About Me:

I've played games my entire life and have worked in the industry since late 2005. My favorite video games are (in no particular order!): The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, Everquest, Super Smash Brothers, SimCity, Portal, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Kirby's Avalanche, Kirby's Adventure, Theme Park, World of Warcraft, and Oregon Trail, where I once died of cholera a few miles from the end of the trail.

I love all forms of art, and I am always sketching, painting, modeling, or simply observing. I put my best effort into everything I do, whether it's a painting, a level design, or a proposal document.  I love all aspects of game design and I find it hard to classify myself as strictly a designer or an artist.  In fact, I think they are very similar disciplines and are too interwoven to be independent of one another.

Why video games?

The only thing I've done as long as draw is play video games. I've played since my early, early childhood starting with my beloved IBM computer and NES console somewhere in the mid 1980s. Before I was old enough to read the instructions, I was building empires in the original Sim City and spending hours stomping Goombas in Super Mario Bros. Gaming was a prominent and very fondly remembered part of my childhood, second only to drawing. I drew endlessly, possibly to the point of worrying those around me, particularly elementary school teachers!. ;)

As I got older, I became interested in the behind-the-scenes workings of games themselves. I would dissect and explore the games I owned, trying to break them or find hidden evidence of the people who created them. My favorite thing to do was to replace the existing textures with my own. I turned Sims and Quake models into my own characters, who rather than shooting other players instead put on a fashion show of clothing and armor that I designed myself in a paint program. Even though I had no idea at the time why the character textures were flat, or why the faces looked as funny and as stretched as they did, I knew how they worked and how to change them to just about anything I could dream up.

After completing my studies for my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Art & Design, I've learned why game textures look all funny and flattened out, and, better yet, I've learned how to unwrap my own models and apply my own textures to them. I've also learned how much hard work goes into creating games, and how exciting and challenging they can be. Now, more than ever, my mission is clear - I must make games!

For contact, questions, and to request samples/reels, please do not hesitate to contact me - I love email!

Contact me at:
mandi@majoh.com
Artwork and site contents are © Mandi Johnson.