A New Adventure

Today was my last day working at Hi-Rez Studios as I tender my resignation and say a bittersweet goodbye to my studio family, even if only as a coworker! Now, I am embarking on my own business adventure. I will be jumping into content creation full-time while I work on other ventures behind the scenes, which I can’t wait to share with you. You can expect to see me live streaming 5-7 days a week along with a full revival of my Youtube channel. I’m unbelievably excited to be connecting with you all once more!

As a creator, I will be bringing the last 5 years of my experience in Game Development and Publishing to bear with expert game reviews, game guides, and loads of other content to help consumers better understand how the sausage is made and how it effects the way we interact with games as a medium. Plus having a boat-load of fun along the way, of course.

It feels like yesterday that I started this journey into Game Development with one of the most wondrous group of people I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Over the last 7 years I have been graciously granted the opportunity to dive into the world of making games as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed video game nerd, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I will cherish the friendships and bonds I’ve formed with my coworkers at Hi-Rez Studios and its associates. There’s nothing quite like bringing your imagination to life surrounded by a group of people with a deep-seeded passion for making gaming experiences. It’s challenging, yes, as I believe all entertainment industries are, but at the end of the day you have the honor of bringing joy to millions of people around the world. I can’t wait to see what Hi-Rez and its sister companies accomplish from now into the future and you can bet I will be cheering them on from the outside.

My resignation may have come as a surprise to many of you, as it did to some of my friends, family, and coworkers. This decision I did not make lightly, and it certainly kept me up too many nights to count over the past year.

First and foremost, I deeply miss connecting with people on an individual basis. Not as a spokesperson, but as a human being. This is foreshadowing for what my plans are over the next few years with my business activities, but in the meantime I am excited to interact with you all again through cameras, keyboards, and live events. Put simply: teaching, coaching, and guiding struggling folks brings me incredible joy and I want to do more of that on a regular basis. I have a calling that I’ve been ignoring for too long and now’s the time to chase that dream.

Secondly, I feel I can do a lot of good for the gaming industry as a free agent. In 5 years time, I was able to climb from Community Manager to Game Director, and with that expertise behind me I see a lack of accurate and helpful tools available to folks who want to get into the industry, including programs in many schools. This is my way of reaching back and pulling others up! There is a big disparity between the amount of people who play games around the world and the amount of people making games and I want to do my part in bridging the gap.

You can treat this site as a base of operations for all things Drybear. I wanted to create a spot where everything can be viewed in one place. It’s not much now, but this is only a launch pad. See you soon!