Meet some of the Latinx teammates at Crystal, and learn about the ways they carry their Hispanic heritage with them as games industry professionals. 

Illustrations by the fabulous David Alejandro Mejía.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dalejomej/
• X: https://twitter.com/dalejomej
• DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/dalejomej

Annette Mercado, Recruiter 

Howdy! My name is Annette Mercado. I am a Recruiter at Crystal Dynamics and am based out of my hometown – Austin, Texas. I have been part of this team for a year and half.  

I adore video games! Video games have a great way of bringing people together in such a charismatic way. I have been playing games since I was a child, with an Atari 5200 (which we still own!). The games industry has been such a great place to grow my career as a recruiter. 

I am so honored to be highlighted for Hispanic Heritage Month at Crystal. Hispanic heritage holds a special place in my heart. It represents the blend of my Mexican-American culture, my traditions, and my values that have been passed down through generations. Embracing my Hispanic heritage is a way of honoring the strength and resilience of my ancestors who navigated challenges with grace and determination. I am my ancestor’s dream! My Hispanic heritage has taught me the importance of adaptability, perseverance, and fostering meaningful relationships, which has been vital to growing my career in video games. 

Stephen Perez, Sr. Software Engineer II 

I’m Stephen Perez, Senior Software Engineer II and Lead Combat Engineer on the Tomb Raider project at Crystal Dynamics, where I started in 2005. 

My generation was the first to have home consoles. I grew up playing Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo NES. However, I have always gravitated towards adventure titles, such as Zelda and Land Stalker, which I played on the Sega Genesis.  At 15, I knew gaming was what I wanted to do professionally. Declaring a major was easy – Software Engineering – as there were no programs at the time that offered a specialization in engineering for gaming. While pursuing my degree, I found myself playing a lot of Tomb Raider on the PlayStation. Fast forward nearly a decade, and I joined Crystal Dynamics to bring Lara Croft to life. 

Perhaps my desire for adventure, whether it’s running Spartan Races, training for triathlons, raising three children, and working on the epitome of adventure gaming titles – Tomb Raider – is primal destiny. I spawn from a long lineage of explorers. My father was an adventurer with a passion for flight. (He was an airplane mechanic and Korean War veteran.) His father, a Merchant Marine, explored the world and then immigrated to the United States from Spain with my grandmother, who was born in Puerto Rico.  

Being part of a team that builds adventure games is a rewarding career; we are explorers building new worlds to explore and discover. Viscerally exciting and instinctively satisfying, gaming connects me to my ancestors. 

Felix Mendoza, Sr. Lighter 

Hello, my name is Felix Mendoza. I’ve been working as a Senior Lighter for Crystal Dynamics for the last five years. I started my career as a graphic designer, but soon transitioned to 3D design. I pushed 3D logos around for a few years until Rhythm & Hues Studios gave me my first break in the movies industry. From there I slowly made my way to Pixar – where I met my wife. 

After several years in the movies industry, my attention turned back to video games and I was able to join Electronic Arts. EA was a great way to learn all about real-time lighting. My wife and I stayed there for nearly 10 years until we left for an amazing opportunity in Japan. 

We were in Japan for a 5-year whirlwind adventure where I worked as a Lighting Director for From Software. 

Five years was a long time to be away from friends and family. We returned home where we landed in Seattle. I worked for several video game companies until I finally found my current company, Crystal Dynamics. In college we used to stay late huddled up at the computer lab to sneak some computer time in to play, Silicon Graphic Inc.’s: Dogfight. (A multiplayer aerial combat game.) As much fun as that was, it wasn’t until Doom came out that the dam was broken for me. Once I figured out how to get that chainsaw – I was hooked! 

As I mentioned, I broke into the games industry later in my career with Electronic Arts. When I joined EA, lighting was such a new concept. I wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms by everybody. As a minority I was never really accepted at school, work, or neighborhoods. But slowly I started changing hearts and minds. My work seemed to speak for itself, and soon I was part of the team. 

When I first came to this country, fitting in was especially hard. I used to come home crying because the kids were so mean. My mom used to say, “¡Deja que con la sonrisas se gane el corazón de todos!” Which can be loosely translated to: “With a smile, you can change hearts and minds.”  

Family, food, music, and dancing are at the center of my heritage. Growing up with abuela’s cooking, and radio WADO (a Spanish radio station that plays salsa/merengue music) playing on the radio is a treasured memory. 

