Here is a quick background.

I grew up in rural Iowa, the oldest of five children. My father was a wood carver and carpenter and an artist in his own right, which I assume is where I inheritted my talent from. Throughout grade school art was my main interest and in high school I even taught an elementary computer graphics class.

After high school I started at a community college but lost interest. I did however gain an interest there in the form of my soon-to-be wife. A few years later we got married and realized we needed to get back to school. I wanted to get into traditional animation but there weren't any animation schools in Iowa. So I enrolled in the Commercial Art program at the Hawkeye Institute of Technology which was recommended by the area advertising firms.

I really enjoyed art school and graduated with honors. However I found advertising to be rather slimy. It has an underlying dishonestly about it that I didn't care for. I really wanted to do animation and the midwest was not the place to pursue it. My wife suggested moving to Los Angeles where the action is. So we did.

After moving to L. A. I found it was rather difficult to get into animation with a commercial art portfolio so I started taking classes at the American Animation Institute in Hollywood. To make ends meet I worked at an art supply store. I also took on a side job doing art for a promising children book author.

One day my wife brought home a floppy disk with a game on it that a person at her office said I might enjoy. I had a Sega Genesis but I wasn't really into computer games. The game was Castle Wolfenstein 3-D. Installing it was the beginning of the end for my animation desires. Her co-worker later got a job at Activision and helped me get a hired there as a customer support rep. answering phone and email questions.

I wasn't really focusing on getting into animation much after that and my wife brought this to my attention. She said, "When people are passionate about something they do it constantly. An artist that desires to create art does it during any free moment. Whenever you have a free moment you are playing games. Maybe you should focus on games instead." Those words rang rather true and after I began the long road to becoming a game designer.

From customer support I moved to a position as a Quality Assurance Tester. The first game I tested was Quake 2 which was quite an experience. Activision was afraid of the game leaking so the test team was locked in a room which needed a keycard to get in and out of. We were also watched by surveillance cameras. After Quake 2 I tested many, many, many games. I eventually moved up to a Production Tester position.

A Production Tester goes to the studio developing the titles and gives the developer feedback on whatever they ask. Its much faster because we are right there. I tested game balance, fun factor, as well as searching for bugs. It was pretty fun because I was in flown for 1 or 2 week stays with studios such as id Software and Raven.

After a trip to Raven Software I said I was going to work there someday. This got a lot of laughs because not too many people go from testing to design. But I got a lucky break. I knew Radiant (the Quake engine editor) and the company Gray Matter needed some help on Return to Castle Wolfenstein so Activision sent me there to actually be a part of development. I did some level design and later did scripting for the game. Talk about going full circle, I was working on the sequel to the game that got me hooked in the first place. After about a year the game was finished and Gray Matter offered me a full-time position with them. I however turned it down because I wanted to finish what I set out to do and got a job at Raven Software.

I've been at Raven about 4 years now and just finished Quake 4 for id Software. Ironically Raven is also doing another id Software title which is the next Wolfenstein sequel. I'm sure to work on that one as well.

I now live here in Madison Wisconsin with my wife and our two wonderful daughters. During my free time I enjoy playing Warhammer 40k with the Raven guys, driving fast cars, and video games of course. I even still draw now and then, a talent that I'm proud to say both my daughters seem to have as well.

- Chad Bordwell