Richard Cook

Who am I? I'm Spid.. wait no, I'm Richard James Cook.

I'm a game designer, filmmaker, musician, and all around decent guy. I was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas and spent a considerable amount of time in Orlando, Florida during my life, and am currently residing in Austin, Texas. I love to create, and I love to try new things.

My interests in the gaming field began like many others when I got my hands on my first NES system. Some of my favorite games were Mega Man 2, Kirby's Adventure, Crash N' the Boys Street Challenge, and of course Super Mario Bros. 3. I always found myself sketching and drawing action and sci-fi hero types, always in awe over some of the amazing artwork displayed in games and comics. As consoles and PC's evolved, I also found myself fascinated with technology and was often deconstructing many 3D games, attempting to figure out how they were built and created.

In 2003, I attended Full Sail University for Computer Animation, and after leaving, continued as a 3D artist. I also adapted game design and philosophy during my endeavors, and eventually went on to head an unfortunately unreleased 2D sidescroller project in 2012. During this time, I also became fascinated with film production and started my first documentary. Pixels and Polygons: An Indie Game Developer Story released in June 2013, and served as a learning experience for me. Driven by my evolving creativity, I began production on Pixel Poetry in October 2013.

It's often surprising to people when they meet me, because I'm so soft spoken and reserved. I maintain that I am a humble person, and want to stay that way because I want to help everyone I meet in whatever way I can. Through my Gamestar Arts YouTube channel, I have managed to achieve that in some success by releasing free, full introductory tutorials, and providing several advice videos for aspiring developers.

As my career continues, I hope to be able to keep providing support for the many people who have been and are still in a situation where they may feel hopeless or unable to move forward. I want to bring these people in and let them know that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and that creativity is a strong and wonderful thing.

Currently, I am studying under industry veteran Warren Spector(Deus Ex, System Shock) at The University of Texas at Austin, and planting the seeds for a new game project to be revealed early next year.

If you would like to follow my journey, you can do so here - twitter.com/RichardCook1985