Growing up, my father instilled the virtues of hard work and perseverance. I try to apply that attitude to everything I do. I think my work ethic represents my heritage with the tenacity and fortitude that I put forth every day. 

Wendy Salguero, People Experience Generalist 

My name is Wendy Salguero, and I am the People Experience Generalist at Crystal Dynamics! I have been with Crystal for 5 years now. Wow, how time flies when you are having fun.   

Games have always been part of my life. Growing up, I would spend nights playing Super Mario with my dad and brother. It was our way of spending some quality time together. It is one of the main reasons why Nintendo games have a special space in my heart.  

To be honest, I did not know you could make a career in gaming, so I had not planned to work in it. I just ended up in the gaming industry. When I first moved to Northern California, I would do temporary jobs here and there as a receptionist/admin assistant, however my goal was to make my way into HR. In early 2015, I got assigned to my first ever HR job at a Call of Duty studio and fell in love with the industry and have only been working in games since! I love seeing the passion people have for their work and just how different the vibes are in this industry.  

I was raised in a Guatemalan immigrant household. We grew up surrounded by family and would travel every year to Guatemala to visit and explore parts of the country. One of my favorite places to go in Guatemala is Antigua, which is where the iconic arch with the volcano background is. It is the first thing you see when you search up Guatemala. Guate has so much culture, history, and color that it is easy to lose yourself in it all. It is what I love the most about it!  

Our games at Crystal, especially Tomb Raider, remind me a lot of Guate because you immerse yourself in a different culture and explore various parts of the country and learn about the people. Games have come so far, and it makes me so happy to see how diverse the characters in today’s games are! It makes me even more excited and fortunate to be part of this amazing industry with the most talented people there are! 

Brief summary of role: “I help bring the Environments in which we explore in video games to life! I utilize art concepts and author them in 3D to be used in our games. I contribute to the environment where your favorite characters roam, making them feel authentic and high quality.”

What’s your favorite video game? “This is an honest answer…….The Tomb Raider Reboot. Tomb Raider was my favorite (and first!) game I ever played as a child. When The Reboot happened, and we got to experience Lara’s origin – it was just perfect. It was everything I wanted and more!”

Three words to describe Crystal: “Inspirational. Contemporary. Inclusive.”

Why did you choose Crystal? “I changed careers later in life. I had always wanted to be an artist as a full-time career, so it was extremely scary but exciting to start something new. I always had my sights set on Crystal Dynamics as a gold standard studio to work for. It was on my “Dream Job” List. It was the first place I applied after completing my master’s degree. I chose Crystal because of its legacy within the gaming industry. The way the studio transformed Lara Croft’s character over the course of many years with such compelling story , art, gameplay and awareness of her origin really speaks to the integrity of a Studio’s goals and aims. To me, it is a place that nurtures its IP, and is a studio that produces exceedingly high-quality products. I felt it was a place I could learn to be the best in my field.”

What has been your greatest adventure since joining Crystal? “My whole career change has been a whirlwind of an adventure in itself here at Crystal! It’s one that my whole team have been on with me – The best thing so far has been having mentorship and growth in my skills from the industry best for sure.  My Art Leads are extremely talented artists. They have been so inspirational to me as a newcomer to this field. Every day here feels like I’m learning something new and exciting about game development,  it’s a real honor to work with my team. I feel Crystal invests in its future, nurturing growth from all levels of experience; from grass roots to the very top.”

Hobbies: “I’m a figure skater! I am currently training to compete, so usually if I’m not with my sketchbook I’m skating at the Ice Rink!”

Brief Summary of Role: “I prototype, test, implement, and fix gameplay mechanics.”

What is your favorite video game? Team Fortress 2

What three words describe Crystal Dynamics: Friendly, Exciting, and Inspiring

Why did you choose CD? “I played the original Tomb Raider as a kid, loved the Survivor Trilogy as an adult, and Crystal Dynamics was hiring for an Associate Designer, so I just had to land this role!”

What has been your best adventure since joining CD? “I think my time at Crystal Dynamics has been the best adventure since joining Crystal Dynamics! I always wake up excited about having a career doing what I love, and getting to work with awesome people has made it even better.”

Hobbies: Golfing, Dioramas

Brief summary of role: I am responsible for making sure the UX/UI department stays on track across multiple projects here at Crystal.

