Stargate Worlds :: Bios and Pics :: Nick Heitzman, Assistant Art Director

Nick Heitzman, Assistant Art Director

Lets see, as I try and connect the dots that bring me to where I am today, I realize it has been an amazing journey.

Once upon a time, I was an Intelligence Specialist serving with the Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet in an intelligence analysis role. I was stationed on a ship whose home port was near Tokyo, Japan, and I was fortunate enough to travel all over the Orient, from Thailand, to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Australia, etc., etc. My life was wonderful, and I absolutely loved Japan, vowing to return someday even as I was sent to my next assignment for the Secretary of Defense, all the way to the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

While at the Pentagon, I began expanding my artistic talent. That talent had developed as I created elaborate briefing maps and classified illustrations, now I was using my art to create Japanese Comics with Japanese artists living in New York. They would draw the characters, and I would fill in the environments and backdrops. This was an amazing amount of fun.

My dabbling in manga creation only further stirred my desire to return to Japan. So after my career with the Navy was complete, I packed everything up and headed to Tokyo to seek my fortune. That fortune was discovered, even as I worked around the clock on freelance illustrations and art for various Japanese magazines - in the form of a tiny ad in the Japan Times, asking "Do You Want To Work On Videogames?" I thought, 'oh yeah, that sounds fun', and began a multi-part interview process which eventually landed me a job at SEGA Enterprises' Arcade Game Division. Working on such incredible arcade games as Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop, Daytona USA ... I look back at the sheer luck and good fortune to have been able to see these games take shape, and see firsthand the genius that SEGA embodied back then.

Alas, I became homesick for the United States eventually, and returned to Washington State where my family lived, to reintegrate into English speaking society. Unknown to me at the time, an actual game industry had developed in that area thanks to Nintendo and Microsoft. I put my skills learned at SEGA to use at Boss Games Studios on Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 titles, Microsoft Games Studios on Combat Flight Simulator v1.0, Cavedog Entertainment on Good & Evil and Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, as well as Surreal Software's PS2 Drakan game.

While at Surreal, I was offered the chance to work on EverQuest franchise MMO games at Sony Online Entertainment, and had four amazingly great years creating art for online titles in sunny San Diego. Working at SOE was definitely a high point, with some of the greatest coworkers I've had the pleasure of making games with so far. Unfortunately, my mother fell ill and passed away, and I wanted to be close to my father and family, so once more to Washington State I went.

This time I had the privilege of working at Gas Powered Games - first creating lush, expansive environments for Dungeon Siege II, and later as the lead artist working on the upcoming strategy title Supreme Commander. I can't say enough good things about my time at GPG, and I had every intention of working on games there forever ... until ...

... The opportunity appeared unexpectedly, to work on a game based on one of my all time favorite sci-fi shows and movie ever. Stargate.

No one at Gas Powered Games could fault the chance to be a part of Stargate Worlds. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment flew my wife and me out to beautiful Arizona, and thanks to almost 200 straight days of rain in Seattle, she was totally open to the idea of year-round sun and warmth.

That brings me to the present and how lucky I am to be the assistant art director on Stargate Worlds; working with our art director, acclaimed illustrator Howard Lyon, to bring our worlds and characters to life. We have an incredibly talented team of artists, engineers and designers devoted to the sole goal of creating the universe of Stargate for thousands to enjoy ... and the future looks brighter and brighter each day!

I am really enjoying this amazing journey!

Nick Heitzman