Stargate Worlds :: Bios and Pics :: Derek Sunshine, World Builder

Derek Sunshine, from the sunshine state ... no my parents weren't hippies! It all started way back ... keep going ... ok stop ... 1983. I was born in sunny Miami, Fla. to Debra and David Sunshine. In 1988 I had my first taste at my future, the Sega Master System. Ever since then I have been a big fan of video games and the art behind it all. I have spent a good portion of my time since then drawing and dreaming about games. Whether it be at school in Mrs. Reef's class getting yelled at that I don't spend enough time on my handwriting or making my uncle draw my favorite comic and game characters just so I could try to draw my own version, it was apparent that I was just a little interested ... ok a lot interested.

Things didn't really take off until my first year of high school, for me I was actually a sophomore. Side note: I was the first graduating class from a brand new high school so they only had 9th and 10th grade. I did my 9th grade year in a middle school. I was asked by the school's network administrator if I would be interested in partaking in a program for students with advanced computer skills. Needless to say I said "uh ... yeah!" so for three years I gave my two elective classes to managing a very large network. I was surprised to find out my senior year that I was at risk of not graduating because I needed to have a fine art class. Funny, I love to draw. So I took photography ha ha. I had an awesome teacher by the name of Mr. Webber. He really pushed me in the direction of digital art and photo manipulation. During that year I had photographs and digital pieces in several shows as well as an original photo placed on a plaque for an award to the famous Colony Hotel in south beach Florida.

Halfway through my senior year I was hired at a small company called Strategic Alliance Partners as a graphic artist. I was doing advertising specialties like art for hats, mugs, t-shirts, mouse pads, bumper stickers and anything else you could put a logo on. The company at that point consisted of a whopping two people, me and one the greatest people and bosses I have ever had -- Gary A. Barron.

After graduating high school I was very unsure as to what I wanted to do, as most people are. I attended Broward Community College with the thought that I would just take general classes until I figured out what exactly I wanted to do. I completed one semester then transferred to The Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale (AiFL) for animation. I later transferred my degree to graphic design, I figured since by this point I had been doing graphic design professionally for about two years I might as well get my 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of textured paper that says I'm pretty good at it.

At this point I also met one of the most influential people in my entire life, Nikol Stein. We shared the same distaste for our 2D animation classes and both had quite a bit of experience in graphic design. She is my soul mate and my teammate. About six months after we had been knee deep in graphic design AiFL opened a new program called Game Art & Design (GAD). But it wasn't that easy. Since I had been at AiFL for two years at this point they didn't have the classes nor the teachers to support students at my level. I was patient and I waited. We both switched over as soon as we could to GAD, although she did finish her graphic design degree and I opted to not spend the extra time and student loans on it.

At AiFL I had the honor and pleasure to have one of the greatest teachers I have ever known. My level design teacher, Todd Emma, is mostly responsible for my decision to pursue a career as a world builder/level designer. Todd assigned projects like "take these blueprints and convert them into unreal units and build the house in game" and "build a single room at the highest quality you can to showcase skill," and these are what made me respect things such as Binary Space Partitioning and grid snapping. In December of 2006, Nikol and I presented a portfolio and demo reel that we had spent the past eight months working on. We won best portfolio for that quarter in GAD and needless to say we graduated.

During my time at AiFL, remember that small company I was working for? Well, we moved away from advertising specialties and moved into the ice cream business. We formed a new company called SheerBliss Ice Cream. Yes... it's that good! The only ice cream in a metal can, the only ice cream that makes flavors such as Pomegranate with Dark Chocolate Chips, the only ice cream that was a finalist in the fancy food show for its package design. Did I mention that I was the graphic designer? The can was also featured on the February 2006 Packaging Digest magazines front cover. I worked on and created from scratch the entire corporate package. To this day you will find SheerBliss Ice Cream in stores around the US.

About three months prior to graduating I was speaking with some guy named Josh Kurtz who worked on some game called World of Warcraft and who was now working on some game called Stargate Worlds. We kept in contact, meaning, I sent him about 800 emails between then and December with updates to my demo reel and so on. Just a tip to those who are interested in the game industry: research companies and research the people who work there -- it helps! December 20-something 2006 I moved across the country from my home to even sunnier and WAYYY hotter Phoenix Arizona. January 2, 2007 was my first day at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment working on Stargate Worlds. Since then I have watched and enjoyed every episode of SG-1. The Ori are cool, but the Goa'uld are way cooler!

I now have been working on Stargate Worlds for almost a year. I'm working with some of the most talented people I have ever met with a collective experience that is unimaginable. I am a part of one of the greatest world building teams the industry could possibly offer. I feel honored to be here and well after Stargate Worlds goes gold and is on the shelves, I can't wait to see you all in-game!

With llama love,

"Bizarro Derek" Sunshine