I started out as a graphics programmer. When I got out of college I spent about five years writing photo retouching software. Then I decided I wanted to make the switch to doing 3-D graphics and I went back to grad school and got a Masters. As it happened my advisor was on the board of a company that was interested in making PC games. I’d been a gaming hobbiest for years and they hired me as the senior programmer on the project. Once I was in the company it turned out that I had a real knack for designing games, not just programming them, and eventually I switched over to designing full time.