Tim Lander used his Gannon degree as a stepping stone to landing his dream job as a video game producer. Graduating in 2004 with a bachelor degree in computer science, he attended graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University, studying entertainment technology. After schooling, he acquired an internship with Shaba Games, a subsidiary of Activision, and worked on gaming titles such as “GUN” and “Spiderman: Web of Shadows.” Finally, Tim was hired by Electronic Arts (EA) in their BioWare SF northern California branch as a producer.
“Having a strong computer science education was an excellent foundation, and graduation is when learning accelerates, not declines,” he explains. “Gaming is changing dramatically: it’s going online, multiplayer, micro-transaction, persistent, multi-device. It’s an excellent industry to be in.”
Tim says that the biggest misconception about video game creation is the amount of effort and skill involved in making them: it is often understated. That being said, he loves his job. “The look on kids’ faces when their parents bring them over to me and say ‘Hey, Johnny, this man makes video games,’ that’s what I love most.”
“A professor once told me, ‘The brick walls that block opportunities are there to keep others out,’” Tim recalls, “'If you want something enough, you’ll figure out a way to get over the wall.’”
(Published July 2014)