In high school, I had played a lot of Lucasfilm  games. They were called Lucasfilm Games at the  

time. Ball Blazer, Rescue on Fractalus!, the  Eidolon. They were way ahead of their time because  

they were on the Atari 800, but they used fractals  to make procedurally generated landscapes. Super  

cool. And then I went to college and I got my CS  degree and I didn't know, I thought I was going to  

be a database programmer. I didn't think it was  possible to work in games. I had no imagination  

for like who made games. I thought they're  just scientists and lab coats or something.  

Then in the Berkeley Career Center, I saw this job  listing for Lucasfilm Games. We need programmers  

who can also write dialogue to be this assistant  designer/programmer. They didn't tell me at the  

time the job was actually called Scummlet.  Scummlet. Little piece of scum. [laughter]  

So I applied and I got a phone call from David  Fox and he said, "Tell me uh of the games of ours  

that you played." And I was like, "Oh, I played uh  you know, Rescue on Fractalus! and the Eidolon and  

Ball Blaster." And he goes, "Ball Blaster? Huh?"  I was like, "Yeah." He was like, "Ball Blaster's  

what Ballblazer was called  when it was pirated." Oh jeez.  

I did have a big disc of pirated Atari and Lucas  Arts games when I was in high school. Not proud,  

but it's all I could afford. And so I was like,  "Oh, uh that's interesting." He goes, "Uh well,  

why don't you just send in your application anyway  and use a cover letter to describe your ideal  

job?" And I was like, "Oh god, I've lost this job.  I can't believe I lost this perfect job for me.  

But I had my Atari 800 still and I had this  thing called a Koala pad and I drew pictures  

and I made this illustrated text adventure game or  like a simulated one on a piece of paper that was  

my quest to find the ideal job and it was like  me trying to work in like the aerospace industry  

or something and just bombing out and then finding  this lovely ranch with all these smiling faces and  

getting a job there and getting like 100 points.  At adventure games you don't really get 100  

points. I mean, I guess that application got their  attention and I got an interview and got the job.  

Turned out to be my dream job and it was  amazing, amazing how that worked out.