My name is Ethan Michaels. I’m a 24 year old Producer and Game Designer living in Los Angeles California. I’ve had a lifelong love for games and play, but my path into the games industry has taken me through a lot of winding tangents.
My whole life, I’ve loved fantasy. My mother is an author, and taught me and my brother how exciting a good book can be. I have some really fond memories of sitting on our living room couch—a blanket pulled all the way up over my head—daydreaming about magic and armor and strange landscapes. I still love a good fantasy novel, but that taste for wonder and excitement led me to other forms of play.
Me and my brother first discovered games as a medium when we were quite young, maybe 6 or 7. By middle school, we would fight for turns on our parent’s old crappy laptop, a sand timer strictly counting down till each turn was up. Those games struck at something deep in me. You can “play” a book in your daydreams, but I found moving the story myself much more exciting.
I fell into studying game design in college, and my passion quickly became a vocation. If playing was reading, designing was writing. There was joy in creating what I’d already learned to love. Above all, I enjoyed collaborating others, especially when I could produce and direct. There’s magic in taking a group of talented people and helping focus and support the vision for the project. Little tweaks that steer the ship in the right direction.
Besides making games, I enjoy baking, singing, disc golf, and picking up too many new hobbies. I’m currently trying out kickball, which makes me feel young in way I don’t think is totally healthy for a 24 year old. I cannot whistle.