Favorite Video Game: This is such a tough question! Probably Zelda: Wind Waker

Three words to describe Crystal Dynamics: Welcoming, Engaging, Rewarding

Why did you choose CD?: I had heard great things from folks I’d worked with in the past that had joined the Crystal family as a cohort, and was excited to work with those folks again, and join the Crystal family myself

What has been your greatest adventure since joining Crystal?: Shipping Marvel’s Avengers from home, during a global pandemic!

Hobbies: Sewing, stand up paddleboarding, snail mail/pen pal’ing, printmaking, reading, board gaming, and, of course, video gaming!

My name is Alisha Thayer, and I am a Lead Technical Designer at Crystal Dynamics. I’ve been working in the video game industry for twelve years now.

Technical Design is one of the lesser-known design specializations. Technical Designers often find themselves acting as a bridge between engineers and designers, representing sustainable ways to author content, better tools, and team education. We also get to do a lot of early prototyping, because we tend to have a broad understanding of how to create all sorts of content: from AI, to simple art/animation, UI, gameplay systems, et cetera.

I’ve been super lucky lately having spent the last couple years on R&D projects, exploring early game concepts and technologies that we can use in future games. I’m less lucky in that I can’t really discuss what I’m working on in detail!

What games have you worked on both at Crystal Dynamics and other companies, and what was your role on those projects?

I started my career at Rockstar Games, where I worked as a scripter/technical designer on Red Dead Redemption (including the Undead Nightmare DLC), Max Payne 3, and the very early days of Red Dead Redemption 2. On Red Dead Redemption I worked on a little over 1/2 of the side quests. On Max Payne 3, I worked on nearly every level, but my proudest contribution is that I scripted and choreographed the Airport Finale fight.

I joined Crystal Dynamics for the Tomb Raider reboot in 2013. The game was nearly finished when I joined, but they needed someone to design and implement a hunting mechanic in the wide open spaces of the game. So, having just come from Red Dead Redemption, I suppose they figured I was a good fit!

After that, I spent some time working on an incubator project that was eventually shelved. When that happened, I was pivoted over to kicking off Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris as one of the first designers on the project. I went on to create all of the interactive objects for that game (any object that Lara interacts with, really), as well as script all of the boss fights.

After Temple of Osiris, I joined the Rise of the Tomb Raider team. I did a lot of wrangling of our collectibles before the game shipped, and then post-ship I worked on the Live/DLC content: Endurance Mode, Cold Darkness Awakened, and the 20-Year Celebration.

Once Rise shipped, I spent a little time on Marvel’s Avengers before heading off into R&D land with my little team of technical designers and engineers.

What led you to working in the video games industry?

I had a pretty profound moment when I was somewhere around ten years old (plus or minus a few years; I don’t recall my exact age), where I realized that people made video games, and that I could be one of them. Before that, I really hadn’t really considered or understood where video games came from!

Once I made that decision, I never looked back. It took me a while to understand that game design was where I belonged, but my desire to be part of the video game industry never wavered. Twelve years in and I’m still dazzled by the projects I get to work on and the people I get to work with.

What’s your earliest gaming memory?

In my youth, my dad was a huge gamer, both board games and video games. My earliest gaming memories are mostly playing Space Invaders and Missile Command with him on his Atari 2600, and playing tons and tons of board games ranging from chess to Candyland. Later, he’d teach me how to play The Legend of Zelda on the original NES, which to this day is one of my favorite games.

What do you wish everyone knew about game development?

One thing that I find myself highlighting about game development is just how complex making a game is. The teams I work on are very large, comprised of hundreds of people. I tend to work on a single game for years of my life. The technology is ever-changing and fidelity needs keep increasing with our computing power. It takes a lot of discipline, a lot of patience, a lot of time, and a lot of raw knowledge to make these bigger AAA releases.

Hitting exceptionally high quality adds an additional layer of complexity. I like to tell people stories about my time at Rockstar, recording video of 5 seconds of gameplay, scrubbing it frame-by-frame, and ensuring that no rendering, animation, or major gameplay pops occurred during my various gameplay beats. I’d spend days or weeks polishing my content to a mirror shine like that.

I often joke that It’s amazing that video games get made!

What is your favorite thing about working at Crystal Dynamics?

In the past, when I’ve answered this question, I’ve smiled and said, “No one ever really tells me no!”

