The purpose of this website is to act as both my personal art portfolio, as well as my personal resume site as I pursue a career in the entertainment software industry.
Resume and Demo reel will be available for download here very soon.
This is me and my wife, Stefanie.
Drew Robert Clark: Future Executive Producer of entertainment software.
When I was in fifth grade, way back in 1987, I went down to Miami to visit my cousins. It was at the house of my cousin's best friend that I played a game called "The Legend of Zelda" for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was then I realized, I really loved video games.
Before that, I had a commodore64 computer which I loved and had many many games for. But, most of these games could be a frustrating experience just trying to get them to load. I even began to write a game using a book I had purchased and I can't remember if I finished it or not, but it was a downhill skiing game using ASCII graphics that did somewhat work. But it had still never occurred to me that people out there were making a living by creating the games that I loved to play.
Then came the Nintendo Entertainment System and "The Legend of Zelda". This game opened my eyes to the incredible potential that games had to tell a story and immerse a player in world that was part the storyteller's and part the imagination of the player. But it had still never occurred to me that people out there were making a living by creating the games that I loved to play.
As my best friend put it: "I just always thought that games were made by a bunch of little elves locked in a closet somewhere. I never thought, until just recently, hey, I've always wanted to do that too."
13 years and thousands of games later, it finally occurred to me that people out there make their living by creating the games that I love to play. So, I went to college in order to become a producer of video games. And, I finally graduated in 2002 from Cedarville University with a degree in multimedia production and a minor in art. I studied all aspects of production, from radio and broadcasting, to TV and film, to marketing, cultural and foreign studies, design and communication, even some programming, though I am very bad at that. I have also studied the art of Tae Kwon Do for almost 12 years now and I hold a second degree black belt. I also taught Tae Kwon Do at Cedarville and over the course of my time there, had close to 300 students. I never lost sight of my goal, which was to prepare myself to produce great video games and now I have that glorious piece of paper declaring me "an educated individual".
I now embark on a journey that I believe will lead me to my life's dream (well, at least my life's dream since 5th grade. Before that I think I wanted to be an astronaut, or maybe a caterpillar) - and that dream is to create games that I would love to play.
It was at Cedarville that I met several talented individuals who shared my dream of one day creating games that could capture and inspire the imaginations of players the way our favorite games had done to us. Thus, Reactor Interactive L.L.C. was born. Our purpose was to create games that we would love to play. Not just satisfy a particular market or create a certain niche, we wanted the games that we created to be games that we would love to play ourselves. We wanted to put the focus of our games back on gameplay, and most of all, fun factor. We believe, that no matter what kind of production values go into a game, if it isn't fun to play, the game is a failure.
It is with this belief that we began to create our first title, Sector13. Though many people have come and gone, Sector 13 is still alive and well, and progressing quite well due to the fantastic team of talented people I now get to work with, who are sharing this dream with me and working to see it be the best it can be.
For my day job, to pay the bills and take care of the wife and son, I work as a manager in the technology department of a major financial institution. Even this I see as a chance to grow my skills to help me reach my dream of producing the games I love to play. I spend a huge amount of time working on how to better manage people, grow my leadership skills, and how to inspire and motivate talented people to grow as better people for having worked with me. I am actively training in the Gallup Strength Finders program, the John Maxwell leadership series, and my work's on-site leadership training programs. This is on top of continuing my technical education.
At night, after I've put my son to bed and spent some time with my wife, its back to my PC to continue working on Sector 13, directing this fantastic team, and continuing to chase my dream.
About Me