Hi guys,
I found this site while browsing for digital cartography artists. I have a board game that needs some awesome high-end digital cartography, and lo and behold I find there is a whole guild about that! lol Woot.
So about me...
My first introduction to gaming was with the Pokemon TCG back in 1999, which was closely followed by a ton of other CCGs that are no longer with us, culminating in an 8 year passion for Magic: The Gathering.
I put 30,000 hours into World of Warcraft over a 10-year period, which saw such highs as my arena partners winning the inaugural Blizzcon tournament, tripping nearly every breaker in my house due to a 17 computer LAN raid event, and more. I followed that life into a stint as a professional Hearthstone gamer and article writer.
My eye transferred from digital back to analog board games back in 2015, when I gave up video games to be a better daddy to my two daughters… I had to find a creative outlet for the nerd inside me, and so I began to design board games in addition to playing them. My finest work is Deliverance, a “Christian Fantasy” dungeon crawler that I think will make waves when the time comes!
During all this, I decided to abandon my Firefighter career path and pursue selling websites. This led me to eventually start my own digital marketing agency called Next Level Web, which I still run to this day!
I recently found a fun way to combine my passions for digital marketing and board games by offering marketing services for Kickstarter creators, and we just surpassed $1M in funding for creators this month with the launch of Ascension Tactics! I’m looking forward to launching my own game down the road, but it feels great to help creators achieve their dreams too.
About two years ago, I started a thread in the Board Game Design forum to help other board game designers that encountered problems with actionable feedback. That thread has seen widespread involvement from the board game design community, and has helped many designers overcome obstacles in their design efforts.
I also coordinate the San Diego Board Game Design community, which (during normal times) meets regularly to play test games and host UnPub events at local conventions.
Oddly enough, what keeps me sane during all of this is my love for combat sports, beginning with Karate at the age of 7, wrestling at 14, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at the age of 23 where I currently hold the rank of 3-stripe Brown Belt. If I have a tough day, I just put everything I have into the gym.
I also serve in the board game space through Love Thy Nerd, a fantastic nerdy outreach ministry that combines my love of nerdy things with my love for Jesus. I have five daughters under the age of 8 and, as you might imagine, the most patient and loving wife of all time.