That’s a silly, reductive way of saying that I’ve been given a lot of space to grow, a lot of opportunities to expand my skillset, and a lot of trust to explore weird, new ideas. Crystal has been a great place for my career growth as a technical designer – no part of the production pipeline is off-limits to learn about, and everyone’s ears are always open to suggestions on how to improve, whether that be our production processes or the game itself.

When I first joined Crystal, one thing that stood out to me was the sheer concentration of veteran game developers working for the company. Crystal is brimming with humble devs sporting decades of experience, happy to share and discuss philosophy and craft to anyone who will listen.

Can you give our community a hint at something fun you’re currently working on?

I wish I could!

If you could give a prospective Crystal Dynamics employee one bit of advice, what would it be?

Crystal is a really great at recognizing that good ideas come from anywhere. If you’re thinking about joining us at Crystal, know that you can feel comfortable suggesting new ideas, big or small, to the team and you will be able to find people who will listen.

Who are your heroes?

I’ll stick to game developers for simplicity.
The first game designers I ever saw celebrated were Jane Jensen and Roberta Williams, who both designed point-and-click adventure games for Sierra when I was young and just discovering PC games. Both of these women have a special place in my heart not only for creating some of my favorite adventure games, but giving my younger self something to aspire to.

I really respect Shigeru Miyamoto for his unwavering dedication to joy, play, and fun as sacred concepts.

I will always look to Hideo Kojima for his dedication to the audacious. Playing his games is a constant reminder of how game systems can be used (and broken!) to surprise and delight a player.

Anything you want to say to our community?

I cannot wait to share what I’m working on with you guys.

My name is Magali Stretton, and I am a senior level designer at Crystal Dynamics.

What games have you worked on both at Crystal Dynamics and other companies, and what was your role on those projects?

I joined Crystal a little over six years ago where I started to work on Marvel’s Avengers. I primarily worked on the Avengers Initiative, and my role was to work with the systems we had to build, manage, and maintain some of the game’s multiplayer missions. What an experience this turned out to be! I can definitively say that I learnt a lot through this process and I am now a better level designer for it.

Prior to being at Crystal, I spent nine years working at Rocksteady Studios on the Batman franchise, including Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight. The good people at Rocksteady gave me a chance in this industry, and I was very fortunate to learn my craft as a level designer working on these three games. On these projects, I learned how to use my creativity to bring levels from conception to completion and how to deliver gaming experiences that best fit the creative vision of the franchise.

What led you to working in the video games industry?

The inner belief and passion that video games are an amazing art form that can provide people with unique and highly immersive experience.

On a more pragmatic level, I just wanted to make games that I wanted to play …

I’ve always loved games but was sad to see that at the time many games seemed to focus on shooting at things or running around doing stuff without any real meaning, when what I wanted was to experience compelling stories and feel the full range of the human emotions while playing games. People around me used to tell me that if I wanted emotion and stories that I should watch movies or read a book, and that video games couldn’t do that. A few also told me that games were for boys and because I was a girl then that might be why I couldn’t really appreciate them, though my heart said otherwise.

And then, luckily for me, I played a game called ICO and I cried, not because it was hard but because of the emotional journey the game got me through, which was like something you get in movies and in books, and I knew then that people were wrong. I decided to follow my heart, change my life, and get involved in game development.

The rest is many happy years working in this awesome creative industry that keeps on proving again and again that games are an awesome art form that can make people feel and cry!

What’s your earliest gaming memory?

Nintendo! still, always, and forever Nintendo !

I had a Mickey Mouse game on a Nintendo console that I loved, but I think Tetris on the Gameboy was my first real game addiction!

What do you wish everyone knew about game development?

That you don’t need to know how to code to make video games! It’s a creative industry that relies on people with many different skills. Also, that if you are truly passionate about games and you feel like this is the only thing you want to do in life, then surely there’s a job for you and you will find your place in that awesome and still-evolving industry!

What is your favorite thing about working at Crystal Dynamics?

The people! The developers at Crystal are so fantastic and so talented! Crystal is a place with a heart and soul. It’s a family. Of course, there’s ups and downs, but in the end it’s the people you work with who make the difference! The people who carry you when you’re down and the ones who inspire you and push you to the next level.

Can you give our community a hint at something fun you’re currently working on?

All I can say is that I am super excited by what we’re working on, and I feel so lucky and grateful to be part of such a super talented team!

If you could give a prospective Crystal Dynamics employee one bit of advice, what would it be?

