collection upwards of 200 titles, a wonderful wife who has beaten every Ratchet and Clank and also boasts approximately 7 level 70 WoW characters, and a 2-year-old son who has named a short plumber-looking toy "Bwabio" and cries out "ohno!" every time Daddy crashes in Burnout.

Having grown up in Nebraska, Andrew pretty much only came here to get regional broadcasts of Big XII football, and he awaits this season's imminent revenge on Brian T's Jayhawks on a fine fall day in Lincoln.

Length of time I have been employed in the industry

almost 4 years

Game companies I have worked for

Raven Software, 2004 - 2007
Gearbox Software, 2007 - the future

Titles I have worked on

Natural Selection, NanoLegends, Quake 4, Wolfenstein, Borderlands

Advice

Resources I would recommend for those interested in getting into game development (books, tutorials, sites, etc)

Mainly I'd recommend finding the toolset and documentation for one of your favorite games and diving right in. Build some maps, make a simple mod, and have some fun. Post your work to a relevant community and gather feedback, then repeat the process.

Favorites

First game I remember playing

Wolf3D and King's Quest V

All-time favorite game

Beyond Good and Evil.

Non-video gaming hobbies

Eating, sleeping, breathing, changing diapers (not mine), and wishing I had a place to set up my drum set.

Favorite bands/music

Somewhere between Rise Against, I Am Ghost, Less Than Jake, Jimmy Eat World, The Hooligans, and songs played generally fast and/or with horns.

Favorite TV shows

The Shield, Dexter, Firefly, Deadwood, The Office (US/UK), Babylon 5, Invader Zim, Family Guy, Heroes.

Favorite movies

Empire Strikes Back, Serenity, other old Star Wars, LOTR, Fight Club, Dead Alive, Evil Deads/Army of Darkness.

Favorite quote

So! All you fine dandies, so proud, so cock-sure, prancin' about with your heads full of eyeballs. Come and get me I say!

So! All you fine dandies, so proud, so cock-sure, prancin' about with your heads full of eyeballs. Come and get me I say!

Andrew's blog activity

Developer Shout-Out 1

Andrew's forum activity

Re: New video i made

Re: Gearblog: Randy on game ads

Re: Transmission: BiA Comic...

Re: Check out this cool vid!

Re: Retail game to come with...