Upon completing courses and graduating at the top of my class in 3D Animation & Multimedia, which was still very obscure in 1996, I struggled to find work in the tech industry. The following year a fellow student and close friend, Bob Lindenmayer, was
hired as a 3D artist at a small video game company. Big Bang Software was nearly two years into the development of a 3D version of Lode Runner for the N64… unbelievable!?! Lode Runner was quite possibly my favorite game back in the heyday of the Commodore 64. In my youth I had spent countless hours creating custom levels with the built-in “game generator” (the first ever level editor to accompany a game at release). Of course, I told Bob to keep his ears and eyes open for a chance to get me in.
A couple months later he told me that the designer had “left” and that the game had a history of design problems: A long line of designers had been through the revolving door since the company started – none panning out. The company was now juggling the budget and schedule and wasn’t even looking for a replacement. But, he also said that there was a shiny, blue Silicon Graphics rendering machine connected to a PC in the designer office. It was set – I carpooled to the office with Bob early the next morning. No one had turned on the lights (no one ever did) and Bob 
quietly walked me down the dark hall past artist’s rooms and the engineer. Robert Champagne, the engineer who was dividing his time between the tool creation, game code, testing and level creation, looked up as we walked past. “Hi” he said, “Hi” I returned and quickly slipped into the next office. “Well, good luck!” said Bob smiling, before walking out.
I figured out that incredible editor – and buggy as it was, I was completely enthralled. I went home that first night but stayed countless others. Having sold my car to fund a small film a year earlier I was at the mercy of the bus system, and I decided sleeping under my desk was easier than a three hour commute. A couple days later, after convincing the producer that I had been OK’d by Champagne, who kind of shrugged and nodded as I pleaded my case, I could finally turn on my light during business hours without fear of getting tossed out. I hadn’t actually been hired and definitely wasn’t getting paid, but I was on a creative tear… already producing levels far superior to what had been saved by 
previous designers.
One morning a week or so later, I looked up to see a Japanese man standing in the door of ‘my’ office. He appeared to be rather important. He looked at me and then at the steaming wine bottle on the desk. “It’s coffee”, I sputtered… “It really is!” “And you?” he asked. “I’m Brett…. the, uh, new level designer.” He was Scott Tsumura, the founder. He asked how long I had been sitting there, he looked at a few levels and then said he’d give me a two week temporary contract – he then told me to straighten up if at all possible; investors from Japan were stopping by. My shoe was firmly wedged in the door…