I guess I’ll advise anyone to follow how they feel in their heart. If you like the games Crystal makes and if after the interviews you feel a connection with the people you’ve met, then come and join us. Working at Crystal can be intense and demanding but one thing is for sure: it’s never boring! You might even make great friends along the way .

Who are your heroes?

My parents for raising me to believe that there’s nothing I can’t do in this world if I work hard enough, keep looking forward and follow my heart, and my kids for helping me grow and become a better person.

Anything you want to say to our community?

Yes! Thank you sooo much for being here! You are part of the journey that makes a game what it is. Working on a game for many years means nothing until you play it. And if you ever wonder if your feedback or your comments matter, they do! We work hard to create gaming experiences that you can enjoy so it means the world to know that you do. And if you like what we do I keep having a job. If you don’t, well, it is my job to listen to what you’re telling us so that we can make better games.

Hi there, I’m Melissa
Altobello and I’m currently an Environment Art Lead at Crystal! My incredibly
talented teams and I get to work with gameplay, cinematics, and we dabble in
menu art from time to time.

What games have you worked on both at Crystal Dynamics and other companies, and what was your role on those projects?

Since working at Crystal I’ve
gotten to work on Marvel’s Avengers, primarily on our post-launch
content as Environment Art Lead! Before my time here, I worked as a Senior
Environment Artist on Ghost of Tsushima, and before that I worked on Uncharted
2, Uncharted 3, Uncharted 4, and The Last of Us as a Materials Artist.

What led you to working in the video games industry?

I love working in games, but
this wasn’t what I sought out to do many years ago…unless you count that time
when I was 15 and applied to Blizzard when a friend suggested I draw well
enough to make games. My original “career intent” was to work in film,
and I often fantasized about working on Harry Potter one day. When I graduated
from Gnomon the first thing that came my way was some work for Battle: Los
Angeles. It was short pre-production work that was exciting and terrifying.
While I was jamming away, trying to fulfill my filmic dreams I got a call about
doing an art test for Naughty Dog. That test changed everything, and while I
knew nothing about making video games, they took a chance on this eager
youngster, and I never looked back.

What’s your earliest gaming memory?

I can’t recall if my earliest
gaming memory involves playing World Games on an Apple II GS or rocking out on
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons huddled around an Atari wondering why the dragon
looked like a seahorse, but both are memories that I look back on fondly.

What do you wish everyone knew about game development?

Hmm…is it wrong to say, “that it’s hard”?
Lol. This has literally been my mantra for years, and whenever we are stuck and
need to just take a breath, I utter “making games is hard” to those
around me. It is really hard, but fun, and of course,
incredibly rewarding. When everything comes together and you’re in a room with
a handful of other developers and you solve a giant problem it’s like watching
fireworks go off.

What is your favorite thing about working at Crystal Dynamics?

My favorite thing about
working at Crystal is the people. I swear I’m not copying someone else’s test
on this. The people I’ve met here are awesome and were incredibly welcoming
from the very beginning. I was at least moderately nervous when I set foot in
the door at Crystal Northwest knowing I was one of only a handful of artists
there. It wasn’t long though before I was playing games at lunch and chatting
with my new pals over bagels or ice cream at one of our social events. Even
though we are all working from home now, we still get to jump into social calls
on zoom and catch up on the latest with each other!

Can you give our community a hint at something fun you’re currently working on?

Hmmm, how to give a hint
about what I’m working on without getting slapped on the wrist…well, I will
say this, I think the world will love it. Does that count?

If you could give a prospective Crystal Dynamics employee one bit of advice, what would it be?

Just get here already! Ok,
but seriously, apply, be yourself, be honest, and ask all the questions! We’re
ready for you just as you are, so show us that!

Who are your heroes?

It’s probably weird to say that this is a hard
question, probably the hardest on the list. For me, it’s more of an abstract
concept, that maybe we all have inside ourselves. If you got out of bed on a
day where you felt the weight of the world on your chest…you’re a hero to me.
If you ever put someone else’s needs above your own, that’s a heroic moment.
Did you lift someone up when they were down, cuddle a scared animal, spend an
afternoon picking up trash, work at the food bank, say I love you first, smile
at a stranger, cheer someone on, save a kid from monsters under the bed, do
something even though it was scary…then you’re all heroes to me.

Anything you want to say to our community?

