Meet the Dreamers - Matt
Much like the birth of a galaxy, the birth of a game begins with an explosion of inspiration. This inspiration expands and is fed by the dreams of innovative designers, engineers, artists and players in order to create something special. At Once Upon a Galaxy, we call these individuals “The Dreamers” and we are excited for you to get to know them!
"I could not be more excited about what we are creating..."
Today we are excited to introduce:
Chief Dreaming Officer, Matt Place
Hi folks! My name is Matthew Place and I am the Chief Dreaming Officer onboard Once Upon a Galaxy. What does that mean? That means my main focus is in principal game design and character creation. That said, it’s important to me that everyone within our team is part of the design on Galaxy.
You never know where the next great idea can come from. I like to think that my job is to hang out with my friends and make cool stuff. What could be better?
Living the Dream
I remember telling my mom that I was going to play games as my job while I was in middle school. My career in game design has been the culmination of many dreams all coming true with years of math, problem solving and passion for gaming paying off more than I ever could have imagined.
When my brother called me from the local comic book store back in June, 1994 to tell me that had a game that was Dungeons and Dragons but with cards (Magic: The Gathering), it was immediately the game I had dreamed about and I wanted to play SO BAD. Only one problem, I had no car.
The next Tuesday, our dad drove us to the store and we bought a starter deck and two booster packs for $15. We vowed to never spend another penny on the game because obviously that would lead to a never ending cycle of buying new cards! 🙂
A few weeks later I played in my first tournament and loved it.
Years later, I was playing in the Worlds Championship for Magic the Gathering in Berlin when I ran into Richard Garfield and he suggested I chat with Mark Rosewater and Randy Buehler about getting a job at Wizards of the Coast.
When I started my first day at WotC, there were many important aspects to game design that I either didn’t understand or was completely unaware that they existed at all. Being in Magic R&D placed me in the perfect position to absorb and grow like a ravenous sponge. As game design continues to evolve, it offers new puzzles and challenges for me to continue to learn and grow from.
My work on Galaxy is a culmination of 21 years of conversations with experienced game designers, lessons learned from user testing and public feedback and a never ending desire to share my passion for games that I love with others.
I know that all these experiences I have had will help us make Once Upon a Galaxy to be the best it can be and I love knowing that I will continue to be even better in the future.
Coming Soon…
I could not be more excited about what we are creating. Like Hearthstone did ten years ago, we want to bring the fun of Trading Card Games to a whole new audience, on their phone, computer and gathered together in the name of unified fun. This isn’t an easy task, which is why it feels so good to share these early versions of the game with folks and see how positive their reactions are.
With each patch, Galaxy gets much better than the previous on and it feels like not even the sky's the limit to where Galaxy can go! Keep an eye out for news and announcements as we move towards our closed Beta.
Also stay tuned for more articles from myself and our design team in our Dev Lab series where we will be excited to share some of the inner magic behind the proverbial curtain for Once Upon a Galaxy!
I will see you all soon…