You’re all awesome. Seeing
people enjoy our products is why we are here. Watching some of our players
doing combos with our heroes that I wouldn’t have even thought to do is
legitimately thrilling. But I’d mainly just want to say thank you to everyone
who ever picked up one of our games and gave it a shot, even if you didn’t love
it. The one thing none of us can get more of is time,
and it means a lot when someone spends some of that time engaging with
something we’ve made.

Hello world. My name is Brendon Isaiah Bengtson. I have been
Lead Character Artist on Marvel’s Avengers for the last year and a half and
have been on the project for almost four years total now. I can’t believe it’s
already been more than a year since launch. It’s been a crazy amazing ride and an
absolute honor of a lifetime to be able to work on such iconic characters in
the Marvel universe. On this massive-of-a-scale-of-game our internal team
pretty much collaborated on all the characters. The amount of work was
monumental, so we all had a chance to work on everything at some point. We have
an amazing Character Team here at Crystal along with our amazing production
partners.

Besides Marvel’s Avengers, what other games have you worked
on, and what was your role on those projects?

Before coming on board with Crystal Dynamics, I was at EA
Visceral for a bit working on an unannounced Star Wars game. I was disheartened
to be among those laid off by the closing of the studio, but I try to count my
blessings. If that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have landed here at an amazing
studio working on one of the largest IPs in the entertainment industry. I still
pinch myself a few times a week to make sure I’m awake. Haha.
Before that I was at Sony down in San Diego working on a few projects; MLB The Show 2018, and for a very brief second The Last of Us 2.
If we go back further, it was mostly small games and Indie projects.

What led you to working in the video games industry?

By the time credits rolled the first time I saw Toy Story,
that was it. I made up my mind I wanted to be in some kind of
computer graphics entertainment. Wow, can’t
believe that was all the way back in 1995. Ooooof. Being a long-time gamer, I mean, like long time, like Intellivision days, I thought it would be best to merge my
passion for gaming and my new avenue for digital art. I’d always been drawing
but now I was on a mission. One of my favorite things to draw were comic
characters. I loved studying all the muscles and forms and was just floored
with how well the comic artists made the shapes look so dang good. All that
together pushed me towards Character Art in general. It was the perfect,
digital arts, love for gaming, and making/drawing characters trifecta. I’ve
been on this mission ever since. It has been a very long road with many
sidetracks, obstacles to slalom, mountains to climb, and rejections to stomach.
But one of the important things that helped me overcome all those was, every
rejection, every no, every “your artwork is good but…”, was all fuel for the
fire to keep me going. Keep the fire hot and keep forging ahead. I WILL make
it. I WILL do this.

What’s your earliest gaming memory?

An early gaming memory, not my first, but most definitely
the moment that had the highest impact on me in terms of gaming was Christmas
1983. My mother, father, and 3 older brothers just finished opening presents
Christmas morning when all of the sudden my oldest brother did the
quintessential, “Wait a minute, what’s that over there in the corner?! Is that
one more present?? I wonder who that is for?” Not me or my other two brothers
had any idea what it was. We opened it and yup… there it was, one of the
coolest things in the universe: The NES. We all just lost it. There was screaming,
yelling, crying tears of joy, it was mayhem. My parents weren’t the happiest
people on the planet at that moment, but we sure were. Super Mario Bros and
Duck Hunt were all-consuming. It. Was. Epic.

What do you wish everyone knew about games development?

It takes a lot of work. Like aaaaaaa
lot. I’m surrounded by some of the most talented artists, designers, producers,
QA team, directors, co-developers, and studio heads in the world and we ALL put
everything into these experiences. That can easily take a handful of years of
work with an army of developers, let alone all the support. We could never do
our job without one of the best IT departments, HR, Brand, and every other
piece of the puzzle. Game development, like a lot of art is one of those industries
that doesn’t just end when you go home. We continue to hone our crafts on off
time, taking opportunities to expand knowledge, take courses and workshops,
practice new techniques, and experiment in new mediums and pipelines. Being on
the cutting edge of realistic-style AAA games, we always have
to lean into new technology and techniques. We continue to refine our
skills and development and bring great stories and gameplay along the way.

What is your favorite thing about working at Crystal
Dynamics?

Honestly, it’s the people. It starts from our studio heads:
Ron Rosenberg and Scot Amos. They set such a great precedent for the Crystal
family and harbor a caring and inviting atmosphere. From there, the amount of
talent and passion throughout all levels of the studio just makes you want to
do your best, then find a way to do your best even better. You can just feel
how much people care about your well-being as a person, not a worker. That is a
true blessing in these times.

Can you give our community a hint at something fun you’re
currently working on?

It’s so dang cool, it’s….. ah, no,
can’t tell you . Not yet. Haha, no
but seriously. It takes quite a bit of time and a colossal effort to craft AAA
games and wouldn’t want to ruin the payoff at the end. But for now, you can bet
your darn tootin’ socks we are making more Marvel’s
Avengers stuff for you.

If you could give a prospective Crystal Dynamics employee
one bit of advice, what would it be?

Be yourself and be awesome. Be passionate, knowledgeable,
caring, and inspirational about your craft. We want to add great people to our
family, not drone workers. Most of all, being realistic, be patient. That was
one of the hardest lessons I had to learn waiting to get into big studios. If
the answer is no, it’s just a “not right now”. Shoot, I had a hard no from a
big company at one point, then after a few years of hard work and honing my
craft, I actually had that same company fly me out to their
studio and offer me the job exact job I didn’t get previously. That felt
awesome. The stars need to align just right to land and sometimes it happens
and sometimes it just isn’t right, for now. Keep going. Never let any “no” kill
your fire. Let it fuel you to do better, learn more, give back to the
community, make better art, help others, and then eventually before you know it
your stars will align. Everyone – and I mean everyone — has a wildly different
“come up” story. It is a different path for everyone. Find your path. Be true
to what you love doing and it will come. Now, go practice your craft!

Who are your heroes?

I have a lot of people I look up to, but if I were to narrow
it down to heroes, I’d say teachers, instructors, and mentors. It takes a
special kind of person to share knowledge and foster creativity. It for sure is
not easy and for those who take time to inspire and instruct, I have a ton of
respect for them. It’s not about what you can do, it’s about what you can give
back. How can you help others to be great? That is an incredible and heroic
undertaking.

Anything you want to say to our community?

Thank you. Thank you for taking these journeys with us.
Thank you for coming along for the rides in our theme parks. Thank you for your
investment in our worlds and characters. Thank you for feedback and for
sticking with us through ups and downs. Thank you for inspiring us to make our
next games even better. But most of all, thank you for being part of the Square
Enix, Marvel Games, and Crystal Dynamics family. Catch you out there!

Hi everyone! My name is Nicole Martinez and I’m a Narrative
Director at Crystal Dynamics. I’m currently working on post-launch releases for
Marvel’s Avengers with an amazing team of Narrative Designers– shout
out to Hannah MacLeod, Jessica Krause, and Keano Raubun! We work on the
storylines for new heroes and events, write all the dialogue and text, as well
as some implementation in game.

One of the things I’m most proud of is the elevator and
social banter for all the heroes. Any time a hero is added to the roster, we
write a ton of solo combat banter plus conversations with each of the existing
Avengers. We try to give a little insight into the group dynamic and what the
Avengers are like on their off hours. We have a lot of fun with these and it makes our day when we see players enjoying them
in the game. If you have a favorite, please let us know!

This is actually my second time
writing for Marvel characters! I was a writer for Telltale’s Guardians of the
Galaxy before coming to Crystal Dynamics. Nolan North was Rocket Raccoon. It
was a fun project. While at Telltale, I was a Writer and later Creative
Director. Because we were episodic, I got to work on a lot of projects in my
five years there, from The Wolf Among Us, Batman, and Game of Thrones to
Minecraft and The Walking Dead.

I first got into writing for games during college. My
university offered a games writing class and that’s
when everything clicked for me. I was already pursuing a creative writing
degree but writing for games combined everything I liked about writing with a
heavily collaborative environment. My favorite part of my job is working with
other teams to make something awesome or figure out a solution to a
particularly tricky problem.

Something people may not realize is nothing in game
development is ever done alone. Every new feature or story requires a ton of
people all working together to make it happen. I feel incredibly lucky I get to
work with such a talented group of people at Crystal Dynamics. Every day we’re
pushing each other to do better than the day before. Despite lockdown we’ve
been able to keep in contact and continue working on Marvel’s Avengers
remotely. It has been a tough year, but I’m grateful for the amazing teammates
who have been there to support each other even when we couldn’t be in the
studio together.

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoy Marvel’s Avengers!